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Show CHERYL ARCHIBALD Review Start BOUNTIFUL One mothers search to find help for her troubled son has lead to the formation of a Davis County drug abuse task force. The first fully organized county drug task force in the state, sponsored by parent support group the Davis Alliance, the Davis County Youth Drug and Alcohol Investigative Task Force will serve as a model for other county task forces. County commissioners throughout the state have been sent letters from the state governors task force on drug abuse, request ing that they form auxiliary groups like the one from Davis County. Utahs first lady, Colleen and Utah Senator Jack of the Bangerter are governors task force. The county group came together at the request of mother, Pat Hartman, now chairman. I asked for it because I found out I had a chemically dependent son who left home, Ms. Hartman says. She found that agencies had waiting lists, and that parents are stopped by law from placing children over 16 in treatment centers without consent. She and Nina Palmer, now Ban-gert- er president of the Utah Federation for Drug Free Use, asked Bangerter for help in forming a task force to obtain help for teenagers in a society of escalating drug and get people over the notion that parents are at fault - that there is some kind of deficiency in the home." Its not just the d kids that are on drugs. Its not just the homes that they come long-haire- d, alcohol abuse. We werent the only ones concerned. Because of deficiencies in black-shirte- non-religio- law designed to protect youth, parents cant do anything to help their kids. The laws are designed to protect them, but they dont protect them. Purpose of the task force, which held a series of meeting last spring, is to try to get those laws from, she says. Kids on drugs come from homes where teens are honor students and achievers. In fact, says Ms. Hartman, the achievers are abusing drugs and alcohol just as the other kids are. She uses as an example a governor of Boys State who is now at the Point of the Mountain. He wrote bad checks to pay for drugs changed. But Ms. Hartman stresses that the most important thing is, to another of the obstacles parents run into when trying to get their kids off drugs. There are 12,000 identified kids five with family (name witheld) children and problems with one dependent on drugs. There are homes to treat child on drugs. The other chil- only 250 state-ru- n dren were on the honor roll and them. Five to 600 beds are available on debate teams. Xhe mother did everything right in private treatment centers such as the Adolescent DrugAlcohol for her children. Says Ms. Hartman, shes a good mother, but Psychiatric Treatment Center shes dealing with the problem of (ADAPT) in Roy. Total number of private and state beds is 1,000, drug abuse. We need help from the media Ms. Hartman says. We have a problem. We averto wake up people to see that kids in usof their are kids closet age 150 many ers, Ms. Hartman says. schools, figuring from what dealThe lack of available centers to ers say who have come forward." treat drug and alcohol abusers is Continued on Page 2A to support his drug habit, she said. And she cites as another case a , drug-involv- Vol. 5 No. 32 ed Wednesday, August 7, 1985 Plans Set For Pool Bond Vote LAYTON A list of election judges has been approved in preparation for an upcoming city bond election for a new Layton swimming pool and a public meeting set Aug 15 to answer residents questions concerning the project. The election will be held on Aug. 20, giving Layton residents a chance to approve or deny the $890,000 project. If voters give their approval the city plans to build a eight-lan- e pool that could accomodate up to 650 people, several times the number the current pool will hold. The proposed pool would not include office space or a cover at this time and the bond election would only be for the actual swimming pool and backup systems it would need for maintenance and dressing rooms. Layton residents are asked to come to a City Council meeting on Aug. 5 at 7 p.m. to get answers to their questions about the'' 1 pool. A special council meeting will be held Aug. 22 to canvass votes from the election and announce the outcome. Compensation Fund for DUI Victim CHERYL ARCHIBALD Review Start Victims of FARMINGTON accidents involving drunk drivers have had a source of compensation for two years, but so far no one has received any of the money. Since Utah DUI Restitution Law was passed two years ago, those convicted of an alcohol-relate- d traffic violation, and those drinking under the influence have been required to pay $100 into a special restitution fund. However, $400,000 in state DUI funds in 1984 were dumped into the general fund and never reached victims. That was changed in the last general session of legislature. House Bill 124 was passed that set up a special fund for the restitution money. More than $160,000 was accumulated in the first half 6f this year. The money is still not easily j accessible to victims. Gayle Smith, Davis County Sheriffs deputy, on the Utah Council on Criminal and Juve-- , nile Justice, a victims rights group, says people dont know about the funds and so dont apply- ' Y.;o; There needs tp be more publicity, and there should be a simple way to apply. The program needs to be simple. It is not just a case of applying for the funds.Those who think they may be eligible must sue in civil court for the funds. To do so, in most cases, an attorney ' must be hired. We have had .several