Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack tours drug recovery center

Erica Felci • The Desert Sun • February 18, 2010

Caryann Gonzales had tried treatment before to kick an addiction to alcohol and methamphetamine.

But coming to ABC Recovery Center when she was 5-and-a-half months pregnant was the moment she credits for turning her life around.

“I came here, and I changed my life,” said Gonzales, holding her 4-month-old daughter, Isabell Cervantes.

“I had her. I’m just grateful.”

The Indio center’s work with pregnant women was one of many treatment and recovery programs highlighted in a tour with Rep. Mary Bono Mack on Wednesday.

The Palm Springs Republican for the past year has worked to raise awareness of prescription drug abuse by opening up about her own family’s struggles. Her mother battled alcoholism and her son, Chesare, was addicted to OxyContin as a teenager.

“They think it’s a harmless drug,” Bono Mack said. “These things are so powerful and addicting, our kids don’t stand a chance.”

ABC Recovery started in a home in 1963. The campus now includes transitional housing, outpatient efforts and programs specifically for the elderly, teens and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

At full capacity, the center has 150 people living in the primary care and transitional programs. More than 1,000 people are helped each week with the 12-step programs and other efforts, said J. David Likens, the center’s chief executive officer. Officials have another seven acres of land to expand on, but they are deciding how best to use it and working out funding issues.

The program for pregnant women started in 1989. Roughly 360 babies have been born to date, Likens said.

“We never turn a pregnant mother away. If we’re full, we’ll find a bed.”