About every 20 minutes, someone in Texas is hurt or killed in a vehicle crash involving alcohol. According to National Highway Transportation Safety Administration data, Texas led the nation in 2016 with 1,438 drunk-driving deaths.
San Antonio tops the state in DWI traffic accidents and deaths. Bexar County’s Health Department estimates that of the 1.7 million people living in the county, more than 200,000 suffer from substance use disorders. Of those, only 10,000 seek treatment each year.
“Experience has shown that the sooner people with substance use disorders are connected to services, the shorter their substance use tends to be, the shorter-lived the negative consequences of those patterns, and the better their chances at long-term recovery tend to become,” said Lifetime Recovery Director of Development Denise Powers. “Inpatient or outpatient treatment remains a most effective method to combat these alarming trends.”
Most people registered in Lifetime Recovery’s programs are medically and financially underserved. Lifetime received a $4,000 grant from the Sundt Foundation last year to expand the work it does in Texas’ largest city and the surrounding area.
“This gift enabled us to provide someone 26.66 days of treatment programming and services for substance use disorders,” Denise said.
Lifetime has numerous success stories. “Mike” entered treatment for alcohol abuse and turned his life around.
“Lifetime saved my life,” he said. “I am now working a full-time job and have returned to San Antonio College to study for a degree in counseling. And best of all, I was able to participate in my daughter’s wedding. I love attending Lifetime Recovery’s family event. I am truly happy being clean and sober today.”
This is part of a series of blogs about the positive impacts made by the Sundt Foundation.