calls, from Davis County, says Bart Fitzgerald, program specialist . alters with the Highway Safety Division of Public Safety office. Public safety office administers the funds; ; No one from Davis has actually gone through the required civil court process, he says. Many are $1,000 to $2,000 property damage cases. They figure its not worth it. Those types of court cases take years, says Fitzgerald. If it were not for the judgement requirement, we would see probably 10 times more applications for the funds. Another requirement is that insurance companies must pay the initial medical or property damages expenses. The funds are available for the remaining costs. You can figure that. 60 percent accidents are of all alcohol-relate- d covered by insurance, Fitzgerald says. That is based on the figures of total covered drivers. In Davis, the percent may be a little higher. But you can say that there 0 are about percent who do hot have insurance. Based on those statistics, there are many victims who should be 20-3- . ANITA KERSEY Because these kids have been declared Review Corresdpondent Bob Varner, Pam ROY Fransen and Teri Johnson are mentally retarded patients who have been at the Weber Memorial Care Center for many years. Their parents say their children feel the hospital is their home. On July 17, 1985, their parents received a letter from the State Department of Health stating that after July 31, 1985, Medicaid would no longer pay for their children at this facility. It was felt by our professional staff that they could get better care at a special treatment center for the disabled," said Jim Shaw, public information officer with the department of health. No possible alternative facilities were mentioned by Shaw., The Weber care center has facil- -. ities primarily for medical cases, he said. Parents have appealed this action and will receive an informal hearing by the middle of this month where they will try to convince the department of the need to keep their children where they arc. mother Gwen is Pam Fransen, a pa- Care Center. Pam and two oth- Memorial tient at the Weber ers may be forced to leave the care center and be admitted to a facility farther away from her family. GETTING A HUG from , ; According to David Elliott, administrator. and Mark Dunn, business manager at the Weber Memorial Care Center, their administration has been under pres-- unteachable, we dont think they should have to go through the trauma of moving somewhere else. Gwen Fransen Mother of Handicapped Patient sure for the last three years to reclassify certain patients to other levels of care. Judgement calls are often made from paperwork by the health department. Therefore, there is a lot of labeling done without actually checking the patients and their families in person to be sure what should be done in order to assure the patient the best quality of life possible, said Dunn. ' If this can be better accomplished at another facility, then our administration feels that is where these people should be, but in these particular cases, we dont think so. He added, "They have been with us for a long time and they have been receiving good care for their needs. The parents feel that since they have been told that their children are uritrainable, another facility : could no more for them than Weber Memorial Care Center is doing. If any of us as parents felt or were given any ray of hope that our kids were teachable and could possibly achieve a better quality of life then we would gladly transfer them to another hospital. But in their cases that isnt true," said Jean Varner. The only thing that makes their quality of life better, other than the excellent care that they receive from the staff and nurses at Weber Memorial Care Center, is the visits that we are able to make every day in order to give them the love that only a parent can give, she said. The parents fear that, if their children must move, they might have to live too far away to receive the attention of family members. Teri Johnson and Pam Fransen receiving restitution. , of ; vis County alone, $14,800 went into the DUI fund, if all who were required to pay did so. In the first half 1985, in Da-- ; ; DUIs filed for the first half of the year were 148. Of those, 125 were actually charged with driving under the influence. The rest, of the cases, despite a policy ruling in Davis County that there would be no more plea bargain-- ! ing for DUIs, were reduced to; reckless driving charges or were dismissed. have similar backgrounds. They are both 23 years old and both were born mentally retarded although their parents didnt know until they were over a year old. Both girls have sisters who are normal, healthy Both Teri and Pam have the mental capacity of a 3- - to baby. Their parents have been told that they will never progress any further than they have. They cant walk or talk and have no use of their arms and hands. ; At 8 years old, Teri Johnson was placed in the Utah State Training Siool for mentally re-- i tarded children in American Fork where she stayed for three months. The conditions were so terrible there that Teri regressed and after three months, I brought her home," Sandy Johnson said. When Teri was a baby, .1 wouldn't accept the fact that she would be mentally retarded the rest of her life. I thought that if I loved her long enough and hard enough, that she would come out of it. But she didnt and I knew that she needed more help than I i could give her. Teri was one of the first mentally retarded patients to be admitted into Weber Memorial - ! Continued on Page 2A k , |