The Four County ADAMHS Board approved $500,000 in funding to build a comprehensive addiction treatment facility on seven acres along Commerce Drive in Napoleon during Thursday’s ADAMhs Board meeting (December 10).
According to ADAMHS Board CEO Les McCaslin, Napoleon city manager Monica Irelan has pledged strong support and is exploring unspecified financial incentives to assist the project.
The facility would be owned and operated by A Renewed Mind Behavioral Health, which is headquartered in Toledo and provides treatment services in Lucas, Wood and Hancock counties as well as locally. The agency has operated Fresh Start, a men’s residential addiction program, in Alvordton in Williams County for nearly a year.
The new facility in Napoleon, which will be called The Renewal Center, would house the full range of ambulatory detox services, including a 16 bed residential component, outpatient services, and on-site recovery housing, to provide a continuum of care for addiction services that all ADAMHS boards in Ohio will be required to provide by the end of next year.
According to McCaslin, the anticipated completion date is next fall. When the new facility opens, the Fresh Start program located in Alvordton will no longer be operated by A Renewed Mind.
“We have been working on a project like this for nearly two years,” McCaslin said. “Ever since the state expanded the range of addiction services that boards must provide, we have been looking for a partner to work with to meet those requirements. A Renewed Mind has a long, successful history of providing these services, and we have had a good working relationship with them since they took over the operation of Fresh Start earlier this year.”
A Renewed Mind, a faith-based 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 2007 and has served more than 5,000 clients since then.
According to McCaslin, the agency is known for its timely access to care and integrated approach. A major provider in northwest Ohio, the agency has been at the forefront of innovative addiction and mental health care, especially in the current opiate epidemic that has impacted northwest Ohio.
Matthew D. Rizzo, MSW, MPA, LISW-S, president and chief executive officer of A Renewed Mind, says that the Napoleon facility has been designed to meet significant needs in the community, including the need for medically supervised detox services that are integrated with quality outpatient addiction and mental health care.
The initial construction phase will provide onsite assessment, residential addiction treatment, detoxification services and outpatient behavioral health treatment. As part of the project’s second phase, recovery housing will be built on the site for men needing supportive, sober living.
The residential treatment section of the facility, which is part of the first phase of construction, will be able to serve 16 men at a time, with an expected stay of 90 days for treatment.
The Renewal Center will also be able to accommodate 3 to 5 individuals at a time under medical supervision. To further support the detoxification period, concurrent outpatient care will be provided by onsite counselors and case management staff.
Ongoing counseling and community support will follow as needed. Rizzo said that the facility is expected to employ 30 individuals.
According to McCaslin, the new facility will both increase access to needed care in the area and save the Four County ADAMHs Board and area residents money by creating local capacity to provide services that have been outsourced to inpatient facilities in other counties or cared for by hospitals — both at much higher rates.
McCaslin also updated the board on state psychiatric hospital usage. He said the board was 164 days under budget through the first quarter of the year.
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