James Ness is carrying around a GPS device he hopes will tell him where not to go.

A recovering drug and alcohol abuser in court-ordered counseling, Ness is equipped with a smartphone that warns him when he's getting near old haunts that fueled his addictions: A north Denver bar. An apartment building packed with hard-partying friends. Enough risky points in Aurora to make him write off the whole city.

And since Ness is deaf, the Global Positioning System application vibrates rather than beeps.

Other applications on the phone give him a "panic" button with direct access to his counselor. If his local adviser isn't available, Ness can link through a video sign-language translator to other trusted friends. Another button offers motivational videos; still another links to a Facebook-style chat with other hearing-impaired clients supporting one another in recovery.

The phone is good cop/bad cop in one. His talks with supportive friends might be interrupted by an automated text from Arapahoe House, his counseling center, reminding Ness that it's his day to give a urine sample.

Ness, 40, is eager to add all the lifelines he can get.

Some of the same technology got the auto mechanic into trouble in the first place, with the wrong kind of Facebook friends and time wasted in YouTube distractions. Ness and Arapahoe House think it's only fair that new grants help the recovery center connect people for the right reasons.

"I'm here for a drinking problem, not to socialize with the wrong friends," said Ness, speaking through an American Sign Language translator at Arapahoe's Thornton clinic.

Arapahoe House, one of the largest detox and treatment centers in the West, is working to expand options for deaf and hard-of-hearing clients.

Many of the new technologies could apply to all clients in need of reminders and lifelines.

The center, though, will first focus the smartphones on deaf clients, using the targeted federal grant and technology developed at the University of Wisconsin.

Eighteen percent of the general population is hard of hearing, said Arapahoe deputy director Art Schut. Addiction problems in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community probably reflect the wider population, but deaf clients have higher readmission rates for treatment, he said.

Arapahoe treated 65 deaf and hard-of-hearing clients last year.

Ness said he has sat in group meetings with hearing clients, frustrated at trying to communicate his true experience or feelings. New technology can draw in more clients like him to those meetings, and also let him sign with counselors, friends and translators when he's away.

Schut said Arapahoe continually looks at where it is "unfriendly" to clients in need, and deaf communications was one of them. He also notes a National Academy of Sciences study on substance abuse saying 2 4/7 access for patients is a key to successful treatment.

"This technology brings that possibility to bear," Schut said.

The treatment center hopes to extend the technology to nearly 140 people over three years. Melissa Hickerson, a counseling supervisor at Arapahoe's Thornton location, showed Ness some of the features she wants him to try.

One of the applications developed by the Wisconsin researchers prompts the phone user to weekly surveys on their mood and behavior. If a client like Ness punches in a "5," saying he has been getting no sleep, the app immediately notifies a counselor who can reach out to Ness for quick help.

The clients are largely in charge of their "bad" or high-risk locations for the GPS warning feature. But counselors can encourage them to add in locations, if they aren't being honest with themselves about where trouble is coming from.

Arapahoe doesn't use the GPS feature to track clients as if it were a punitive ankle bracelet. It does reserve screening power, though, over photos clients might upload, and on the circles of friends within support groups.

Ness works through the phone lessons and then gives a thumbs-up, saying he's not only going to learn the apps but urge them on other deaf friends who aren't admitting their problems.

"I'm going to go for it," he signs.