As Princess Young stood inside the vast concrete warehouse at 501 Stockton St. on Charleston's West Side, she cried at the thought of what the building's future could mean for people like her daughter, who has been in recovery for more than a year in a facility in Kentucky.
"I don't think any parent should have such difficulty finding help for their child," she said. "No mother should ever have to get behind the wheel of a vehicle with a jonesing child in the passenger seat to embark on an eight-hour trip just to seek treatment. I will never forget that drive - it was just the two of us, and we had to keep stopping, because she was so sick. I was driving as quickly and safely as I possibly could, and then out of nowhere and with absolute clarity, my daughter reached over and touched my hand and said, 'Mom, thank you for not giving up on me.' I ask you - what mother would?"
For Young's daughter, Lindsay, help finally came after weeks of fruitless searching for treatment in her home state of West Virginia. Now, Young said she hopes that other women in the Kanawha Valley won't have to leave their families to seek treatment, thanks in part to the planned Recovery Point of Charleston, which dedicated its building on the West Side Tuesday and will begin construction in the coming months.
"It's incredible that we have come this far," said Charleston Mayor Danny Jones. "This is a great day for Charleston ... this will touch a lot of people's lives in a very positive way."
Lindsay's problem started her junior year of college, Young said. Her daughter had become addicted to opiates, and despite coming home to St. Albans, she could not stop using. Lindsay was arrested in early 2014, but it was several more months before she finally admitted she needed treatment. But for Young, who has worked in mental health services for years, the level of treatment Lindsay needed was hard to come by in West Virginia - after two weeks of fruitless searching, a friend pointed her to Liberty Place Recovery Center for Women in Kentucky, the facility Recovery Point of Huntington and Charleston are modeled after.
"I thought I knew how the system was supposed to work. How could this be happening in my home state? How? Finally, help came by accident, by an absolute chance encounter with an old friend," she said. "I believe so much in what Recovery Point has to offer, because they're bringing hope to addicts, to their families and this community."
Rachel Thaxton, program coordinator of Recovery Point of Charleston, said the facility will start the bidding process on the project within the next month, and will likely begin construction within six weeks after the bids close. The main building will have 92 treatment beds, which will be opened about 10 beds at a time initially, and Thaxton said the facility will also construct 24 transitional apartments on the property that will house up to 48 more women.
According to Recovery Point of Huntington, the parent facility for the women's center in Charleston, its treatment costs are $25 per person per day, compared to an average $250 per day for those in a traditional treatment facility, or $50 per day in a regional jail. Its outcomes are also better, said Matt Boggs, executive director for Recovery Point of Huntington. Boggs said 68 percent of those who graduate from the program remain sober for a year, and of those, 85 percent stay sober for more than two years. Half of graduates also report earned incomes of more than $2,000 per month after completing the program, and many say their family relationships and living situations have improved dramatically after completing the treatment program.
To date, Recovery Point of Charleston has raised 71 percent of the total cost of the project - about $4.7 million of a $6.6 million total, Boggs said.
Kanawha Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Bailey, who runs the county's drug court program, said long-term programs like drug court and Recovery Point are integral tools for rehabilitating addicts, and she hopes the Charleston facility and others like it will become a greater priority in order to avoid the alternatives - often jail, or homeless shelters where women are surrounded by active addicts in often sub-par living conditions.
"Unfortunately, jail is a place I send people to keep them alive, because they're relapsing; it's not a good use of their time or our tax dollars, but I have no other alternatives," Bailey said. "I can't sleep at night knowing I'm telling women 'this is what you need to do to recover,' that they must go live in a poverty-level, dilapidated housing situation, and try to do better there. That's all we can offer you? I can't sleep at night knowing that what I told them to do - leave jail and enter a homeless shelter...those are our options."
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.