Operation UNITE??? (Kentucky)

[Ursus]

It's a pity they don't list who's on their Medical Advisory Board...

Well, here's a partial answer as to why no names are cited. Operation UNITE is still trying to assemble their Medical Advisory Council. From OU's website:

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Medical Advisory Council seeks members
Posted on Nov 22, 2010

Medical professionals from across southern and eastern Kentucky are being asked to lend their expertise to UNITE's new Medical Advisory Council.

The Council, which will advise UNITE's Board of Directors, has conducted two organizational sessions in an attempt to bring a united front to fighting substance abuse-related concerns.

"We have made great progress," noted Karen Kelly, UNITE director. "To fully craft a course of action to address drug addiction, workplace safety, diversion and other issues we need input from all sectors of the health care profession."

Two meetings of the UNITE Medical Advisory Council are scheduled — Monday, December 13, and Thursday, January 20. These meetings will held be in the conference training room of the Big Sandy Area Development District, 100 Resource Drive, Prestonsburg. Dinner will be served at 5:30 p.m. with the business meeting beginning at 6 p.m.

Van Ingram from the Kentucky Office on Drug Control Policy and Dave Hopkins from the KASPER (Kentucky All-Schedule Electronic Reporting) system will be special guests at the January meeting.

All medical professionals who are concerned about the drug problem are invited to attend these meetings. There is no charge for dinner, but an RSVP is requested to Sarah Flynn, UNITE director for Research and Community Outreach, at 1-866-678-6483 or sflynn@centertech.com.

"We need the help and partnership of our medical community," Kelly emphasized. "We need a diverse membership representing every medical field and from every geographic region."

Better utilization of the state's prescription drug monitoring program, increasing education about the disease of addiction, and providing greater collaboration and communication on available resources were all short-term priorities identified during a medical symposium held in March.

That meeting brought together more than 300 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, social workers, substance abuse counselors, adult care providers, coalition representatives and other professionals to address prescription drug abuse and workplace safety.

As a result of the first two council workshop sessions, conducted with guidance from Eastern Kentucky University's Facilitation Center, members have developed the following purpose: "To aid UNITE in the fight against drug abuse in our communities through a process of education, accountability, monitoring, and continual re-evaluation of what we do together as medical professionals."

Those who have participated in at least one of the workshops are: Aida O. Agtarap, Mercy Clinic, Manchester and Jackson; Dr. Brian Banks, family practitioner, Owsley County; Registered Nurse Libby Carter, Department for Medicaid, Pikeville; Social Worker/CADC Rhonda Clark, Van Ark Behavioral Management and Hope In The Mountains, Prestonsburg; Dr. Anita Cornett, Frontier Nursing Service, Manchester; Dr. Jeff Fredrich, Pineville Community Hospital; Registered Pharmacist Earl Gill, London; Respiratory Therapist Anna Jones, Southern Kentucky AHEC, London; Respiratory Therapist James L. Jones, Baptist Regional Medical Center, Corbin; Dr. Bradley Moore, McDowell ARH Hospital, Floyd County; Registered Nurse Monica A. Oakley, Dark Horse Wisdom Center, Hazard; Registered Nurse Annice Welch, Floyd County Health Department; and Dr. Mitch Wicker, Hazard.


©2010 Operation UNITE.

[seamus]

Jeez, Prestonburg,Hazard, Pikeville.......sure takes me back :nods:

[Ursus]

What exactly is the connection between these folks and Youth-To-Youth?

[Ursus]

They have two residential facilities that they utilize for placement or referral to: a Kentucky Teen Challenge, and a Kentucky WestCare. The below descriptions for both of these programs describe clients/patients as being "adult males," but I have to wonder what that really means. Both Teen Challenge and WestCare are better known for "treating" adolescents.

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Facilities

Operation UNITE works closely to support existing treatment programs throughout southern and eastern Kentucky, but realizes more must be done. Thanks to Fifth District Congressman Harold "Hal" Rogers, two new residential treatment centers – one in Clay County and the other in Pike County – now serve the region.

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Chad's Hope Teen Challenge Center
Chad's Hope 1-22-08300 Chad McWhorter Lane, Manchester, KY 40962
606-599-9716



Chad's Hope Center is owned by Visions of Eastern Kentucky, Inc., a non-profit, faith-based organization. On September 2, 2008, the board voted to turn daily operation of the center over to Kentucky Teen Challenge.

