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Drug Help

Drug Help image
Parent Issue
Day
2
Month
July
Year
1971
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
OCR Text

DRUG HELP

Drug Help is one of the larger community, serve the people organizations. It provides twenty-four-hour service seven days a week, for people with drug related questions or a drug related crisis. For this week 's centerfold, we'll talk about what it all does and how it got to be where it is now.

In February 1970, a number of people within the university, principally those people who were somewhat familiar with drug problems in the street and on campus, met to see if there was sufficient energy to set up a crisis service. The plan was for the university to pay for operating the service, but to keep it open to any brother having a drug hassle. Steve Schwartz, then coordinator of the outreach program in the psychology department got together a small proposal for a phone service with an on-call pair of people to go out to see someone in a crisis if necessary. This proposal was sent to the university bureaucracy. In March, a phone 764-HELP was installed, but as everything was not yet ready it was not announced.

At the end of March eight of the people involved went to Florida to help coordinate the drug crisis work at the Winter 's End Rock festival; of them, only Steve Schwartz, Matt Lampe and Marilyn Mernitz are still with Drug Help). This was a very valuable training experience for them, and they came back ready to go with the phone service. When they returned, the phone, still unannounced, started to ring, with the first call being a referral from community mental health. And so, the phone operated 24 hours a day from that point on, from April 1970.

Hassles with the university arose as all "needed" clearances were not yet received. After fighting with the U for over a month, under constant threat of having the telephone pulled out, Drug Help was moved out of the U, becoming Drug Help, Inc. with its current phone number of 761-HELP. Steve became president and Matt became administrator, titles they still hold within the Corporation. Matt wrote the initial complete services proposed in May which was supported by the Mayor 's drug committee. Drug Help moved into old Marshall's Bookstore with Ozone House (Drug Help and Ozone House are two separate organizations that live together). This gave Drug Help a walk-in facility in addition to the phone and on-call team.

Initial funding came from the Ann Arbor Kiwanis Club which has been consistently supportive of Drug Help. During the summer, Drug Help ran emergency facilities at Kickapoo Creek Illinois, the Galena Rock Festival, and the Blues Festival, and provided support at both Steven's Point Wisconsin and Goose Lake. As the organization grew, the efforts of running it spread to more and more people...Robin Giber and Gail Johnson took over scheduling, Bob Sheffield and Jane Hassinger head the Drug Education group. Bob Zweben headed a research project on Ritalin in the schools. Noel Hicks recently became the Drug Help representative to the Huron Ccmmunity Coalition, the receiving group of the HEW government grant. The Free People's Clinic was initially organized by then Drug Help workers Bob Salinger, Nancy Les sin, Mark Richardson, and Matt Lampe, with the assistance of numerous others. Enough history.

The basic service that Drug Help still provides is the crisis service, with the phones operated twenty-four hours, one or two pairs of experienced workers oncall at all times to go out in an emergency, and the walk-in facility which is open at all times for any kind of crisis.

Drug Help people are not doctors, but trained people of the community, who know what they can do and what kind of case needs a doctor. Volunteers include students and street kids, all with a feeling of being part of the ever growing life culture. Drug Help has a list of doctors who we know are good and can be trusted to go out if a physician is necessary. Drug Help has been recognized by the University Hospital Emergency Room, and has had a special procedure started there that minimizes hassles on any drug case brought in there, especially through the hard work of Dr. Owen Haig.

Besides crisis calls, Drug Help also is ready to give out drug information. While they can't now know what is in all the pills on the street at a given time, they can and do answer a lot of people's questions about what different drugs are and what they do to and/or for you.

Also Drug Help provides speakers and drug education programs to community groups and in the schools. While most of these drug education programs are "one shot" seminars, Drug Help did run an on-going project at Huron High this past spring. In Drug education Drug Help's main goal is not to stop people from taking drugs, as that is a ridiculous goal, since some drugs at times can be beneficial. Rather, the goal is to help people see all the things that go into making a decision about taking a drug, so that they can make a more rational one. Now the Drug Education group is looking into more effective ways of integrating good drug education into the schools.

And, of course, as everyone in the community knows, Drug Help in conjunction with the Free People's Clinic, provides the first aid unit at the Sunday Concerts. Drug Help, as a community institution, survives on the energy of its volunteers, to operate the phones, to be on-call, and to do Drug Education projects. Drug Help can almost always use more people from the community who want to work. Orientation meetings are held for new people interested in working with us on Wednesday nights at 7:00 p.m. After two orientation meetings, one can become a phone worker. A few times during the year Drug Help runs a comprehensive training program for new staff on all aspects of Drug Crisis intervention, emergency techniques, just how to turn a bad trip into a good trip (much better than talking them "down"), and even just how to listen to what someone is saying and be sensitive to their needs .

There are still a lot of things that Drug Help could be doing in Ann Arbor, so if you have the interest and energy, call up, find out about the new people's meetings and check Drug Help out. Or if you feel you are having a problem, call Drug Help, as they may just be able to help you out.