Detox center opens, beds are filling up

SANDUSKY — The Erie County Health Department's detox center opened Tuesday with its staff confident all 16 beds will be occupied soon.The detox center opened with three clients and had seven clients by Thursday morning — five men and two women. Another two clients were expected by the end of the day Thursday, said Richard "Trey" Hardy, chief behavioral health officer for the health department.The center will regroup when it reaches about 10, and then will advance to getting all 16 beds filled in about two weeks, he said.The health department built the center as a reaction to the ongoing opioid addiction crisis, but people with drug addictions are not the only patients being treated, said Adrienne Gibbs, R.N., nursing supervisor for the center.Two of the first three clients who arrived Tuesday are being treated for alcohol dependency. The detox center also is treating people dealing with addictions to illegal drugs, and also people who have addictions to prescription drugs, Gibbs said.Clients typically will stay seven to 10 days at the detox center, a two-story building on the health department campus.When they have finished detoxing from their addictions, with the help of medical personnel who try to ease the withdrawal symptoms, the clients are expected to continue their journey to recovery by obtaining treatment, Hardy said.The detox center is working with local providers such as Bayshore Counseling and Firelands Regional Medical Center. A treatment plan is drawn up for each patient, and the detox center is trying to make sure the patient shows up where he or she is supposed to, Hardy said.During the next few weeks, the detox center hopes to begin accepting pregnant women, Gibbs said.The center has a staff of about 12, but is still hiring and will have 16 to 17 staffers when hiring is complete.Getting ready to open the center took weeks of preparation. Gibbs came aboard in August and began drawing up policies and procedures. Hiring began in mid-October, Gibbs said, and training began in December.Many procedural hurdles had to be cleared. The detox center had to get permission from the state board of pharmacy, for example, for certain controlled drugs that are given to people with addictions to help them deal with withdrawal symptoms."There's still a lot of kinks to be worked out," Gibbs said.As those issues are ironed out, Hardy and Gibbs are both providing close supervision of the detox center's operations. Hardy said he and Gibbs are both present at every shift change, 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.After 60 days of operation, the detox center can apply for a state license, Hardy said. The state has been notified that the sixty days have begun, he said.Gibbs said people seeking to get help at the detox center should call 419-624-3353 to begin the screening process.People with severe mental health or medical issues may need to get those problems resolved first before they can begin the detoxing process, Gibbs said. For example, if they are having suicidal thoughts, they should go to the hospital, she said."If they are appropriate, we will give them a time to come in," she said. "It may be that day, it may be the next day."Most detox centers are full and have to ask people to go onto a waiting list, and that situation seems likely to develop in the Sandusky center, she said.Now that the detox center has opened, the health department will begin construction of a new wing to provide space to for mental health treatment, said Pete Schade, Erie County's health commissioner.Gibbs said she came to her job after five years of working for the emergency room at Firelands Regional Medical Center."My personal experience has pushed me toward this," she said."I've lost two longtime friends to heroin overdoses, both from Huron," she said. "Not people you would ever expect to go down that path."Reach reporter Tom Jackson at jackson@sanduskyregister.com and follow him on Twitter @jacksontom.On Thursday, Dr. Bill Kimberlin discusses symptoms and treatment plans for James Lauenti, a new patient at the Erie County Detox Center in Sandusky. Nurse supervisor Adrienne Gibbs goes over paperwork with nurse Julie Fantozzi at the Erie County Detox Center on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018. Ashley Saunders, LPN, does paper work in the nurses station at the Erie County Detox Center on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2017.