Teen Challenge exists to provide youth, adults and families with an effective and comprehensive Christian faith-based solution to life-controlling drug and alcohol problems in order to become productive members of society. Teen Challenge endeavors to help people become mentally sound, emotionally balanced, socially adjusted, physically well and spiritually alive.

Located in the Burning Springs community of Clay County just west of Manchester, the facility offers long-term residential treatment programs for up to 52 adult males, with plans to expand to 75 beds in the future. The facility, named for Chad McWhorter who died of a drug overdose in 2004, admitted its first client on March 6, 2008.

To learn more about Chad's Hope click here.

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WestCare Hal Rogers Appalachian Recovery Center
10057 Elkhorn Creek, Ashcamp, KY 41522
606-754-7077



WestCare Kentucky, Inc., a non-profit charitable organization, opened a 34,000-square-foot substance abuse treatment facility in the rural Pike County community of Ashcamp on August 8, 2005, and accepted its first client 14 days later. Currently the facility has 88 beds providing long-term residential substance abuse treatment for adult males who are dependent on alcohol, narcotics, methamphetamine and other drugs. WestCare Kentucky is licensed for 72 beds.

The five-acre campus is located on the former site of the Kentucky Youth Academy, which was donated to WestCare in 2004 by Pikeville lawyers Gary C. Johnson and his wife, Anita Johnson.

While a resident at the center, individuals receive counseling using the 12-step process, relapse prevention education, anger management, parenting and cognitive behavioral therapy classes. The average stay is three months; however, patients may be treated longer.

Based in Las Vegas, WestCare has more than 30 years experience providing a continuum of health and human services in community-based environments. In addition to Kentucky, WestCare currently provides services in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, Tennessee, Wyoming, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico, and specializes in serving individuals and families historically considered difficult to treat, such as those who are indigent, have multiple disorders or are involved with the criminal justice system.

WestCare Kentucky also operates a Homeless Shelter, Community Involvement Center and a Jail Recovery Program in Pikeville, and a Jail Recovery Program in Floyd County.

To learn more about WestCare click here.


©2010 Operation UNITE.

[Bandit73]

Isn't Teen Challenge pretty much known to be a cult?

[Ursus]

Isn't Teen Challenge pretty much known to be a cult?

I imagine some folks on the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse would agree with that assessment! Certainly TC's reliance on "faith" appears to be insufficient for running a rehabilitation program. The Commission's licensure-inspection report on Teen Challenge's San Antonio campus, prepared in 1995, spanned 49 pages and documented their extraordinary lack of compliance in 93 categories.

[Ursus]

WestCare, to focus for a moment on the other rehab that Operation Unite is associated with, was originally started as an addiction treatment TC in (Las Vegas?) Nevada in 1973. From WestCare's main website:

1973
• WestCare was created to provide community-based substance abuse treatment for people who are indigent or from low-income households and who would not otherwise have had access to treatment services. Founded as a residential treatment program called Fitzsimmons House, or "Fitz House," adopted the therapeutic community treatment modality and focused on long-term care for hard-core adult male heroin addicts. Within a few years, WestCare responded to the community's need for expanded substance abuse treatment and made available to women and to individuals abusing drugs other than heroin.[/list]

Just curious... wasn't this shortly after Synanon started doing work in the Nevada prison system? Or do I have my dates wrong?

[Ursus]

Some miscellaneous thoughts 'bout WestCare while I still have them in semi articulate form...

WestCare had at least some of its nascent roots cultured by a start-up grant from the Teamsters Union. Frank Fitzsimmons, after whom "Fitz House" was named, was head of the Teamsters during the time that Jimmy Hoffa was in jail. From my research, I get the impression that Hoffa deemed Fitzsimmons his so called heir in part due to his belief in Fitzsimmons' loyalty as well as, quite possibility, his expected deference when it came time for Hoffa to resume leadership.

