June 17, 2008 - Alcoholism takes an incredible toll on Americans' health and lives. Excessive use of alcohol is the third-leading lifestyle-related cause of death of Americans each year. The cost of alcoholism in the United States has been estimated at $175.9 billion a year. A quarter to 40 percent of all patients in American hospitals, not counting maternity or intensive care, have been admitted because of alcohol-related problems or because of illnesses made worse because of alcoholism. And statistics cannot begin to measure the effects of the tragedy of family violence, of careers derailed, jobs lost, and minds clouded, all as a result of alcoholism.

These personal and social detriments caused by alcoholism make it all the more important for communities to support alcoholism treatment facilities, such as Charlie's Place in Corpus Christi. Charlie's Place -- its name comes from one of the original founders more than 40 years ago -- is the only residential alcoholism treatment center in the multi-county region that serves adult indigent and uninsured clients. As such, the center has performed an immensely valuable role for the area, helping to put thousands of South Texans back on the path to sobriety.

Charlie's Place has been at its same location, on North Country Club Place, just off Interstate 37, since its inception. The demand for its services, however, has long surpassed its resources; its waiting list of clients is testimony to the depth of the need. The center's leaders have identified a new location for the facility, a former motel, now vacant, which would furnish the extra space that would make it possible for more clients to be served.

It's important to remember what Charlie's Place is and what it is not. It's a treatment center, not a halfway house. All of its clients have voluntarily presented themselves for treatment, whether at its detoxification unit, residential services or counseling programs. Those who stay at the center do so for short-term durations lasting anywhere from a few days to a month, under a staff that is on-site 24 hours a day.

Charlie's Place can only move to its new location and expand its services with the public's help. Its government funding, through local, state and federal sources, is valuable for operations, but it will need a helping hand from the community to get the financial resources, a total of $4 million, to obtain the property and move in.

Luckily, Charlie's Place has received $500,000 in seed money from its neighbor, Citgo refinery. That's a good start. Making a vacant property useful again is also a plus. The real gain of the proposed expansion will be the treatment center's ability to put more lives on the road back to health and sobriety.

June 16, 2008 Charlie's Place, an area drug rehabilitation center, could soon call an old hotel on the west side home. That is the word from managers at the facility, who told KRIS 6 News they are one step closer to relocating.

The move to the old Garden Inn Hotel has gained the support of Citgo. The company donated $500,000 dollars to the proposed $4,000,000 project.

However, the proposed move has raised some concern with the Leopard Street Corridor Association. Members have turned to the Corpus Christi City Council over concerns that the center is close to some local apartments.

Linda Cavazos, of the association, told 6 News, "Our safety concerns are mainly the children. We have a lot of children in this area."

Read this online at Corpus Christi Caller Times
by Stuart Duncan, Caller-Times

June 14, 2008 — CORPUS CHRISTI — Charlie's Place is looking for a bigger pad.

The Coastal Bend Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Center will need to raise about $4 million to move from its two current locations, on North Country Club Place and on Brownlee Boulevard (which is its detoxification unit that opened last December), City Councilman Larry Elizondo said. It will move to one site at a former hotel off of Interstate 37 and McBride Lane near the Corpus Christi Greyhound Racetrack, he said.

Citgo, with the support of the city, already has raised $500,000 for a downpayment on the property -- which used to be the Garden Inn hotel -- for the nonprofit organization, Elizondo said. He said an additional fundraiser for Charlie's Place -- which has 70 employees, including a medical director, nursing staff and licensed counselors -- may be coming.

"The half million dollars that we've already put on the table is the beginning of what we're going to put down," said Elizondo, who is Government and Public Affairs manager of Citgo's Corpus Christi Refinery. "That gives you an idea of how committed we are. I just hope (that everybody else that contributes) can be as committed as we are and if not -- we'll make up the difference somehow."

Charlie's Place will also apply for state funding in March, Charlie's Place spokesperson Amy Rhoads Granberry said.

Charlie's Place -- which has helped more than 27,000 people battle through their alcohol and drug addiction since it opened in 1965 -- is currently helping 126 clients daily but Granberry said it would like to expand to help as many as 250 individuals per day in the 19 South Texas counties it serves. She said the new location, which features 157 rooms, would help them do that and would also cut down on building maintenance costs.

