New Long Island recovery residence aims to help young adults, who are most in need of alcohol and drug treatment

Bobby Eising was 14 when he began drinking while growing up in Bellmore. He'd consume up to 25 beers in a night, but never sought help for his alcohol addiction until he was 27. Since then, Eising, 38, has been through multiple residential and outpatient treatment programs.

He wishes he had gotten assistance earlier, and at a young adult recovery residence like the one that was inaugurated Thursday in Brentwood.

"I think it would have saved me years, honestly, of going in and out, in and out," he said.

The new residence, exclusively for people ages 18 to 25 with drug and alcohol addictions, reflects increasing recognition that treatment of that age group — the most vulnerable to substance abuse — has a greater potential for success if it is tailored to young adults' distinctive needs, experts said.

The 25-bed residence, run by Outreach, a Queens-based nonprofit, will be New York’s second targeted solely at young adults, said Dr. Chinazo Cunningham, commissioner of the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports. The first is in Buffalo.

"Young people have unique challenges," Cunningham said. "It’s certainly a big time of change for them in terms of their development."

Nearly 27% of people ages 18 to 25 in 2024 met the criteria for needing substance use treatment in the previous year, according to estimates from that year's National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

That’s a far higher number than for adolescents and older adults, who also were much more likely to receive treatment than young adults, researchers found. Only about 11% of adults ages 18 to 25 who needed treatment got it.

The new residence will open to those getting treatment when it receives final state regulatory approval, likely by the end of the year, said John Venza, Outreach’s vice president of residential and business development.

Currently, young adults live with older people in Outreach treatment residences in Brentwood, but, Venza said, "They’re kind of like a fish out of water. They don't relate to a lot of what the 35-, 40-, 50-, 60-, 70-year-olds are talking about."

Researchers at the state addiction office are unaware of data that compares treatment effectiveness at residences that house only young adults with those where adults of all ages live, agency spokesman Evan Frost said.

Venza also said he's unaware of any study, because there are few programs from which to draw data.

He said young adults in Outreach residential facilities have a lower rate of success — defined as no longer needing residential treatment — than people in other age groups. That's in part because they are, research shows, more impulsive than older adults, so they are more likely to reject clinical advice to stay in residential treatment, he said.

In addition, older adults "probably endured a rougher road," he said. "They want to get their life together."

The state provided more than half the $9.6 million in construction and related costs for the new Brentwood residence and is contributing $1 million a year in operating expenses, in part to help pay for uninsured people and those whose insurance companies won’t pay for their entire stays, said David Vizzini, Outreach’s chief administrative officer.

The residence is for anyone with substance abuse problems, he said. But people with opioid addictions will be prioritized, because of the higher potential for a fatal overdose, he said.

Overdose deaths in New York fell sharply last year, but hundreds of people on Long Island still die from overdoses each year, state and county data show. Most deaths involve the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, either taken alone or when mixed with cocaine or other drugs.

Many people don’t realize fentanyl is in the drug they’re taking, or don’t know how much there is, Cunningham said.

"Adolescents and young adults have been experimenting [with drugs and alcohol] for centuries, but because the drug supply now has fentanyl and other adulterants, it's certainly much more risky and deadly than ever before," she said.

Venza’s 21-year-old son died of an overdose in 2016 from fentanyl-laced heroin after what appeared to be a single relapse following more than a year of not using — illustrating both the lethality of fentanyl and how drug misuse can happen in any family, Venza said.

Brain still developing

Preventing addiction early is critical, because the younger someone is when they begin experimenting with drugs, the more likely they are to become addicted, Cunningham said. The brain is not fully developed until age 25, and "when you start using substances, and you use them frequently, the circuitry of the brain starts to become rewired," she said.

Among the parts of the brain not fully developed is the one that "has to do a lot with judgment, impulse control, the ability to think things through," said Dr. Sandra Gomez-Luna, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. When an adolescent or young adult starts using drugs and alcohol, "they have less ability to kind of put the brakes on it," and they’re less able to recognize that their use has become problematic, she said.

In addition, young adults are more susceptible to peer pressure than older adults, and they’re more likely to be surrounded by others who use drugs or alcohol heavily, which normalizes the behavior, Gomez-Luna said.

Too often, though, young adults "receive care alongside older adults with little consideration of their unique developmental needs," according to the 2021 expert review.

Outreach hasn't yet opened up admissions to the new residence. But, Vizzini said, "We've been hounded by providers asking, 'When are you available? When do you open? We want to bring people here.' There's a strong need for this type of program."

Some of the residents will be self-referrals, Venza said. Others may be referred by hospitals, outpatient programs and courts, he said.

Learning life skills

For example, addiction often causes young people to fall behind in learning basic life skills for independent living, so they may need help in grooming, hygiene and maintaining a living space, as well as need vocational training and education, said Nicolle Vasselman, an alcohol and substance abuse counselor and chief program officer for Garden City-based Family & Children’s Association.

The association in 2021 launched an outpatient program for adults ages 18 to 25, and Vasselman said, anecdotally, it appears as if young adults who go through the program have had more success living independently and maintaining their recovery compared with other young adults. The more confidence someone has in living on their own, the more sustainable their recovery is likely to be, she said.

As Venza walked through the new Brentwood residence, he pointed to a classroom that will be used for GED and other educational courses. It’s down the hall from the laundry room where residents will wash their clothes, and down a flight of stairs from a kitchen where they can learn how to cook.

On the second floor are bedrooms, with a door separating women from men that will be locked at night.

Many young adults live with their parents, making it crucial to involve family in treatment, Venza said. There will be counseling sessions with just family members, and with family members together with the client, he said. Parents will be taught how to communicate effectively and help their children maintain their recovery.

If someone makes great progress while at a recovery residence but "they go home to a relatively unchanged family system," Venza said, "a lot of that good work gets undone."

Eising was living with his grandfather in Mineola when police arrested him at age 19 for driving while intoxicated.

"I think my family would have sent me straight here after that, if they could have," he said while sitting in the new residence's multipurpose room.

Eising, who said he's been sober since June, currently lives in Outreach’s adult male residence down the road from the young adult building. He is tired of the revolving door of treatment and has never been as confident as he is now that he can put problem drinking behind him. Eising said he has supportive family members, including his three nieces.

"They love me to death, and I just want to show them a better version of me," he said.