It may look like just another building under construction in downtown Louisville, but the work happening at 1020 West Market Street is far from ordinary.
The Healing Place is wrapping up a $ 29 million expansion of the men’ s campus in order to better meet the needs of our community. For the past four years, our detox unit has been turning away an average of 200 to 300 men every month. This is a direct correlation to the opioid epidemic plaguing Louisville, the Commonwealth of Kentucky and much of our nation.
The 2017 Overdose Fatality Report, published by the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy, found that 1,565 people lost their lives in Kentucky due to an overdose last year; 426 in Jefferson County alone. Fentanyl was reported in 49 percent of the deaths statewide and in 64 percent of Jefferson County’ s deadly overdoses.
What happens to those who get turned away when they are ready to start the recovery process? Some of them wait another day to sober up. Some wind up at the hospital or in jail. Others end up as a statistic.“ Men who return to the streets today are at a very high risk for overdose and contracting serious illnesses related to addiction and violence,” says Karyn Hascal, President of The Healing Place.“ We feel a responsibility to the community to respond to the need.”
Since our current women’ s campus opened in 2009, we have had 48 total beds available for detox – 24 on each campus. With 48 beds total, The Healing Place has operated the city’ s second-largest detox facility; the largest is Metro Corrections. The expansion of our men’ s campus changes their bed count from 24 to 50. There will never be enough beds, but 26 more will help.
The expansion also adds nearly 200 beds to The Healing Place’ s long-term recovery program, which has been recognized by the US Department of Health and Human Services as a“ Model That Works.”
“ The expansion of the men’ s campus is a testimony to the need for recovery for men and that our social model for recovery is extremely effective and efficient in saving lives,” says Jay Davidson, Chairman and Process Founder.
The expansion of our men’ s campus is about more than just the demand for our services. Our unique approach to recovery gives our clients the gift of time. In our recovery program, they get six to nine months or more to sit down and work on themselves. While at The Healing Place, our clients are connected to support services like education and process classes, accountability, and life skills. The time clients spend in our recovery program allows for a behavior modification to begin.“ We do not treat alcohol and drugs here at The Healing Place. We treat people who have addictions. That takes time and love in the form of peer support,” says Doug Scott, Director of Giving.
Because of generous support from the community, we are able to offer our services at no cost to the clients. We want there to be as few barriers to recovery as possible. Because of the unique nature of our program, The Healing Place is able to make every dollar count and operate at a cost of $ 25 per client per day. For every dollar that is donated to The Healing Place, 82 cents goes directly into program services. Scott says,“ The need in our community is so great, we are very good at helping people address the need and we are affordably scalable – and that makes us the best to expand to meet the challenge and the demand.”
As we head into our 30 th year, The Healing Place would not be what it is without the help of the Greater Louisville Medical Society and our founding physicians.“ The Healing Place would not exist at all were it not for GLMS,” says Hascal. Members of GLMS continue to support our efforts with time, talent and treasure. GLMS members have four seats on our Board of Directors and doctors continue to volunteer in our free medical clinic and provide supervision for medical students, who complete a rotation in our clinic.
Dr. Will Ward is a founder of The Healing Place. He says that what is happening today is far beyond the imagination of what he and the other founding physicians foresaw when creating the Jefferson County Medical Outreach Program, which later became The Healing Place.“ It amazes me that just one idea could lead to what is happening right now and what The Healing Place is today,” says Ward.“ The doctors 30 years ago were in an ideal position to bring together community resources to work on social problems within their community. That helped to lead the growth and development of The Healing Place.”
Phase One of the men’ s campus expansion was completed at the end of 2017, with clients moving in from the small two-story facility at 1020 West Market into a much larger four-story building next door. The original building was demolished in January to make room for Phase Two of the project, which adds another four-story wing. That new addition includes a free medical clinic, classrooms and, most importantly, more beds to help those who are seeking recovery.
Throughout two years of construction, The Healing Place has been able to operate at full capacity, serving 250 men at the men’ s campus every day. Right now, there are 700 men and women in a bed every night across three campuses. Once the new building is ready, that number will be close to 1,000. That will be 1,000 men and women who have a warm bed, a hot meal, fresh clothes, and a new life in recovery.
“ While we know that we cannot be the whole answer to the problem of addiction in our community, we can work to be a larger piece of the solution,” says Hascal.
By continuing to grow and expand services, The Healing Place will continue to be there for those who are reaching out for help … just like we have been for 29 years.
To learn more about The Healing Place and the expansion of the men’ s campus, please visit www. thehealingplace. org.
Laci Comer is The Healing Place’ s Communications Specialist.
FEATURE
SEPTEMBER 2018 9