Drug woes nix juvvy anger help

A local juvenile anger management program will no longer be available to parents or courts in Lafourche Parish.

The Fire and Ice program offered by the Thibodaux-based Bayou Council on Alcoholism lost its funding during the state legislative session completed in June. BCOA was unsuccessful in finding another funding source, so Fire and Ice has been terminated.

The program, started in 2005, was funded through a grant from the Louisiana Office of Addictive Disorders.

“They decided their focus would no longer be on anger management,” said executive director Jackie Myers. “They wanted more emphasis on the substance abuse culture.”

Juveniles ended up in Fire and Ice either through voluntary placement from their parents and guardians or from a judge’s order.

Approximately 50 youths were in the program last year, according to Myers.

The juveniles participated in weekly two-hour therapy sessions for five weeks to address conflict management, build trust and understand anger and stress.

The juvenile’s family paid a $25 fee to be enrolled in the program and the rest was paid by the grant.

Myers said BCOA considered increasing the fees to continue Fire and Ice but did not think families would go along with that.

“We would have had to raise fees to about $150,” Myers said. “The families in need of this program would not have been able to afford that.”

Lafourche Parish District Judge John E. LeBlanc said losing the program is a blow to the court system because it lacks other resources to place children with anger management issues.

“We have limited resources for these juveniles, and I thought that was a worthwhile program to teach children how to deal with anger issues,” he said.

The Lafourche Parish School System has its own program for students who have anger management issues in the classroom. Off campus, the court will need to find another avenue to deal with such children.

“As far as an outside resource, we either have to do it through possibly Casa Hope or private counseling, but we can’t order private counseling,” LeBlanc insisted.

The remainder of BCOA’s programs will continue to receive funding from the Office of Addictive Disorders – Fireworks, which is the adult anger management program, Alcohol Information School (English and Spanish versions), Alcohol Education Program, Families in Focus and Parent Education.