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This Row: ITP Program Director Fred Farrar gives out certificates with the help of ITP Counselor Ashley Johnson and the ladies reflect on a job well done.
By Editor Becky Watts
ZEBULON - George Eliot wrote, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” Yesterday, at the first graduation ceremony of the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program (RSAT) at West Central Integrated Treatment Facility, the family and friends of Paige Norwoood, Laura Wise, Anne Marie Marshall, Alisa Jones, Sheila Williams, and Shalena Bowles witnessed a new beginning. Six graduates dressed in light blue caps and gowns walked into the room with heads held high and smiles that lit up the entire room.
The guest speaker, Dinethra Sutton, drove 200 miles to speak before the graduates and their guests, West Central Integrated Treatment Facility employees, Spectrum Health Systems, Inc. employees, and officials from the State Department of Corrections. Dinethra is a 2008 RSAT graduate who began her testimony of encouragement to the graduates by saying, “If I hadn’t went through what I went through, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.”
Dinethra told how an endless cycle of addiction brought her to the RSAT program and how she became a part of something there. There, she learned and came to believe that she was no longer a victim. As a part of the RSAT program, she also learned how to be a leader, and she learned how to follow directions. She praised the counselors and those in the RSAT program who saw more in her than she saw in herself.
Dinethra learned that God had a purpose for her and credits God with giving her victory through each part of the program. The day that she walked out of the facility “was the first day of the rest of my life,” she said. Her encouragement to the new graduates included calling them survivors and encouraging them to take this opportunity to live their lives. “You are going home to a new world, and things that you learned here can carry you for the rest of your life.”
Dinethra has completed her short-term goals and is working on her long-term goals now. She has been instrumental in bringing Narcotics Anonymous and long-term help through a women’s home in her area. “I don’t want what God has brought me through to be in vain,” she said.
Three of the graduates read remarks and poems to those who were present. Many thanks were given to Warden Edd Sanders, the staff and counselors who helped bring these ladies through their treatment, and to their families for standing by them as they worked through and graduated from the program. The smiles and tears and celebration marked the end of their treatment and a lot of hard work.
Warden Sanders ended out the program by talking about Saul’s conversion to Paul in Acts 9. He said that Paul’s friends looked after him and took care of him. He said that the same would be true for these graduates though it was not going to be easy for them either. He ended with a challenge, “Run the good race, fight the good fight, and keep the faith.”
West Central Integrated Treatment Facility is a nine month Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Center with an emphasis on dual diagnosis, which is the occurrence of a substance abuse problem and a psychiatric disorder such as depression or bipolar disorder. Residents are taught how to deal with the substance abuse problem and they get help with their psychiatric disorders at the same time so they can return to their families and their communities and become a productive part of their community again. Residents can also earn their GED and attend parenting classes as a part of the RSAT program. To read more about this facility and the help that it provides, click here.