Two social workers say Asotin County needs more services to stop alcohol abuse.
Tri-State Memorial Hospital is the only place where indigent Asotin County residents can go to get sobered up, said Richard Gallaher, executive director of the Rogers Counseling Center in Clarkston.
Gallaher spoke before Asotin County commissioners this week urging them to ask the Legislature for a larger appropriation for alcohol services.
The existing appropriation formula for alcohol treatment, Gallaher said, favors more populated areas of Washington and doesn't meet the needs of Asotin County.
Tri-State rejects patients whose symptoms aren't medically severe enough to require hospitalization or who have proven to be hard to control during other alcohol-related hospitalizations, Gallaher said.
Last year, Tri-State provided alcohol detoxification to less than 12 patients, said hospital administrator Joseph K. Lillard.
As many as 50 people might seek assistance in getting sober if the criteria were less strict, Gallaher said.
The only reason physicians rejected patients, Lillard said, was if they didn't meet the medical criteria for the treatment.
The hospital loses money on the service, Lillard said, but as a non-profit organization has an obligation to give something back to the community.
"Ability to pay is not an issue," he said. "If a physician feels it's medically necessary to admit a patient for alcohol detoxification, we admit the patient.''
Gallaher would like the Tri-State program to continue while the county uses additional money for other programs that treat those who don't need the medical supervision a hospital provides.
Port of Hope provides that kind of service in Lewiston, but Asotin County residents have to pay out of their own pockets for the treatment.
Such programs usually keep patients longer, giving counselors more opportunities to encourage continuation of treatment after they leave the program, Gallaher said.
Getting alcohol treatment to more people is important, said Adele Plouffe, director of Asotin County's Substance Abuse Prevention Project.
About four years ago, the Asotin County Sheriff's Department found that 75 percent of domestic abuse calls were linked to alcohol in an informal study, Plouffe said.