Everyday Life & Health
The End of the Road
By Luciano Battistini
Jan 17, 2005, 16:22

Never knowing when sobriety slips away, a drug addict travels days with an unconscious mind. Brain chemicals react to stimuli ingested through the body to create altered levels of perception. With unbalanced thoughts, the addict is physically and psychologically overpowered by the need to satisfy his addiction.

“Physiologically, an alcoholic like me metabolizes alcohol differently-[I'm]a cellular alcoholic,” said John Aubin. “When I drink alcohol, my body metabolizes it into Ketones and Alkanes and my brain becomes addicted to these toxins, which are very toxic chemicals.”

For some, addiction is inherited. For others, it is a learned behavior. Misery, however, is certain in both instances.

Standing on the front porch of a house he shares with 61 other men, Aubin takes a cigarette from one of the pockets of his nurse gown, puts it up to his mouth, and tightly holds it from his lips. He lights it and takes a long drag as he describes his experience at Houston Aftercare, Inc., a nonprofit drug treatment facility for men.

“It was five houses, seven apartments, a meeting hall, a couple of store rooms, we had a pantry,” said Aubin. “But to discuss the facility is kind of like defining a beautiful butterfly by the fact that it has two wings, a thorax, and six legs, you know, that really doesn’t describe the butterfly at all.”

Aubin, along with the other men, was ordered to relocate from the facility, since it will no longer receive funds from the Texas Rehabilitation Commission (TRC).

“The funding that we received from the Texas Rehabilitation Commission is gone. The policy has changed,” said Charles Williams, a licensed chemical dependency counselor employed by Houston After, Inc. and a recovering addict. “It takes clients longer to get funded, we didn’t have our feet in it.”

On March 1, TRC became part of the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS). As well, four state agencies merged into DARS to provide programs and support for people with disabilities and families of children with development delays. Created as a result of House Bill 2292, which called for the restructuring of health and human services in Texas, this new department’s goal is to offer clients easier and more convenient access to a broader range of services.

“We are an eligibility program,” said Jerry Steffens, administrative assistant at DARS Region IV Houston Regional Office. “Eligibility is based on the fact that you got a definable disability that is an impairment to employment, the fact that you do drugs and alcohol is not necessarily an impairment to employment.”

Yet, most recovering addicts say that holding a job was a second priority to getting their next fix. You add this to the fact that most companies have a drug-free policy that must be followed in order to be eligible to work there. In addition, a problem with addiction is something that doctors cannot diagnose. Many doctors consider it to have no cure.

"I didn’t know it, but when I walked in here, I was hopeless,” said Aubin. “I was operating out of insane principles. I was convincing myself of really stupid things. For some reason, I was still trusting the ideas that popped into my head.”

So like many other recovering addicts, Aubin checked himself in a detoxication center in order to get clean. But when he came out, a support system is what he needed in order to help himself remain sober.

“I’m not too much of a 12 step AAer myself,” said Aubin.

Aubin says the facility forces one to come to terms with himself.

“It’s really a joy to watch someone who comes in here really confused, has been living a real selfish and self-centered life. And all of a sudden opens his eyes for the first time and realizes there’s a world of people out there just like himself," Aubin said. "In order to function here, that person has got to deal with others on their terms because it’s really the only way you’re gonna achieve anything in your life.”

But now, Houston Aftercare, Inc. is closing, its funding no longer there, its services, gone. It is a less than sobering thought for many.

It was 20 years ago when Robert “Bobby” Wayne Shriver, an ex-prison inmate who had problems staying sober, founded Houston Aftercare Inc.

“Bobby was having a problem that every time he was not sober he would end up in the penitentiary,” said Williams.

That changed though when he met Margaret Listenberger, a Texas halfway house counselor, and decided to change for the better. After reaching sobriety for some time, he and Listenberger married, and she became the director of Houston Aftercare Inc.

“He decided that all the men needed to know that they don’t have to drink or drug, and he wanted to give men somewhere to go outside of the normal halfway house,” said Williams. “You know when you hear about halfway houses, you know there’s nothing but criminals there. So he wanted to give the halfway house a different approach."

Williams says Shriver would let the guys know that he was taking a chance with them. Shriver would sit each new person to the facility down and let them know that they had to take responsibility for their mistakes, but that they were not alone. Shriver would then find employment for the new tenant and the change of thought would begin.

"Bobby [Shriver] would say 'We are gonna find you a job, and this is what you are gonna do when you’re in aftercare'," said Williams. "He took a risk with them, and sometimes he would come up short, but he kept the place full."

Since Shriver died two years ago, Houston Aftercare Inc. went through three different administrations until it finally closed October 10.

“(Shriver) took a risk with human beings and some people say it didn’t pay off, but all I know it paid off for quite a few of us,” said Williams.

Houston Aftercare did not meet the standards to receive funding from the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA). It did, however, have a license issued by TCADA in order to be considered a drug treatment facility.

“It's so many points for the facility to have,” said Williams. “It’s 70 points they allow as the minimum to give you (TCADA’s) funding, but to my understanding I think Houston Aftercare came up to 40 points.”

TCADA’s point system is based on a series of questionnaires, which included deducting points for a facility’s timeliness, completion of all required forms, and mathematical errors.

On September 1, TCADA became part of the Department of State Health Services. As part of Governor Rick Perry’s transformation of health and human service agencies in Texas, 12 agencies are being blended to create four departments under the direction of the Health and Human Services Commission. The transformed enterprise was set to improve client services, use every public dollar efficiently and focus on real results and accountability.

With 2.8 million Texans suffering with drug and alcohol abuse, TCADA will still have the responsibility to provide services to potentially 10 percent of all Texans. But having helped 4,400 men and women in 20 years does not seem to be a good enough reason to keep Houston Aftercare Inc. running. Shriver’s facility for men has indeed come to the end of the road.

“I’m hurt,” said Williams. “But I realize that when you have a dream, that’s your dream. When you have a vision, that’s your vision. And if we are not on the same page with others in the state government, your vision and your dream will come to an end. And we were not on the same page.”

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