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Opiate addiction has become bigger issue alcohol over his career
YOUNGSTOWN
The majority of Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic clients’ addictions involve drugs rather than alcohol nowadays, unlike when Jerry Carter became director of the center in 1977.
The center, then called the Alcoholic Clinic of Youngstown, was founded in 1946 and was then believed to be the only free-standing recovery clinic in the country, said Carter, who is retiring at the end of the year.
Carter, who served in the Air Force from 1964 to 1968 as a Russian voice interceptor and intelligence analyst, said his original intent was to work with veterans coming back from the Vietnam War.
But after graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and while pursuing a master’s degree there, he helped put together a conference on alcoholism and did an internship at a drug-and-alcohol program at St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh.
The experience changed the direction of his career.
He worked at a Gateway Rehabilitation Center in Beaver County, Pa., before coming to Neil Kennedy, where he has been since.
“Over the years, addiction treatment has evolved. We have added detoxification and outreach programs, and recently opened a residential center to support people after detox,” he said. “I was truly blessed for the opportunity to do this.”
As director, he said when he visited a recovery site, he would ask the staff there to tell him about a success story.
“It’s a wonderful thing to get to see the dramatic changes in people’s lives,” he said.
Carter said that is what has sustained him over the years.
“You understand that this illness [addiction] robs people of everything that matters to them, including sometimes their lives,” he said.
But, he said, lots of people get well.
“You learn to focus on that. Once in a while you get a card or run into someone who tells you they have been sober for a certain amount of time,” he said. “You never know who or what moves them to get sober. Your never know the time and place.”
But, he said, people do get well.
In the course of a week, there are hundreds of people who are in and out of the center who are staying well. They are part of the community of people recovering, he said.
In the beginning, clients were mainly addicted to alcohol. But as early as the 1960s and 1970s, there began to be more illegal drug use, Carter said.
During the last 10 years, there has been a real epidemic of opiates, including illegal street and prescription drugs, he said.
Before the 1970s, the majority of clients were male. Now, there are many more females using opiates, and clients are overall a much younger population, Carter said.
Neil Kennedy provides the skills and support to help people get sober, but commitment to sobriety is key, he said.
Also, he said, recovery is much more than stopping using alcohol or drugs.
“They get involved in their community and they help others. They get help by helping others,” he said.
While Carter, 71, of Canfield, is retiring from Neil Kennedy, he plans to do counseling at the Comprehensive Psychiatric Group in Boardman.
He also wants to spend more time with his family. He and his wife, Mary, have a son, Joe of North Hills, Pa.; a daughter, Aimee Smith of Bay Village; and four grandchildren.
“I want to read and walk. I love Mill Creek Park,” he said.