Brownsville, TX—Lisa is a loving mother of four, holds two part-time jobs and is a recovering alcoholic.
“Drugs were but a symptom of my disease. I was driven to use drugs and alcohol to ease my emotional pain, the pain of not being good enough or fitting in, the pain of past mistakes and people who hurt me,” Lisa said.
In 10th grade, Lisa was skipping school, smoking marijuana and drinking. By age 22, she was on meth-amphetamine and cocaine, and had lived through an overdose, an abusive relationship, sexual assault and an abduction.
“Even though I was raised by the most loving parents a person could ask for, I still had low selfesteem and little confidence,” Lisa said, “(but) I knew drugs only led to three places ... jails, institutions and death.”
Having tried the first two, she was not about to wait for the last.
On May 24, 1984, Lisa made an appointment at the Palmer Drug Abuse Program in Brownsville to get help.
“Through the people at PDAP, I was shown unconditional love. It was such a relief to know that I was not alone, that there was hope,” Lisa said.
The Palmer Drug Abuse Program or PDAP, the only non-profit, spiritually based program for combating substance abuse in the city, on June 27 celebrated its 25th anniversary of helping people like Lisa overcome their dependence on drugs.
Since its start in 1982, it has been a safe haven for users, as its “absolutely free” sign over the front desk and gray welcome mat with ‘drugs’ scratched out in red might indicate.
“(Drug users) need a place where they can get away from all the negative influences,” said PDAP Administrative Director Dalilah Garcia.
Garcia, who has an 11-year-old son, said she first got involved when she saw a need for the program and because she wants “a safe community for (her) son to grow up in.”
That need for a program arose in the early 1980s, when Pace High School counselors found they were not properly trained to counsel a junior girl using drugs, said former Pace counselor Lenora Rentfro.
“She wasn’t the only one, but she threatened suicide,” Rentfro admitted. “There was no place in Brownsville to take a teenager (using drugs) at that time.”
Pace staff sought Howard and Joan Conkey, licensed counselors, for advice. They referred the girl to a Houston hospital with a PDAP.
PDAP originated in Houston in 1971 at the Palmer Episcopal Church, but through the combined efforts of the Conkeys and Pace staff, a committee that would eventually start one here was created in 1982.
“Counselors recognized a problem. Nobody wanted to do something about it. Everyone wanted to bury it,” Joan Conkey said.
But in 1983, the committee raised $60,000 to open the first PDAP center behind Trinity Church.
“We didn’t have any long-term plans. We had no idea it would still be here now,” Conkey said.
The program has expanded to include youth, family, Spanish and 18-andover counseling groups for alcohol and all other drugs.
There is now a program and administrative director, a board of trustees, 10 volunteers and four facilitators that run the meetings. The programming staff are all in recovery from using or from the effects of a loved one using.
“Anyone can join at any time,” Garcia said.
The program is spiritually based, having started at an Episcopal church, but it is a nonsectarian organization.
“I guess we may discriminate against an atheist, because we believe you can’t change by yourself without help from a higher power,” Garcia said, referring to their own spiritual version of Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12 Steps to Recovery, which PDAP uses.
“When we say God, it means whatever God that person believes in,” Garcia said. “Each person defines their own God.”
Like all agencies, it has had high and low periods, Conkey said.
In 2005, PDAP declared it would close, unless it could raise enough funds for another year, Garcia said.
Now, PDAP is funded primarily through funds from the city, United Way grants, private donations and court-deferred fines.
“The program has continued because of the support from the community and city,” Garcia said and it will continue to exist “as long as people want help.”
The Brownsville Herald
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