MINNEAPOLIS — Tyler Stier said he used a Cricut machine to adhere a meaningful print to his backpack - "The Sober Life."
"I definitely can say it's the most managed my PTSD has been," Stier told KARE 11 at treatment facility RS Eden in downtown Minneapolis Wednesday.
Before he came to RS Eden for substance use disorder treatment such as counseling and relapse prevention, he went to a different facility to undergo withdrawal management. In other words, detox.
"I came in here with my feet pretty grounded," Stier said. "I was actually pretty sober when I got here."
But many people do not arrive sober, and President and CEO Caroline Hood says, for decades, the facility was not able to safely handle all of their needs.
"You're getting cognitive, emotional, trauma-informed care but there's not a medical component," Hood said. "They need medical care."
As a result, the facility has turned away around 60 percent of people who arrive. However, that is soon expected to change.
"Although we were referring them and sending them to an emergency department or to another withdrawal management/detox center, we knew oftentimes they weren't going there either because there weren't beds available or because they were going back to the street," Hood explained. "So for three years, we've basically looked at this problem as something that's untenable for us as a mission-based organization to watch and said, 'All right, I guess we need to apply for a new state license.'"
Hood says they've successfully obtained several updated city, county and state licenses, including a new "245F license for withdrawal management."
"It's been very expensive and a big undertaking to staff up," said Hood, who estimates updates have cost around $1 million.
RS Eden plans to begin admitting people for withdrawal management services on Monday. Hood says it will mean more levels of care will be available all in one building, weakening the chance of a relapse.
"Instead of discharging someone [from the ER or a withdrawal management facility] and saying, 'Good luck, please go find a long-term residential care treatment provider,' but being able to say, 'Okay you're now medically stable. Let's walk you down the hall to a different room and we're going to get you a meal and you're going to start going to groups and you're going to start having individual sessions,' … that's huge," Hood said.
Stier too said he anticipates the additional service will benefit the community.
"I've lost quite a bit of people that I know through addiction," he said. "They relapsed and overdosed and it just breaks your heart … I think this detox is gonna be a huge, huge thing."
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