A Montgomery County Council member has asked the county’s director of health and human services to respond to allegations that the county is spending millions on ineffective residential rehabilitation programs that graduate few people and are “glorified” homeless shelters.
Labor leaders urged council members last week to reduce or eliminate funding for the county’s residential drug rehabilitation programs, saying in a cost-savings memo that more than $5 million a year “is spent on programs that have yet to show any significant results related to the identified outcome measures.” County government employees are trying to protect contracts that in many cases guarantee raises of about 8 percent for members.
Gino Renne, president of the Municipal and County Government Employees Organization, said in a memo that fewer than 10 people have completed the Avery Road Combined Care program, that 40 percent of participants in the Avery Road Treatment Center do not have drugs or alcohol in their system when they are admitted, and that few clients successfully complete the Lawrence Court and Avery halfway house programs.
“The cost of the program, given the horrendous completion rates and negligible return for the investment, is of great concern,” he wrote, adding that Prince George’s and Howard counties do not have their own residential treatment programs.
Councilman George Leventhal, director of the council’s health and human services committee, said he was taking the union’s comments “very seriously.”
“We welcome any suggestions on how to cut costs,” Leventhal said. “I think generally most of the health and human services committee wants to continue treatment for people struggling with drug addictions, but we had a lengthy conversation with [Montgomery Health and Human Services Director Uma Ahluwalia], and she will respond with a memo of her own next week.”
Ahluwalia said she disagreed with the comments about the residential rehabilitation programs but was unable to immediately provide data on completion rates. She said she would have that information for Leventhal by Wednesday.
“These programs are actually pretty effective,” Ahluwalia said. “We have performance measurements in these contracts, and if anything, what we hear from advocates is they want us to expand services. They say the need is greater than we canaccommodate.”
Council members said a surprising number of residents testified in support of the county’s drug treatment programs during budget hearings this year, estimating that roughly 10 out of 150 residents who spoke about county programs were there to advocate for addictions services.
