PORT HURON

City looks to set up detox center 'within the year'

Jackie Smith
Times Herald

Five months after announcing a task force to address substance abuse issues, Port Huron City Manager James Freed said the group hopes to have detox facilities set up locally by the end of 2018.

It was a goal first mentioned last fall when city officials were rolling out rules for recovery homes. Task force members recognized that the area lacked a complete continuum of care for victims trying to recover from the opioid epidemic.

In particular, the area lacks detox services for active opioid users.

Freed said the group first had to get educated about what is available and what is needed.

He said potential partners from the public health, mental health, social services and recovery community are touring existing facilities across the state and are expecting to nail down specifics of what the Port Huron are needs in the coming weeks.

“The city of Port Huron cannot build its own facility,” Freed said. “We need licensed service providers and a funding stream … who come in, utilize one of our existing facilities.”

Freed said, “I want to have a facility open within the year — by October, when I said it (last year).”

Dr. Annette Mercatante, St. Clair County Health Department medical health officer and a member of the task force, said there are a variety of detox services, including in-patient facilities such as Sacred Heart near Richmond, and outpatient facilities such as methadone clinics.

That is what the area lacks, Freed said, describing walk-in rehabilitation facilities where recovering users can seek care and counseling, get treatment onsite and return home.

While nothing official is in place, he said the task force has been looking at vacant commercial property that could be leased for a day treatment program.

Lake Huron Medical Center is part of that discussion.

“They’re one of many people who hold real estate we’re talking to,” Freed said. 

In a statement, hospital spokeswoman Laura Cottengim acknowledged the hospital's participation in the discussions and said it would “do all that we can to support and/or be a part of the solution.”

“At this point, however, we are in the very infancy phases of the due diligence process,” she said.

Freed also said Blue Water Area Rescue Mission, which began working on becoming a licensed substance abuse program center in 2017, has also been a part of that conversation.

Arnie Koontz, the mission’s director, said it has started a peer recovery program and is looking for grants to expand. He said, though, BWARM is “not going to become a detox center” because that would require medical and social work staff.

“It is a much grander plan than we have capability for,” he said. “(But) that’s the major portion of the puzzle that’s missing — a rehabilitation facility.”

Detox services could be funded, Freed said, through the state's Region 10 Prepaid Inpatient Health Plan.

Jim Johnson, Region 10’s executive director, said it is a public funding source for substance abuse treatment and already utilize block grants and Medicaid funds to send residents to detox centers in other locations.

He agreed the need is there to establish something local.

“I think there are enough people in the immediate area that could access it,” Johnson said. “We’re probably paying for that service somewhere else right now. We may be sending someone else to Waterford or to Warren (when) we could be sending (them) to Port Huron.”

In an email to City Council members Tuesday, Freed pointed to Sacred Heart, Meridian Health and Odyssey House as example ambulatory, or walk-in, detox service providers. In a separate interview that day, he said he’s met with all three.

Odyssey’s director Ronald Brown is also on the city’s task force.

“They’re doing it in Flint and other places, but they’re not doing it here,” Freed said of those agency’s detox efforts. “Odyssey House has a proven record, they’re credentialed, they have experience.”

Officials said it’s difficult to nail down exactly how many people in Port Huron need a detox center nearby. Freed said it may just be too early in the process to talk capacity.

Johnson said Region 10 gets plenty of requests.

“I don’t have that number in front of me, but I can tell you it’s significant,” he said. He also said his agency's requests don't account for everyone getting detox services.

St. Clair County Community Mental Health is part of the Region 10 provider network. Director Deb Johnson, another task force member, said CMH works with many “dual disorder” individuals — those who seek services for mental health or disability issues as well as substance use issues — who might also benefit from nearby detox facilities.

“We serve a lot of people like that,” she said. “Probably the larger majority of people with severe mental health issues have a substance abuse issue.”

CMH has close to 1,000 substance use disorder cases, 16 percent of which are opioid related.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.