STAR LEDGER
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
BY MAURA McDERMOTT
Star-Ledger Staff
The Market Street Mission in Morristown suspended its drug and
alcohol counseling services yesterday, after the state Department of
Human Services charged the group does not hold a required license.
The mission will continue to provide shelter, meals and other support
for its clients, but will review its programs and eliminate any
counseling activities that are not permitted by the state, said David
Scott, executive director.
"We're trying to figure out what is involved in this," Scott
said. "The question is, what services should we discontinue?"
The group's board planned to discuss the situation at a meeting last
night, Scott said yesterday.
The state agency ordered the group last week to stop counseling
addicts. The mission lacks a license from the agency's Division of
Addiction Services, according to the agency's Feb. 22 letter to the
group. State officials visited the facility on Nov. 1 to determine if
it was providing such services without a license and sent a license
application on Dec. 1, but the group refused to apply, according to
the letter.
The group faces fines up to $2,500 a day if it continues to offer
addiction counseling, said a spokeswoman, Ellen Lovejoy.
Scott said the group holds a "Class E boarding house" license from
the state Department of Community Affairs, which he said permits it
to offer drug and alcohol treatment to its residents. Scott also said
he believes the state cannot interfere with the group's religious
activities, which include its Bible-oriented addiction counseling.
Lovejoy said DCA does not regulate addiction treatment, and that
religious and non-religious groups alike must obey state laws.
Organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous do not need state licenses
since they serve as spiritual and support groups, but formal drug and
alcohol treatment services -- such as the program run by the mission -
- are a different matter, she said.
"They can provide any kind of spiritual counsel they would like to,
but if they're operating and advertising as a substance abuse
treatment program -- especially a residential program -- they must
operate under regulations," she said.
The state regulates counselors' qualifications and the types of
treatment provided, among other aspects of the programs, Lovejoy
said.
The mission's shelter houses as many as 100 men a night, and about 50
to 60 men typically take part in its addiction treatment program,
which teaches work and life skills and offers group and individual
counseling, Scott said.
Scott said he and a supervisor hold master's degrees and state
counseling credentials. Another 10 counselors are working towards
their master's degrees, he said.
The mission began treating alcohol addictions at its Market Street
location in 1889, Scott said. It is linked to a national association
of gospel rescue missions, Scott said.
The state's letter ordering the mission to shut down its addiction
treatment program was cited at a Feb. 22 zoning board meeting in
Asbury Park, by an attorney for a citizens' group fighting the
mission's plans to open a 40-bed homeless shelter in that city.
The attorney, Ron Gasiorowski, said yesterday that the group is
trying to use its religious affiliation to duck state regulations.
"Does that exempt them from being regulated by the state when they
perform services which are not religious in nature but are perhaps
medical in nature, or psychological or psychiatric?" Gasiorowski said
yesterday.
Scott said he believes the state's actions were prompted by the
Asbury Park citizens' group, which filed a lawsuit last year seeking
to block the homeless shelter.
"We're being presented as not law-abiding, not caring," Scott
said. "He's looking for any reason to keep us out."
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