Alcoholism Unit Grows at The Pines

              News of The Times
THE SHREVEPORT TIMES Sunday, Jan. 27,1974
Section
C
Page One
Metro News
Area News
Classified
Alcoholism Unit Grows at The Pines
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(Times Photo by Ken Aclin)
Andre L. LaRochelle
. . . demonstrates one form of therapy
Service for Alcoholics
Said Improving in Area
Services for alcoholics are improving
in the North Louisiana area, according
to Andre' L. LaRochelle, who has been
renamed director of the Alcoholism
Clinic and Counseling Service of
Shreveport, 1628 Tulane.
He predicted more programs as funds
become available from various sources.
The Alcoholism Clinic is under the
auspices of the Shreveport Mental Health
Center. It is located in the Linwood Com-plex
which is owned by the Louisiana
State University Medical School at
Shreveport.
Under its jurisdiction are 10 parishes
in North Louisiana. They are Caddo,
Bossier, Webster, Bienville, Red River,
Claiborne, DeSoto, Natchitoches, Lincoln
and Sabine.
Clinic staff includes three counselors,
E. C. DeRousselle, Michael Levinstone
and Virginia E. Parish; a secretary,
Dorothy Womack, and a custodial
worker Frank Levindikis.
The clinic originally opened in
November, 1970, but has relocated, and
LaRochelle predicts services will be ex-panded
as federal money is approved
and appropriated.
The clinic staff is already active in
several programs involving alcoholics,
and serves as a referral service.
Counselors conduct therapy at The
Pines Rehabilitation Unit.
Staffers visit patients on the 10th floor
at Confederate Memorial Medical Center
on a daily basis. They also counsel
families on an outpatient basis.
Levinstone sits in on staff meetings at
the Veterans Administration Alcoholic
Treatment Unit. The clinic social
workers confer with VA clients who
either have not yet been accepted in the
90 - day program or who, for various
reasons, do not stay through the whole
project.
Weekly contacts are made at
Shreveport City Court arraignment days
by Virginia Parish, who "lets those who
need help know what is available in the
area. All three City Court judges
cooperate with us."
Drop - in visits and telephone calls to
the clinic from both alcoholics and their
families are also welcomed and en-couraged,
said LaRochelle.
"We do work with families," said
Virginia Parish.
"Some families are sicker than the
alcoholic," added LaRochelle.
"Each alcoholic affects at least 20
people," said Levinstone.
"A big part of our job in dealing with
the alcoholic is to work with him without
forcing him to drink more," interjected
DeRousselle.
Plans for the future, said LaRochelle,
include outpatient clinics throughout the
area, especially in Shreveport.
"We hope to bring comprehensive
care and service to everybody.
Alcoholism is indubitable a major drug
problem," said LaRochelle.
By Margaret Martin
of The Times Staff
J. J. Boyette wants to show alcoholics
that they can have laughter without "the
bottle."
He is doing it in a little house at 4480
Pines Road on the edge of the vast
grounds of The Pines Sanatorium. For-merly
a tuberculosis facility, it is now
dormant, but regaining life.
Boyette is- himself a recovered
alcoholic. He is a graduate of Dr. Sam
Thomas' well-known Veterans Ad-ministration
program for alcoholics.
He serves as resident manager of The
Pines Rehabilitation Unit.
The 10-bed pilot program is a forerun-ner
of a proposed 40-hed rehabilitation
facility which would be funded through
$300,000 in the Confederate Memorial
Medical Center budget and would be un-der
the direction of Confederate staffers.
Governor to Ask Funds
Gov. Edwin W. Edwards last week
told area legislators that he will ask the
legislature to put $300,000 in Con-federate's
budget for the project. *
He also said he will recommend to the
Louisiana Board of Liquidation that
$75,000 be appropriated for renovating
and refurbishing one of the buildings on
the grounds of The Pines.
The building is a large one which was
used for only a few months after it was
constructed in the 1950s.
Concrete plans for the new program
have not been worked out, according to
Dr. Rod M. Yeager, director of Con-federate.
But Yeager said it will be run with
help from numerous area agencies.
Meanwhile the pilot program was set
up in September through a federal grant
to Louisiana via the Hughes Bill.
The Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
Division of Mental Health contracted
with the Caddo-Bossier Council on
Alcoholism to deliver services.
This includes, according to Cal
Bankston, head of the division, running
the house and seeing that clients get
adequate meals.
Planning of therapy with staffers
from the Counseling and Alcoholism
Clinic of the Shreveport Mental Health
Center, as well as workers from the
Mental Health Center, and Confederate
Memorial Medical Center was done by
the Division of Mental Health.
