Is the county wasting taxpayer money with reconation therapy?

To the Editor:

Alcoholics Anonymous and Drug Addicts Anonymous are already available at in-person meetings and on telephone help-lines. Nonetheless, at their Jan. 2, 2024 meeting, the commissioners appropriated $13,000 to fund “Renconation Therapy” at Wahkiakum Health and Human Services. The treatment method has not been peer reviewed and no treatment outcomes have been published. I so informed the commissioners on December 29, 2023.

In their evaluation of “Renconation Therapy”, its creators and evaluators at the Nebraska Center for Justice Research focused on reporting how many of their study subjects (n=1,418) completed the program. No treatment outcomes were reported. The description of the program uses “could” and “might” – words that do not reflect confidence in the program even by its creators.

It seems to me that the commissioners failed to exercise due care and that they, without diligent investigation of the program, approved the spending of, what is after all, our tax money.

Ursula Petralia

Skamokawa