Treatment Center

The University of Maryland School of Medicine has begun construction of a $200 million proton center that will bring the latest in cancer treatment to the region and double investment in the University of Maryland's growing BioPark in West Baltimore. University officials will join state and local officials, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, for an official groundbreaking Tuesday at the site of the 110,000-square-foot facility, which is expected to treat 2,000 cancer patients a year.

The independent watchdog agency that oversees Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services recently released a report showing the state made important progress last year toward improving conditions for youths held in its three largest juvenile detention facilities. That's good news given the years of problems the system has encountered with overcrowding, incidents of violence, high staff turnover and aging facilities. Now the state needs to build on those gains by replicating the successful programs at its largest institutions in smaller facilities statewide.

Second of two parts; read the first part For much of his adult life he'd been a slave to cocaine, marijuana, prescription pills and alcohol. Twice he had gone through weeks of intensive psychiatric and drug treatment at Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc., only to go back to using drugs on the streets. By summer 2008, Stephen Brown was three months into his third stint at BBH. That's when the private treatment center in Southwest Baltimore deemed him ready for a new challenge: to manage a rented rowhouse where he would live with seven other patients.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network applauds the work of the Maryland General Assembly in passing the Kathleen Mathias Oral Chemotherapy Act of 2012. The provisions of the bill went into effect Oct. 1, resulting in increased quality of life for many cancer patients. In addition to bringing the cost of oral chemotherapy into line with that of intravenous chemotherapy, patients who opt for oral chemotherapy will be able to save the time and travel costs associated with trips to a treatment center, which can go on for months for intravenous chemotherapy.

Isn't it a bit disingenuous for the University of Maryland School of Medicine to use its own research to justify locating a methadone treatment center in the 1100 block of West Pratt Street ("Study: Methadone clinics don't draw crime," May 1)? It's interesting that the school found that convenience stores bring crime to a neighborhood because of the foot traffic they generate. How else would the university describe bringing 600 or so drug addicts a day to a methadone treatment center except as generating foot traffic through the neighborhood?

Almost 200 angry residents from Southeast Baltimore and its environs, and most of their elected representatives, shouted down plans last night for a drug and alcohol treatment center in their neighborhood."

A new public residential drug treatment center opened yesterday in Northwest Baltimore - the first new facility in 30 years - and city officials hope it will create more bed space for addicts wishing to become clean. The facility at 4615 Park Heights Ave. will hold 135 people. It will be run by Gaudenzia Inc., a 34-year-old company that has more than 40 treatment sites throughout Pennsylvania. The facility will offer outpatient and residential programs for substance-abuse treatment, as well as prevention and education.

It will be at least a month until Westminster's Board of Zoning Appeals decides whether a methadone treatment center is allowed in the city's downtown area. On Thursday, the three-member board wrapped up hearing two days of arguments and testimony from city officials, the applicants for the treatment center and numerous residents. In the meantime, attorneys representing the city, the zoning administrator and the applicants are expected to have until Feb. 26 to submit closing arguments and their responses.

The Carroll commissioners decided yesterday to build a new long-term drug treatment facility on the grounds of Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville, rather than renovate a 53-year-old vacant dormitory on the 500-acre Springfield campus. The decision pivoted on cost, with as much as a $6 million difference between construction and restoration. Once the state made land available on the hospital campus several months ago, building a treatment center became more practical. "A new building makes more sense financially," said Ralph Green, county director of permits and inspections.

Buoyed by an increasing number of drunken-driving arrests, Baltimore County's DWI/Correctional Treatment Facility in Owings Mills -- which celebrates its fifth anniversary this week -- plans to nearly double its size in the next two years.Right Turn of Maryland, which runs the 100-bed facility at Rosewood Center, won state approval to lease two Rosewood buildings and plans to turn them into 40-bed dormitories for women.John Goings, the treatment center director, said Right Turn hopes to open the first 40-bed residence within six months and the second one about a year after that.

Isn't it a bit disingenuous for the University of Maryland School of Medicine to use its own research to justify locating a methadone treatment center in the 1100 block of West Pratt Street ("Study: Methadone clinics don't draw crime," May 1)? It's interesting that the school found that convenience stores bring crime to a neighborhood because of the foot traffic they generate. How else would the university describe bringing 600 or so drug addicts a day to a methadone treatment center except as generating foot traffic through the neighborhood?

