Addiction counselors need support
9/1/2006I appreciated your Aug. 24 editorial in support of addiction counselors and the sometimes insurmountable task we have.
The Ohio Chemical Dependency Professionals Board has been making huge strides in assuring the profession comes up to parity with the other counseling professions.
Certification as a Chemical Dependency Counselor has been replaced with licensure which requires more extensive education and training than before. Many of us are dually licensed in both the chemical dependency and the mental health fields.
Still, your editorial was right on target about dwindling numbers and lower starting pay for entry-level counselors.
Most addiction counseling takes place in agencies, and many of those are non-profits.
Funding is very limited by voter apathy whenever a levy is placed on the ballot to increase contributions to the addiction field.
Voters appear more sympathetic to mental health issues, never considering that addiction is also a mental illness, classified and diagnosed as such in the same way as any other emotional disorder.
People turn a blind eye to the ramifications of addiction on society, the consequences to the addict s health, devastation to the family, and the drain on the economy brought by increased criminal activity with drugs or alcohol as the underlying cause.
Taxpayers continue to pay for programs to address all the fallout issues, yet fail to support levies aimed at prevention and intervention.
Until then, we continue to do the best we can with what we have for as many people as we can serve.
Marsha Manon
Temperance
I commend The Blade for its Aug. 24 editorial in support of more drug and alcohol addiction counselors.
As money gets tight for all social service agencies, it is tougher to attract and keep qualified counselors.
At COMPASS, the demand for services exceeds our funding. Just last week we recognized one of our counselors for 25 years of service.
During her career she has helped literally hundreds of people and continues to do so. That type of career may not be seen in the future.
As a society we have to accept addiction as a disease and get people who need help into treatment.
Leaving people who are addicted without help or locking people up is not fiscally responsible or a positive way to address a concern that affects almost every family.
William D. Sanford
President & CEO COMPASS Corp.Collingwood Boulevard
Three compelling articles in a recent Blade should be more evidence than was ever necessary for demands by students, families, and communities for rigid access restrictions by military recruiters to impressionable youth. Without doubt, restrictions should be enforced while students attend school.
In record numbers, it is now being discovered that military recruiters, given unsupervised access to female students, have raped and assaulted those same girls. With the ultimate exhibit of injustice, the military predators escape jail time, suffering mere pay and rank reductions.
Even if they are not assaulting young females, should we assume military recruiters are telling struggling youths seeking college funding about widespread risks of depleted uranium poisoning, as your second article described?
DU is the new Agent Orange health nightmare plaguing vets from both our Mideast wars. That is, if returning vets can get a Pentagon confession. Our Defense Department wasn t cooperative with Vietnam-era veterans regarding extensive cancers and birth defects caused by Agent Orange exposure while fighting for freedom from communist terrorists in Southeast Asia.
It s doubtful that a recruiter is revealing the DU threat while he s promising fun, travel, adventure, and college tuition.
It s unlikely, too, that recruiters are telling kids about the chance of never seeing the end of their enlistment or deployment. It s called the backdoor draft, the subject of that day s third article.
Few parents put students on buses alone for college tours. Schools and the NCAA restrict contact with student athletes, and mom and dad are regularly included in conversations with college coaches. Why should any less importance be placed on protection and wise counsel with caring, invested adults when facing military recruiters in high schools? Demand restrictions at your child s high school. Insist that parents be present for every recruiter contact.
Peggy Daly-Masternak
Drummond Road
My husband and I recently traveled to the Pacific Northwest. We love leaving out of Toledo Express because it is so handy. One of our children can come and take our car from the lot and return it for us on our day of arrival. If we have a friend taking us or picking us up, it is not a huge imposition. Toledo Express Airport is a very well-kept secret in our community. We were quickly screened, our flights were on time, we didn t have to deal with traffic hassle, parking hassle, terminal hassle. We had a morning coffee for less than $5!
To the gentleman who recently wrote about his poor experience at Toledo Express, I can only say: If he is worried about brain drain from our city, he would be a bit more tolerant of the great things our city has to offer. I ve traveled internationally. If you are worried about a 20-minute wait at Toledo Express, spend 12 hours in the Munich Airport due to delay.
Do you choose to support our city or not?
Kathy Huffman
Willys Parkway
I don t have kids and I never watch Sesame Street, so I don t know why I cared when I read the article about the new Sesame Street character named Abby Cadabby. I guess I m bothered by the bad reception she got from parents because she is a girly girl. I have to ask; what s wrong with that? Who says girly things aren t as good as boy things?
I understood from the article that Zoe the tomboy character was OK. Why? Don t parents realize the message they are sending is that boy things are good and cool, but girl things are silly and frivolous? We women didn t fight for equality so we could act like boys. We did it so we can get the same respect males get; so we can have equal pay, own houses and businesses, and work at whatever career we want. And if that career happens to be a pink fairy, then you go, Abby!
Amie Taraschke
Oregon
People were complaining on TV about the noise and trash in their neighborhood from the students at the University of Toledo. There were camera shots of empty beer cans and cups littering their lawns. One person interviewed said that since they lived close to a university, they should expect it. I am appalled. Since when is it OK to trash other people s property just because you are a student? Is there no respect for the effort made by these homeowners to maintain there property? And since when is it OK? I am absolutely aghast at the attitude of these kids who have apparently been given everything and not had to work for anything. Such disrespect is enervating.
I do not live in a university neighborhood, but hardly a day goes by when I do not have to pick up fast-food bags, empty beer cans and bottles, plastic bags, etc. from my yard that have been thrown from cars as they drove by my property.
Why disrespect other people s property, not to mention Mother Earth?
Bonnie Fruchey-Mossing
Shoreland Avenue
We attended the German-American Festival, and in our viewing group of about 60 people, my wife and I were the only ones who stood and covered our hearts with our right hands as the American flag passed in review as part of the opening parade. Why do people no longer show respect for our flag? Could it be because proper respect has not been taught in school or at home for the past few years?
Ernest L. Lippert
Tamarack Drive