Center To Help Drug Users Now In Operation

Dial 761-HELP. That is the message a new non-profit Corporation is trying to get to drug users in the Ann Arbor área. The Corporation is Drug Help, Inc., a crisis-oriented organization which provides help through recently installed telephones. Staffed with volunteers ranging from "street people" to University graduate students, the organization provides a four-phased program: 1) A walk-in facility at 211 S. State is a place where a youth can come to if he feels he has had a bad experience with a drug. It is manned by non-medical volunteers who have undergone some training. 2) The phone service is a 24hour "hotline" to receive emergency calls. The phone sitter has two two-person teams on call to dispatch to persons who need help but are unable to come to the walk-in facility. 3) Medical "back-up" refers to the people and places used when a crisis demands more than trained non-medical aid. This back-up includes individual doctors who have volunteered their services and the the Hospital Emergency Room. 4) The drug information and education program is geared to make available to youth as much factual information as they desire. It does not involve preaching. It utilizes both the phone and the walk-in facility as available sources of information.