- E.D.U. stood for Enhanced Detoxification Unit. It was supposedly an "intensive care" Detox with psychiatric services. "E.D.U." services were mentioned everywhere that Detox was mentioned, including the Salvation Army website and government grant descriptions.
- Funding sources gave the Salvation Army preference because they believed the Salvation Army was really providing these services.
- The "E.D.U." concept was financially lucrative for the Salvation Army, but it diverted a lot of money from organizations that might have actually provided those services.
- One of the Alaska Salvation Army's 'big secrets' was that not only were there no psychiatric services in its Detox, but the clients who most needed those services were banned. Dozens of clients were banned from the Salvation Army Detox only because they were "too suicidal".
From the Salvation Army website [here / copied]:
"Clitheroe's detox unit was the only medically enhanced detox program in the state to offer specialized mental health services for individuals who are suicidal, and/or have co-occurring psychiatric disorders and require detoxification."
Alaska has a high suicide rate.
Salvation Army Clitheroe promoted its "E.D.U." unit in Detox, as part of the solution.
The H.R. Director even thought Detox had a psychiatrist!
Audio file click here /.wav format here
(Audio of Seroquel vs Naltrexone issue.)
In fact none of the state-funded "specialized mental health services" were being provided to any Detox (or EDU) clients.
The "specialized mental health" services, paid for by the govt, simply did not exist.
Clitheroe (residential and outpatient) had contracts with local medical providers totaling $9,000 a month. None of that included mental health services for EDU or Detox clients.
There was a "Mental Health Adviser" who came sporadically to interview clients interested in Residential. He made it clear that he would not speak to "psychiatric" clients unless he was told to interview them for a Residential bed. See here. Even then, he offered no psychiatric services, only the admission interview.
- Hundreds of people went through Salvation Army Clitheroe's Detox in 2007.
Not a single one received any mental health services.
- Roughly a dozen people a month were denied service only because they were very suicidal. They would be told that Detox was full, even though we had space.
Few were referred to other providers.
- One young man had shot himself in the head November '06, and survived. In '07 he decided to get treatment. He tried for some time to get in. His mother called almost hourly for a few days, until she figured it out. There was no reason to think that person was a current suicide risk, other than his history. There was good reason to think he would have been a good candidate for treatment.
- Nurse "Frank" used to get in a fury regularly when a patient would be sent who was medically fragile, but had no paperwork from the hospital that sent them.
- Usually, any person who had a semi-serious medical issue would be put in E.D.U. There was no practical difference between an "EDU" bed and a regular bed, except they were funded differently. EDU was just 4 regular beds separated by a curtain. Because EDU beds were less visible, problems with EDU clients more often went unnoticed.
The Salvation Army claimed, on it's website, that it treated "approximately 1000 people" per year in EDU. That Salvation Army page was on this website in December, and ... the Salvation Army took their page down. Since I couldn't prove that they had made the claim, I took the link off this website.
Jan 31 2008 I found a copy of the page from December 2007. Here is the copy with the original htm file name that was used on the Salvation Army website FCF2BDBDE741F13589256D7F0079039D
They can claim that this was a typo... And that the Executive Directors inaccurate statistics in her letter to the Anchorage Daily News were a typo... And that all the grant description information publicly available contains only typos, but...
Why are there no truthful statistics anywhere?
EDU did not serve "approximately 1000 people". It served well under 200.
All of Detox and all of Residential together did not serve 1000 people.
note: Part of my job was doing the monthly census in Detox. I am the person who best knows how many clients went through Detox and EDU in 2007.
Statistics used by the Salvation Army to solicit funds are largely fabrications.