http://www.detnews.com/2002/homelife/02 ... 402071.htmFamilies
Path to recovery is a family journey
By Ellyce Field / Special to The Detroit News
Ricardo Thomas / The Detroit News
Pathway Family Center in Southfield helps teen-agers understand their addiction and seek recovery.
About the program
* What: Pathway Family Center information meetings
* Where: Pathway Family Center, Village Office Center, 23100 Providence, Suite 300, Southfield
* When: 6:30-8 p.m. each Friday
* Admission: Free
* Information: Crisis number, available 24 hours a day, (248) 443-0105
* Additional center: 6408 Castleplace, Suite 108, Indianapolis. (800) 261-4605
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SOUTHFIELD -- The experience is 10 years old, but still fresh in Terri Nissley's memory. Her daughter, Jeni, was 15 in 1991 and abusing alcohol and drugs. It took a while, but Nissley and her husband finally recognized their daughter desperately needed a treatment center.
"We were lucky to find one in Plymouth, Mich.," says the Indianapolis resident. "It was a wonderful family-centered program. For two years, we drove in every weekend to be part of the treatment."
The night Jeni graduated, the program closed its doors due to a lack in funding. The Nissleys, several other parents and some of the program's professionals were determined to create a place where the 13 other children still in treatment could continue their recovery program.
"Out of appreciation for what the program had done for us, we started Pathway Family Center in Southfield in 1993," Nissley says.
Today, there are two Pathway Centers, one in Southfield and another in Indianapolis. Both are five-phase recovery programs for adolescents and their families. The two-year program features long-term day treatment, host homes, individual consultation and evaluation, medical care, peer-to-peer counseling and an on-site school.
"One of our successes is that we are nontraditional," she says. "We specialize in difficult-to-treat adolescents, but we don't want them institutionalized. We want them to learn how to be part of a family again."
To reach this goal, the program insists on family participation. For two or three months, teens also live with host families of participants further along in the program.
To help other families recognize the warning signs of teen drug or alcohol abuse and to explain the Pathway program, the center hosts an informational meeting for parents and teens every Friday evening.
"It's important parents don't ignore their teen's behaviors and seek help before the child turns 18," Nissley says.
Ellyce Field is a Metro Detroit free-lance writer.