Legendary singer-songwriter Judy Collins will be the keynote speaker at the fifth annual Women in Recovery Luncheon May 22 at Father Martin's Ashley, a non-profit alcoholism and drug addiction treatment center near Havre de Grace. The luncheon celebrates and honors the lives of women in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Collins overcame addiction when entering treatment in 1978, and has been living a life of recovery for over 30 years, according to her biography. Collins has been a strong advocate for addiction recovery and also suicide prevention since losing her son to suicide.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine has begun construction of a $200 million proton center that will bring the latest in cancer treatment to the region and double investment in the University of Maryland's growing BioPark in West Baltimore. University officials will join state and local officials, including Gov. Martin O'Malley, for an official groundbreaking Tuesday at the site of the 110,000-square-foot facility, which is expected to treat 2,000 cancer patients a year.

Shirley M. Miller, a homemaker and volunteer who earlier had worked at Waverly Press, died Dec. 12 of a stroke at Londonderry, an Easton retirement community. The former longtime Towson resident was 92. The daughter of an educator and a homemaker, Shirley Morton was born in Berwyn, Prince George's County, and was raised in Easton. After graduating from Easton High School in 1936, she attended Western Maryland College, which is now McDaniel College. In the early 1940s, she went to work as a Linotype operator for Waverly Press in Baltimore.

Let's face it. Baltimore is ripe for satirizing. We've probably got more offbeat people, more distinctive edifices, more colorful history and habits per block than any metropolitan area in the country. Oh yeah, and some crime. The folks at Second City Theatricals, a wing of the venerable Chicago-based Second City enterprise, burrowed earlier this season into our little world, with all of its carefully demarcated neighborhoods. The material they gathered from the experience has been fashioned into a customized show that has settled into Center Stage for a long, no doubt profitable, run. "The Second City Does Baltimore" may be a little long for its own good, and may hit some obvious targets in, well, obvious ways, but there is an awful lot of fresh and very funny stuff here.

Second of two parts; read the first part For much of his adult life he'd been a slave to cocaine, marijuana, prescription pills and alcohol. Twice he had gone through weeks of intensive psychiatric and drug treatment at Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc., only to go back to using drugs on the streets. By summer 2008, Stephen Brown was three months into his third stint at BBH. That's when the private treatment center in Southwest Baltimore deemed him ready for a new challenge: to manage a rented rowhouse where he would live with seven other patients.

The state has given preliminary approval to Carroll County's plans to build a $4 million treatment center for drug addicts on the grounds of the Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville. County officials are negotiating nominal leases, probably $1 a year, with two state agencies - the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Department of Public Safety and Corrections - for a 7-acre parcel at the southern end of the state hospital for the mentally ill. The land on Buttercup Road adjoins the state Central Laundry Facility, a minimum-security prison for men. "We have had preliminary meetings and verbal concurrence from both agencies," Jolene Sullivan, director of Carroll's Department of Citizen Services, said yesterday.

At 15, Michael King of Dundalk began smoking marijuana and abusing alcohol. "It led to trouble with the law and doing stupid things when I was high," King said. Now 18, King has started 45 days of treatment at Mountain Manor in Irvington, one of two centers where Baltimore County sends teen and adolescent drug abusers to get sober. "I'm hoping that the treatment keeps me on the right path when I go home," said King. Mountain Manor offers a glimpse of the kind of treatment center for youths that Baltimore County officials have said they hope to establish.

The University of Maryland's growing BioPark in West Baltimore will get a $200 million boost from plans announced Wednesday by the School of Medicine to team with private partners on a state-of-the-art proton cancer treatment center. Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown said the center would create 325 construction jobs, 110 permanent jobs and attract 2,000 patients a year. "It will also continue the state's and Baltimore City's investment in the communities of West Baltimore," he said.

The four members of Girl Scout Troop 913 in Anne Arundel County have washed cars and appealed to local businesses to raise money. They've baked cookies and, of course, sold them. And now the efforts of the girls - all high school juniors - have culminated in the groundbreaking of a new building for a Crownsville drug treatment center. Over the past four years, the troop has worked to raise close to $100,000 in funding and in-kind donations to construct a thrift store and job training center on the grounds of the Chrysalis House, a drug treatment center for women.