Grant sought for local drug recovery center

A taskforce of local drug prevention activists has joined with the Morgan County Commission in seeking a $276,800 grant to turn a former War Memorial Hospital office building into a drug recovery center.

The former administrator’s home and Home Health office, a white clapboard house situated on the hospital campus, had been slated for demolition because it needs extensive repairs.

But it may get a second life — this time housing recovering drug addicts who are trying to stay healthy and clean.

The grant, offered by the West Virginia Division of Criminal Justice and the West Virginia Partnership to Promote Community Well-being, would be earmarked almost exclusively for renovation of the aging house to make it suitable as a peer recovery center.

The renovation would have to be completed by the end of 2010, according to county grant writer Carol York.

The aging wooden building belongs to the Morgan County Commission as part of the War Memorial Hospital campus.

Through its Building Commission, the Morgan County Commission has officially agreed to let the Partnership use the building for a peer recovery center. The county board would review that use annually, said York.

First step of many
Project manager Susan Caperton, who directs the Morgan County Partnership, said getting the grant would be the first step on a lengthy path to bring a recovery center here.

The Partnership does drug and alcohol prevention work with Morgan County youth.

As far as Caperton knows, Morgan County submitted one of only five project applications being considered for the grant. She’s been told that one or two of the projects will be funded this year.

Peer recovery center
Work at the center would be based on the model of The Healing Place, a drug treatment center in Louisville, Ky., said Caperton.
Local members of the Healing Taskforce brought a representative of that drug center to Morgan County last year, and liked what they heard about the program.

At the Healing Place, addicts who have been clean for some time help those who have just gotten off of drugs get used to a drug-free life.
The peer recovery model emphasizes group interactions, and increasing levels of responsibility for addicts as they continue to stay drug-free.
Caperton said the center wouldn’t provide the initial detox or initial medical treatment needed to break addicts of their dependency on drugs. Instead, a local center would be a place for those who are further along the path of recovery. The center would likely serve 24 people per year, according to the grant documents.

Engage the community
While there is a clear need for drug treatment services in Morgan County and surrounding communities, Caperton knows it will be crucial to involve neighbors, businesses and local leaders in the development of a Berkeley Springs recovery center.

“We’re not operating in a vacuum,” she said.
It would be natural for some in the residential neighborhood area surrounding the hospital to be worried about having a house full of admitted addicts in their neighborhood, Caperton acknowledged.
Talking about those concerns and designing a recovery program will go hand in hand.

“That’s when we’d need to engage the community in this process,” Caperton said.

Later grants and planning would be required to establish the recovery center, staff it and run it, she said.

For now, the county will wait to hear if it’s in line to get the $276,800 grant. A decision could be announced by the state as soon as March, said York.

The state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services administers the grant. Funds for the grant come from $44 million forfeited by the Purdue Pharma drug company as part of its 2007 OxyContin lawsuit settlement.
West Virginia was one of several states that helped prove that drug maker Purdue Pharma fraudulently marketed OxyContin and failed to disclose the dangers of addiction to the pain killer.

According to the state’s plan to spend the settlement money, those funds must be used for drug prevention and education, drug treatment and law enforcement efforts.