Counselors help stop cycle of addiction.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

Stephanie McFaull did not come to Prevention and Recovery Northwest by choice.

It was "a nudge from the judge," she explained, that got her in the door last spring for her first relapse prevention group meeting. Fresh from serving three months in jail for her third drunken driving conviction, she had once again started drinking.

"I came to Prevention and Recovery Northwest kind of because it was the only place I hadn't tried," said McFaull, who has been in and out of treatment more than a dozen times since she took a fateful sip of a screwdriver 14 years ago.

Now 41, McFaull has been clean and sober since March, and says she is happy and hopeful for the first time in years. She attends Alcoholic Anonymous meetings every day, but says her weekly two-hour meetings at Prevention and Recovery Northwest's Roosevelt Boulevard office have been a critical part of her recovery.

"It's very open - there's a real sense of trust," said McFaull, who worked as a teacher's assistant in the Tigard schools before alcohol - coupled with a pre-existing eating disorder - spun her life out of control. "And I think (counselor) Eve (Lathrop) really does care. If you don't show up one week, she's on you."

It is the care and respect with which she and other counselors treat their clients that sets the agency apart, Lathrop said. In her 15 years working as a drug and alcohol counselor, mostly in Washington state, she grew to dislike the punitive, hierarchical approach some agencies took toward their clients.

"We take the clients where they're at," she said. "We're not a punishment. The courts and everyone else did all that before they got to us. We're here to teach them new education and to challenge the beliefs they brought in with them."

Founded as Drinking Decisions in 1978, the agency offers a wide range of services to individuals, couples and families, including evaluation and assessment, group therapy, outpatient treatment, counseling, monitoring and referrals. Besides the relapse prevention group McFaull attends, the agency offers groups for men or women only, drug and alcohol education classes and anger management classes.

United Way of Lane County provides a little over 5 percent of its annual $700,000 budget, executive director Ann-Marie Bilderback said. The remainder comes from client-paid fees, the Oregon Health Plan and insurance companies. Pacific Continental Bank contributes a small amount, she said.

While most of the 10 counselors work at one of the four sites, Tricia Card works exclusively at Kelly Middle School with youngsters. The agency lost funding for a second youth counselor, but Card works with students with a host of challenges, including drug and alcohol dependence, grief, depression, anger, abuse and even poor study skills. She also leads a support group there for children whose parents are serving in the military in Iraq.

Prevention and Recovery Northwest serves about 1,200 adult clients and 400 youths each year. It hopes to expand its outreach to families and gain certification to offer mental health services.

"We feel like that's a very important direction to go," said Bilderback, noting budget-driven reductions in such services throughout Oregon.

Among its adult clients, the agency boasts a high success rate, with more than 80 percent abstaining from drugs and alcohol for at least 90 days after leaving the program.

McFaull, who was formerly homeless but now shares a house in the Whiteaker neighborhood with a friend, plans to continue at Prevention and Recovery Northwest through December. She's on the Oregon Health Plan, and is able to make ends meet with a disability check she gets because of additional mental health problems.

She said she feels that her recovery has evolved further this time than ever before, boosting her optimism that she will stay sober, return to work and lead a productive life.

"I'm 41 years old and I can finally look in the mirror," she said.

Lathrop said she's also seen a critical shift in McFaull's outlook.

`She's operating from a `heart' place, an emotional place now, not just in her head,' she said, adding: "For today, she's sober, and that's good."

PREVENTION AND RECOVERY NORTHWEST

The agency provides substance abuse prevention and addiction treatment for adults and youth.

Founding year: 1978

Address: 1188 Olive St.

Telephone: [phone]

Area served: In and near Lane County. The agency has satellite offices in Springfield, Cottage Grove and the Bethel neighborhood.

Annual budget: About $700,000

United Way contribution: $43,510

TOP COMPANIES

The following are the top 10 companies that have completed their individual and corporate giving campaigns for the United Way:

Public Safety Center Inc.: $39,038;

NW Natural: $11,352

Pacific Cascade Federal Credit Union: $7,706

Union Pacific Foundation: $7,000

Springfield Utility Board: $6,568

Tyree Oil: $5,596

Delta Oaks Wal-Mart: $5,327

Springfield Wal-Mart: $4,966

Cottage Grove Wal-Mart: $4,860

Robertson-Sherwood Architects: $4,300

CAPTION(S):

Recovering alcoholic Stephanie McFaull says the care she has received at Prevention and Recovery Northwest has helped change her outlook. The Register-Guard Kevin Clark / The Register-Guard Stephanie McFaull, 41, says the trust she feels at Prevention and Recovery Northwest has helped her stay sober since March. Margaret the cat also supplies warm feelings.