People with substance use and mental health disorders now have expanded treatment options in Presque Isle.
Aroostook Mental Health Services Inc. marked the opening of its new 18-bed residential treatment facility Friday.
The center replaces a 12-bed Limestone facility known as “The Farm.” As mental health and substance use problems rise, Maine is dealing with a lack of providers and limited space to send people who need treatment. The new facility means more northern Mainers can be treated.
“It’s so much more than bricks and mortar,” Ellen Bemis, executive director of Aroostook Mental Health Services. “It’s a commitment to preserving lives. “
Mental health professionals, community leaders and legislators turned out for the grand opening, including U.S. Sen. Susan M. Collins and Gordon Smith, Maine’s director of opioid response.
Renovations to the existing building at 176 Academy Street were funded in part through $1 million in federal funding led by Congress, secured with Collins as vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The task also won $600,000 from the Maine Health and Human Services Dashboard. and $150,000 from the Health Resources Administration’s Rural Opioid Response Program, according to AMHC officials.
“It’s vital that we focus on rural communities,” Collins said. “Access to a remedy is key to breaking the cycle of addiction. “
Addiction and intellectual fitness cause pain for sufferers and their families, as does the stigma many others associate with those disorders, the senator said. The new facility will be successful in treating more Mainers.
The center is an example of what’s being done about the situation of other people with substance use disorder in Maine, said Gordon Smith, Maine’s director of opioid response.
“We’ve never had enough resources to deal with mental health and substance abuse in Aroostook County,” Smith said.
The Almost Isle treatment center joins recovery centers in Fort Kent, Caribou and Houlton, as well as two recovery apartments in Caribou, to help others continue their recovery journey, he said.
The center has added a detox program for drug addicts. Two separate beds will allow other people in rehab to stay apart. There will be nurses and the building has a kitchen and lounge, a medication monitoring section and a room available for the disabled.
Jillian Philbrick, a recovery coach at Roads 2 Recovery in Caribou, attended the open house. What hinders recovery is more than just a lack of substances, he said.
“You can stop using, but it doesn’t help you cope,” she said. “You have to know your triggers.”
Philbrick, who has been sober for five and a half years, compared to walking on a box of tall grass. If you’ve walked it, you make a trail through it and it’s easy to continue walking that same path instead of making a new one.
Recovery is about the brain learning to take another path, he said.
Facilities staff hosted guided tours of the open house and the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce led a ribbon-cutting ceremony.