This new residential addiction recovery house will be the first in Whatcom in decades
After identifying it as a need nearly five years ago, Whatcom County is expected to open a residential treatment program soon for people recovering from addiction.
The Recovery House is slated to open sometime in June in the Lettered Streets neighborhood, according to Anne Deacon, human services manager with the Whatcom County Health Department, and Greg Winter, executive director of the Opportunity Council.
The Recovery House will provide stable housing and counseling services for up to 16 men who are in the process of substance use disorder recovery, according to Deacon and Winter. It will also be geared towards people who are struggling with co-occurring disorders, such as addictions and behavioral health disorders, they said.
The Opportunity Council is the owner, property manager and developer of the facility, while Lifeline Connections will operate and provide the behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment, Winter said in an interview with The Bellingham Herald. Lifeline Connections will be on-site providing staffing and treatment services 24/7, Deacon said in an interview with The Bellingham Herald.
It will cost around $900,000 a year to operate, according to information provided by Winter.
PeaceHealth also donated land and property it owned on I Street and Girard Street to the Opportunity Council for the program, Winter said.
Working together, the organizations were able to partner and create a program that provides stable housing and ongoing treatment in a residential setting, Winter said. The program will also include services that help people gain employment and attain educational and other life goals, he said.
“It’s the first time we’ve had a recovery house type of program since the early 2000s,” Winter said. “I hope we discover that this program is a great success and we’ll be able to replicate it and build capacity for more recovery houses.”
Reducing incarceration
Winter said the idea for the Recovery House was borne out of conversations he had as a member of the county’s Incarceration Prevention and Reduction Task Force.
Winter said while talking in 2017 with former Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis, they discussed providing housing options for clients currently participating in the county’s therapeutic drug and mental health court programs. The county health department also identified residential treatment programs as a need in its county-wide behavioral health assessment in 2016, Deacon said.
Winter said the program will ultimately help with providing alternatives to incarceration. Several of the people involved in the drug or mental health court programs are homeless or have housing that is unstable, Winter said. If they don’t have a stable place to live where they can work on their goals when they return from inpatient treatment, it’s less likely they’ll be successful in their recovery, he said.
“What was compelling to me and made Opportunity Council want to pursue this unique project was it addresses three really important community needs and goals around homelessness, incarceration prevention and the opioid crisis,” Winter said. “This is what we believe is going to be an effective and creative partnership to try to address all three of those issues.”
Residents of the Recovery House will have to meet clinical and medical needs required for entry into the program, Deacon said. The average stay will be around six months and it’s a program geared for people who have already been through inpatient or outpatient treatment programs and need continued therapeutic support, she said.
The program will likely work on a referral for admission process, with priority going to people involved in the county drug court program, Deacon said. Lifeline Connections will also be able to help address mental health needs of those staying at the house, she said. The goal is to keep people moving toward the goal of recovery, while preparing for life after the Recovery House, she said.
“For us, we work very hard to build systems of care in the community and this is another component in the system of care,” Deacon said. “This is a best practice for supporting people in the later stages of recovering and in achieving their goals.”
Deacon said while she hopes the Recovery House won’t have to turn anyone away due to reaching capacity, the person’s current provider would work with them to keep them stable and working on their goals while they are placed on a wait-list.
A level of care
Deacon said there used to be a program similar to the Recovery House in Whatcom County several years ago, but it closed due to a lack of funding.
Commercial insurance didn’t typically cover residential treatment programs such as this, and the reimbursement from Medicaid was so low, no service providers could afford to operate the programs, she said. The state later changed the rates for what Deacon said are “critical services” and now managed care organizations and funders have the ability to adjust rates to actually cover the costs of operating programs such as this, she said.
Because it’s a residential treatment program, funding will come from insurance companies, health plans and Medicaid, Deacon said. There is also additional money in the state’s general fund for people who have no coverage whatsoever, she said.
“It’s pretty exciting to actually give people the level of care they need to achieve stable recovery,” Deacon said. “Addiction impacts the brain in significant ways. It takes over and clouds the part of the brain that does the judgment and decision-making. It takes a long time to rediscover the pathways … and help people really be able to manage recovery. It just takes time.”
“We’re really excited to be able to offer this to our community,” Deacon added. “It’s part of our strategic plan to improve behavioral health services to our residents, and it’s another goal achieved.”
