Whole Health: New Detox Center Plans for More Than Addiction Care

By Andrew Sullivan

The facility o ers three levels of care: open access, detox and stabilization. Open access care is nonresidential (less than 24 hours) and is used for crisis scenarios. Detox and stabilization care are both residential with the former lasting between three days and two weeks and the latter lasting from a couple weeks to about 45 days.

Open access care takes place on the rst oor of the building. It features amenities to address a walk-in patient’s physical health - shower, clean clothes, food and medication to treat common infections as well as substance abuse. ere is a lounge area for those who come in overnight and are intoxicated and would like to sober up.

“Sometimes people are in withdrawal, and so [they] start medication to help them with that,” Director of Development Emily Parker said. “ ey can sleep in here and we’ll keep an eye on them.” e facility also has a room dedicated to community partners. Organizations who partner with the Alcohol & Drug Council, such as the Advocacy Center, Tompkins Community Action, Ithaca Neighborhood Housing, Tompkins County Mental Health and Ithaca Community Recovery, can send their advocates to the facility to consult with patients.

“We know for people to really be successful in recovery, they need more than treatment,” Parker said. “ ey need housing, they need jobs, they need mental health support. ey may be in a domestic violence situation and they need advocacy help. So our partners can come in here, anytime, 24/7, and meet with our clients.”

Parker describes setting patients up with community resources as a “warm hando .” She said the council strives to avoid letting people “slip through the cracks” once they walk out the facility’s doors, not having a safe place to go to or a plan for their future.

“People can leave here anytime they want,” she said. “But we make a commitment to nding the place they’re going.”

Executive Director Angela Sullivan said prior to the facility’s existence, patients were receiving limited services from one organization and having to be referred to another organization for a di erent service. Sullivan said this facility addresses that type of gap.