NineOneOne The Daily News By Susan Ferraro Salt in the wounds Among the millions traumatized by the attacks on the World Trade Center were thousands of New Yorkers already struggling, day to day, with recovery from substance abuse or painful or disabling physical problems. Among drug abusers, “A majority of…
The New York Times By David Rohde Brandi Wells set off from her Upper West Side apartment for East Harlem on Thursday night fighting memories of a decade of failure. With a mixture of hope and dread churning her stomach, Ms. Wells, a 28-year-old artist with cascading brown hair and freckled…
The American Prospect Online By Melissa Paige McNamara Brandy was crawling on the floor near her mother’s feet, dressed in her new denim jumper with tightly braided pigtails framing her dimpled face. Her smile hid any sign that in her nine months, Brandy has already been to jail, to a methadone…
Associated Press By Elizabeth LeSure In his 60s, Ramon Loper spent the last few years of his musical career desperately feeding a heroin addiction. He rushed from gig to gig, getting cash and getting high. “And then,” he says, “I broke my hip. Thank God!” The members of the group session…
New York Daily News By Thomas Zambito At first glance, it could be a gathering of church elders on a Sunday morning. But the seven men and women gathered in the basement of an East Harlem treatment center are among the city’s most incorrigible drug addicts. Now in their late…
New York City-based Odyssey House, a 33 year-old therapeutic community (TC), plans to open an innovative treatment center for adolescents based on a variation of the TC model that will help the most troubled youths who have high service needs. this will include adolescents with co-occurring substance abuse and mental…