Charity hopes to open a new detox
A Colorado Springs charity is leading an effort to create a new detoxification center as the region's current one prepares to close this month, but a replacement is months away at best, and the fallout from a gap in service is expected to be big.
Detox centers harbor chronic alcoholics and drug abusers - often homeless - in a safe environment. That, in turn, eases the burden on hospitals and emergency-service providers. For some clients, the centers become a starting point for rehabilitation.
But last month, Pikes Peak Mental Health announced that because of financial struggles, it would close the region's only detox facility, the 28-bed Lighthouse Assessment Center, by the end of January.
The Harbor House Collaborative, a charity devoted to helping substance abusers and the chronically homeless, is drafting plans for a center that would provide as many as 40 beds, but wouldn't provide the same level of services available at the Lighthouse.
The new center would likely rely on $1.5 million in subsidies that have historically gone to Pikes Peak Mental Health to run its program, said Harbor House Executive Director Jeannine Holt.
No contracts have been signed and no real estate secured for a new center, and Harbor House faces many licensing, financial and permitting hurdles before one might open. The goal is to start up a new detox center by April 1, but all the what-ifs could easily push the date further out, Holt said.
She and others involved in the discussions say they are optimistic about the plan but worried how the lapse in service will affect law enforcement agencies, hospitals and other health care providers.
Memorial Health System, for example, expects its emergency department to see eight to 10 people a day who would otherwise have gone to detox, said Chief Operating Officer Jason Fahrlander. A basic alcohol-related ER visit at Memorial costs nearly $400, and that can easily climb by hundreds of dollars if other complications are detected. Those costs would come as the city-owned, safety-net hospital faces financial troubles related to the recession.
Penrose Hospital sends about 36 people a month to detox, said spokeswoman Stacey Knott.
Detox centers range from those that offer medical care and highly specialized programs, to basic operations with a collection of "sobering beds" where people can sleep under a watchful eye until they are coherent enough to leave. The Lighthouse, which opened in spring 2000, fell into the former category, and the price of operating some two dozen beds amounted to about $3 million a year, with about half that coming from other community agencies.
The new detox would be considered a "social detox," falling somewhere between the two extremes. It would be licensed by the state and provide some level of rehab. Although serious cases would be referred to the hospitals, a social detox is capable of handling as many as 90 percent of current detox users. Pikes Peak Mental Health would still provide longer-term rehab for detox users who want help, said spokesman Kevin Porter.
Without a medical designation, the costs are far lower. A budget for a new center has not been developed.
Representatives from Memorial Health System, Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, Pikes Peak Mental Health, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, Colorado Springs Police Department and American Medical Response, among others, are scheduled to meet today to further discuss the plan.
The talks will focus on a sense of shared ownership in the program, said Michael Allen, vice president of Connect Care, which handles public subsidies for substance abuse programs and is providing $750,000 to detox this fiscal year.
