Flat funding afflicts substance treatment

Statewide, the largest population of substance abusers unable to access treatment falls in the Sauk Valley and its neighboring communities in northern Illinois, according to a survey funded by the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association. The report, "Waiting for Treatment: a Survey of State-Funded Treatment Facilities in Illinois, 2008" tallied waiting lists at state-funded care centers, sometimes hundreds of names long, and many of which turn away drug- and alcohol-dependent people seeking treatment because of a lack of staff and space. Nearly as many people north and west of the suburbs sat on waiting lists as those in Chicago and the collar counties combined, the report showed, and the number of people on those lists has rise