The path out of addiction doesn’t end with detox or a 28-day stay at an inpatient facility.
That’s where it begins.
Follow-on outpatient services like medication-assisted treatment, a comprehensive assessment and intensive group and/or individual therapy is crucial to long-term recovery.
That’s the idea behind Wise Path Recovery Services, which will open its doors Monday at 2195 Cheat Road.
“The outpatient part is extremely important. There’s 28 days where we’re in this safe environment. After that, we’re sort of left to ourselves and our own devices,” Mon Health Medical Center Peer Recovery Coach Robert Mercer said Thursday during a ribbon-cutting event at the new facility.
“When I first started in the recovery community there was a real lack of services here in Morgantown and it was problematic … So to have options like this right here in Morgantown is so phenomenal.”
Wise Path Recovery Centers are managed by Ascension Recovery Services. In addition to Cheat Lake, a facility opened this month on MacCorkle Avenue, in Charleston. Ascension is opening an inpatient facility in Westover later this year.
Melissa Kirk is the executive director of the Cheat Lake recovery center. She said she expects it to be assisting hundreds of individuals in short order.
“It may seem like it’s less in the public eye, but the issues are still there. The stigma is still there,” she said. “People are still becoming addicted. They still need help, and we need to have these programs and facilities ready to assist them.”
Monongalia County Commission President Tom Bloom attended the event as a representative of the county but offered a personal testimony on the importance of the kind of follow-up care the center will offer.
“A couple years ago, my nephew overdosed. He died. We had, twice, up in Pittsburgh and Waynesburg, got him into 28-day services. That was great, but what we didn’t have is the outpatient clinic afterwards. I truly believe if we would have had this program, he’d be here with me right now,” Bloom said.
“From a personal note — I can say all the county BS you want — but from a personal note, thank you. It is so important. Drugs affect not just the homeless, not the poor, not the wealthy. It affects all of us.”
To speak with the Wise Path Recovery Centers admissions department, call 866-860-9772. Additional information is available at wisepathrecoverycenters.com.