"We just don't have any more space to operate where we are -- this is not the best place for us to be now," said Granberry. "We're looking at possibly moving into someplace that is 60 years newer, so we're excited about it. It's ideal for our purposes -- it is actually three times bigger than our current facility (nearly 100,000 square feet compared to nearly 30,000 square feet for guest rooms, group rooms and office space) and double the size of what we were hoping to build from the ground up (at its current location)."

Elizondo, said it would cost $1 million less for Charlie's Place -- which currently leases two of its buildings from Citgo -- to move to McBride Lane than to add on to its present location, which features seven houses and five support buildings.

"We won't have to rezone and the (former hotel) building is in excellent shape," Elizondo said. "It has only been vacated for seven or eight months and the power is still on in the building. So, this is a just great opportunity for all of us to come together and do something that's good for the community."

December 2007 - The website for Charlie's Place took on a completely new look and feel when it was launched this month. Simultaneously, the company's logo was redesigned. The new logo, depicting person climbing stairs, echoes the upward moving path that Charlie's Place aims to help its clients reach during their treatment. The logo was created by Net-Wit.com.

The website was redesigned by Third Coast Photo & Web of Corpus Christi. The new website showcases Charlie's Place personnel, facilities, treatment programs and current events in a contemporary electronic format. The original website provided basic information but as Charlie's Place moves forward into a new era, the administration determined that the time for a more dynamic website had come.

The new website design places the main information in the center of each page with photographs and links in the vertical sidebars, a photo gallery, a video page, links to partner facilities, and information about Charlie's Place personnel.

The website, online at www.charliesplaceonline.com, will be updated and expanded as Charlie's Place grows and advances.

Read this online at Corpus Christi Caller Times
by Mike Baird, Caller-Times

December 7, 2007 — The executive and clinical directors at Charlie's Place are two of the more than 17,000 clients helped with addiction in the past 42 years at the Coastal Bend drug and alcohol rehab center.

"Many of our staff have been through detox," said executive director Larry Churn, who went through detox more than 20 years ago. "We know what it's like. That's why we come back to help others."

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More than 100 people -- caregivers, supporters and ministry and community leaders -- bowed heads Thursday morning as the Most Rev. Bishop Edmond Carmody blessed the Brownlee Boulevard center's new 5,500-square-foot detoxification unit. The diocesan leader prayed for each new client entering the 44-bed unit to be treated with respect and dignity.

In the new unit, a medical director diagnoses and sets treatment for clients to help with depression, physical withdrawal pain and intense craving, said clinical director Norman Spells. "It's a medication issue," he said. "So, they are monitored 24 hours a day by a nurse and medical assistants."

The center's biggest issue is that people view addiction as a moral choice, Spells said. "People don't offer financial support for addiction like they do for cancer or heart disease, despite alcoholism being defined as a disease," he said.

Many of those who walk in off the street wanting help must wait for federal funding that can take weeks, and they fall back to abuse waiting on the financing, Spells said. "Most go back to their drug or bottle and never come back."

The center has served about 900 people from a 19-county area each year and, with the new unit, can help 2,400 people. But it still needs operating funds, said Dennis Dolce, board president. Most of the center's approximately $2.8 million annual budget comes from state grants and federal funds, which must be applied for one patient at a time.

It will take about $1 million more to stop turning away the 15 or so people each week who want service but can't pay, Churn said. Statistically, 65 percent of the center's clients who complete programs maintain sobriety.

"There's no shortage of folks in need," he said. "Seventy-one percent of people say their life is impacted by substance abuse, whether themselves, family, co-worker or friend."

People can't get sober until they detox, said Ann Fitz, 76, who operates Dorothy Day House, a shelter support program for alcoholic men, with her teacher retirement checks. Many of the men she helps go through detoxification elsewhere before earning a place with their sobriety at the day house.

"We all serve the same folks -- those nobody else will help," Fitz said. "That's why this new detox unit is so important."

To help

Call Amy Rhoads Granberry, Charlies Place director of development, at 882-9302 Ext. 109.