This is an excerpt from the radio show Our Metropolis, a half-hour issues and affairs program that airs Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and is hosted by Las Vegas Life editor John Katsilometes. Tune in next week to hear the rest of this interview with We Care Foundation Director Lynn Tynan and Donna B., a woman who recently graduated from the center’s 30-day alcoholism and drug addiction treatment program for women, which opened in 1961 (for information, call 369-0613):
Lynn, first, how did We Care get its start?
It was put together by some women in a 12-step program, Alcoholics Anonymous, who felt they needed a facility just for women. For 22 years it was located where the 95 freeway meets Downtown Las Vegas; then we had eminent domain move us out to where we are now, which is at 6th Street and Sahara. This one has been pretty stable, being in the same spot for 25 years. We’re just a loving home for women to help other women. We give them a lot of love, but a lot of discipline and a good 12-step program.
How does someone become admitted to We Care?
First, they have to be interviewed on the phone to see if they’ve detoxed yet. Since we’re not a medical facility, we have to make sure they are off alcohol or drugs for at least three to seven days, depending on what their addiction level was. We have excellent [recovery] meetings every day at 10 a.m., and they have to come to the meeting and then be interviewed by myself or my assistant director. And we can tell if they’re ready to change, if they’re ready to take direction, if they’ve surrendered and realize they will die, or end up in prison, or end up in an insane asylum if they keep drinking or doing drugs. We get many referrals from families, from the AA community, from parole and probation officers, from Child Protective Services, from the jails, from the judges, from the detox centers, from all over, even from out of state because we’ve been open for so long.
Donna, what led you to We Care?
I took my first drink when I was 15, and it was a disaster from there. Five years ago I got into a lot of trouble—I got into a DUI accident. I broke the ankle of the woman I hit, and that made it a felony DUI. At the time, I was going through a very bad divorce, and I wound up going to prison. Before that, when I was fighting my DUI, I went to We Care, and I didn’t understand the disease, and it took me a long time to understand what I was facing. I drank my entire marriage, crossed that invisible line, and pretty soon I was out of control. I lost everything, and it all came down on me pretty quickly. The first time I tried to get sober, I left after 17 days and wound up overdosing and on life support. … I thank God I didn’t kill this woman I hit. It took me a long time to get over the shame, but I have filled the hole in my heart with love. I’m 33 days sober today. I was pushed, pulled, kicked and dragged in, but now it is so much better than it was.