El Rio Made Many Rivers Flow in the Desert
By Harry Steenwerth
Thirty-five years ago, the El Rio Treatment Program opened as the first intensive outpatient alternative to incarceration for people arrested for crack. Since that time, El Rio has served as one of the most professional, successful, and compassionate treatment programs in New York City.
El Rio offered compassionate, state-of-the-art, evidence-based therapies that assisted literally thousands upon thousands of people who came to us for help in overcoming their substance use disorders and avoiding prison terms for their open legal cases. Our clinical counselors and non-clinical staff worked together every day to make El Rio a safe, welcoming, place of healing.
Throughout those years, we had actively held fabulous graduations. We went on prosocial trips to museums, saw uplifting movies, cheered on the Mets (including one memorable afternoon game where 20 clients managed to avoid cursing the opposing team because we were seated near fifth graders), and held our yearly El Rio picnic at Orchard Beach. We held marvelous, dignified events at 809 Westchester Avenue to celebrate our graduates and encourage clients to keep working towards their treatment goals.
Reflections from Graduates
As news of our closure went out, I heard from several clients who shared sadness and their heartfelt gratitude.
One said: “... because of El Rio I learned to love myself and to be brave enough to change my former ways. I got sober. I got my kids back from foster care and I got a good-paying job. I couldn’t have done it without the counselors at El Rio.”
Another said: “... During COVID, my dear wife passed and I was ready to give up treatment. My mother took care of my son because I was not in shape to help anyone. My counselor and I spoke every day and I learned that I was stronger than I ever thought. Yes, I did relapse, but the program supported me in getting sober again. My son came back to live with me. He just started college and wants to be a therapist.”
One graduate told me this when I first met him: “I’ve been going to prison and sniffing cocaine since 1965, so don’t expect me to do anything except show up.”
However, he did much more than just show up. He became so active in groups that he became the elder statesman among our community. After going to many other programs over the years, he told me, “This is the first place where someone asked for my opinion and didn’t argue with me. The courses taught me to be strong enough to refuse to get high and I avoided people who still got high. For the first time in over 60 years, I stopped using and drinking.”
His change was also apparent to the judge and DA in his open case. Instead of dropping the felony charge to a misdemeanor (the original offer after completion of El Rio), the judge dropped all of his charges and he walked out of court as a free person. Our elder statesman came back to El Rio and shared his good news with our community, who gave him a standing ovation. We never, ever gave up on anyone.
Unstoppable Commitment
When COVID hit, El Rio continued to serve our beloved community without interruption of services or compromising our dedication to our clients. With the help of a stellar IT team, we became experts at delivering telehealth services while partnering with our legal referral sources so that our clients could continue to meet their legal mandates to attain and maintain their healthy recoveries. El Rio did not close during COVID-19 – not for one day.
Over the years, I have encountered the most decent people that I ever met: our clients and staff. We treated each client with unconditional positive regard. The staff learned from one another and made sure that we put the clients’ best interests first.
We fought hard to keep our clients alive, healthy, and out of prison. We advocated outpatient treatment over inpatient treatment for clients who relapsed because there are scores of studies that prove that outpatient treatment keeps the client close to their family and able to continue working, and builds self-confidence. When circumstances required otherwise, we welcomed discharged clients back with open arms and together we found a way to get them back on track.
Rivers of Hope
I am very grateful for the time I spent in El Rio and that our community lives on in the hearts of all of us who accepted change and embraced health.
So many rivers of hope and recovery stemming from El Rio brought cooling waters where once a desert of despair existed. Those rivers still robustly run in the lifeblood of the families that reunited, in a graduate who went on to college and became a nurse, in a graduate who owns of a bicycle shop and employs three full-time associates, and in the many, many graduates who went on to become treatment counselors to help others along their journeys.
Harry Steenwerth served the El Rio community for over 11 years, most recently as Program Director.