Things didn't quite turn out that way. Hoffa ... "went missing." From the Wikipedia article on Fitzsimmons:

By 1975, Jimmy Hoffa was planning to seize the presidency of the Teamsters again.[36] Hoffa had been released from prison on December 23, 1971, when President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to time served. According to the United States Department of Justice and White House officials, Hoffa's release was granted on the condition that he not participate directly or indirectly in union activities until 1980.[3][4][37] But Hoffa contended that he had never agreed to any such condition, and unsuccessfully sued to have the restriction overturned.[3][4][38] But Fitzsimmons supported the government's position, and Charles Colson, special counsel to President Nixon who helped negotiate Hoffa's release, backed Fitzsimmon's interpretation of the release agreement.[4][39] Hoffa intended to publish a book accusing Fitzsimmons of "selling out to mobsters" and giving large low- and no-interest loans from Teamsters pension funds to mob-related businesses.[40][41] But Jimmy Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975, removing the last significant opposition to Fitzsimmons' re-election.[42] Fitzsimmons was, for a time, a suspect in the disappearance.[1] Fitzsimmons continued to solidify his hold on the Teamsters throughout 1975 and 1976.[43]

[/size]
Also, starting in late 1972 or 73, there were a number of nasty nasty labor union disputes between the Teamsters and the United Farm Workers. Was Fitz House a face saving PR move for the Teamsters in light of some of their more violent sucker punch shenanigans?

Incidentally, for perspective, Charles Dederich was courting favor with Cesar Chavez and the UFW roughly around that same time for assistance or support in Dederich's battles with the slowly growing population of Synanon's detractors.

More recently, WestCare has been linked to Operation PAR via Arnold Andrews, senior vice president and chief operating officer for the WestCare Foundation's Eastern/Offshore Division (St. Petersburg, FL), who happened to be one of the victims of the 2006 crash of Comair flight 5191 in Lexington, Kentucky. Interestingly enough, Andrews also appears to have had ties to Tampa Bay Academy.

See also:

• tampa bay academy
  viewtopic.php?f=9&t=29155
• Boy raped at WestCare-Georgia Intensive RTC
  viewtopic.php?f=49&t=30566
• ARNOLD ANDREWS, OPERATION PAR & CIA MIND CONTROL
  viewtopic.php?f=7&t=30761

[gulgamkeelt]

You probably very clever? or cunning?

[Ursus]

You probably very clever? or cunning?

Riiiiight. Do you have vested interests in Operation UNITE or WestCare?

[wdtony]

I have heard of UNITE. I have seen evidence of a huge influx of prescription drug dealing and abuse in the poverty stricken southeastern KY region. Drug runners are now driving to Florida and several other states seeking doctors who will prescribe all sorts of pills, including opiates such as oxycontin. It is a very poor area, even for KY and the drug influx is rampant.

UNITE is supposedly working to aid in this problem but UNITE is only as good as the solutions they claim to be beneficient.

I am usually against the machine against "we the people" but after seeing the drug issues firsthand down in the southeast, I am of the opinion that something of some magnitude should be done to curb this problem. I would say that the drug issues including needle use, overdose and murder are extensive in district 5 and I am concerned for the children growing up in this terrible environment. Keep in mind that this is coal mining country, where to earn a decent living, one must go into the mines or drive a coal truck ( remember black lung? ). So there is very little opportunity and getting a disability check or government assistance is a full time job for most.

UNITE may be trying to help but I doubt they have the resources or help (especially from the state of Florida) to make any impact on th problem. That won't stop them from funneling people into prison or treatment that will not work.

I have personally called UNITE on one occasion when I found that children were living in a dangerous (drug ring) situation. I have no idea of the outcome. When kids are around heavy drug users, guns and dangerous chemicals (not to mention being abused in other ways) I have no choice but to notify social workers, the police and in this case, UNITE.

Unite and the serious drug issue in southeastern KY are both evils...I am not sure which is the lesser.

[Bandit73]

I read a comment on another website several weeks ago that UNITE was harassing people who had absolutely nothing to do with drugs. I don't know how accurate that information was though.

[wdtony]

I read a comment on another website several weeks ago that UNITE was harassing people who had absolutely nothing to do with drugs. I don't know how accurate that information was though.

I have heard they have almost absolute power in that part of the state..... like the mob. So it wouldn't surprise me. I do know that they stake people out and will surround a property like a swat team before they strike.... then the house is raided. I know some people who have been raided by them and taken right to jail where they "talk" and "name names". They are allowed to do almost anything from what I understand.

[Bandit73]

Apparently, Operation UNITE conspired with a major drug dealer at the University of the Cumberlands sometime last year to frame 10 other students for selling dope.