Bankston explained that the Division
of Mental Health spelled out what it
wanted in the way of therapy for the
alcoholics.
The therapy program, he said is
closely monitored either by mental
health employes from Baton Rouge, or
by the local Mental Health Center.
Asked about a rumored conflict bet-ween
the mental health theory of dealing
with alcoholics and the Alcoholics
Anonymous at the center, Bankston said
that he heard of no such problem.
He said, though, that such problems
are not uncommon in such programs and
usually involve personality conflicts. He
said that all methods of treatment are
not right for every alcoholic.
Originally the Division of Mental
Health contracted with the Caddo Coun-cil
for services on a flat monthly basis in
order to show a per diem cost. After cost
was established, the division began
paying the council $8.95 per patient per
day, Bankston said.
John Fleming, executive secretary of
the Caddo Council, calls the program at
The Pines multidisciplinary.
Group therapy is provided three days
a week by social workers from the
Alcoholism Clinic.
"Essentially, the group is geared
towards having the members express
their problems and feelings, their futures
. . . job, living arrangements, AA atten-dance,
use of leisure time and so forth,"
according to E. C. DeRousselle, coun-selor
at the center.
The clinic social workers also counsel
on an individual basis.
Among those available for counseling
with the men at the center is the Rev.
Roy Mouser, pastor of Mangum
Memorial United Methodist Church.
He volunteered to be at The Pines
cottage when needed.
"I hang around," he said. "Drop by
to watch television."
Especially twice a week he comes
by the center — as he did one day recen-tly
for lunch — "to rap with the men."
"Most of the alcoholics," he said,
believe in a "higher power . . ."
Also a part of their therapy is the
Alcoholics Anonymous program. Each
Friday night the men meet in their own
Pines AA session.
Boyette also offers a class in how to
conduct an AA meeting.
Dr. Norman Mauroner, head of the
Shreveport Mental Health Center, also
makes calls to the unit.
And there are dominoes and cards to
play — one man who has three and a
half master points is trying to talk three
others into learning bridge — records to
play and television to watch.
A built-in part of the therapy program
is day-to-day work around the cottage.
The clients presently at the center in-clude
an electrician, a sign painter, a
brick layer and a plumber.
There is also a chef — who formerly
worked for a West Coast hotel firm, and
a barber.
"He trims our hair," said Boyette
pointing to the neatly trimmed edges of
his own black hair.
And there is DT. — standing for
delirium tremens — the part Alaskan
husky puppy which is a pet.
Ages of clients participating in the
program over the last five months range
from 26 to 64.
They include men who have been
drinking six years and those who have
been drinking 30 years.
They are referred from Confederate
Memorial Medical Center, the Veterans
Administration Hospital and the
Shreveport City Court, and include in-dividual
requests.
Goal of the program, said Boyette is
to enable each man to leave the house
(Times Phot by Billv Upshaw)
Pines Center Resident Manager J. J. Boyette
. . . "there are no failures . . . only disappointments"
with a job, a place to stay and money in
his pocket.
Agencies which cooperate in placing
men in jobs, according to Michael Levin-stone,
counselor for the Alcoholism
Clinic, include the State Department of
Education, Vocational Rehabilitation,
Employment Security and the City of
Shreveport.
Jack Attaway, counselor for the
Division of Vocational Rehabilitation,
said that he tries to work with in-dividuals
to get them some type of em-ployment
or training.
The way he does it, he said, varies
from person to person and depends on
their background and motivation, for in-stance.
Many alcoholics who have skills must
be retrained, because their jobs may be
one of the factors contributing to their
alcoholism, he said.
A painter, for example, might work
around people who drink, and this gives
them a tendency to start drinking again.
Perhaps a job, entails a great deal of
pressure, and the person drinks to
relieve that pressure.
In the past, according to Attaway, fin-ding
employment for alcoholics was dif-ficult
because of the stigma attached to
the disease.
Times are changing, though, he said.
Programs
Available
To Alcoholics
Numerous programs and help are
available to the alcoholic and his family
in the Shreveport area.
The Alcoholism Clinic and Counseling
Service of Shreveport helped draw up a
list of referral agencies in the area. The
list is not exhaustive and does not in-clude
churches. It lists. hospitals with
special programs for alcoholics.
Caddo-Bossier Council on Alcoholism
and Drug Abuse Information Service.
Veterans Administration Hospital.
Confederate Memorial Medical Center.
Brentwood Shreveport Mental Health
Center.
Community Organization for * Drug
Abuse Control.
The Pines Rehabilitation Unit.
Bridge House.
Alcoholics Anonymous.
Project ACCEPT.
Rescue Mission.
Salvation Army.
Hope House.