An inpatient drug treatment center that is set to open soon in Wadsworth, Ohio will be the first of its kind in Medina County.
Community Assessment Treatment Services (CATS), a Cleveland-based healthcare provider, is going to be opening the new inpatient drug treatment center that will include 16 beds for people struggling with substance use disorders. The facility will open sometime this month after it becomes certified by Ohio’s Mental Health and Addiction Services. This inpatient substance abuse treatment center will be men only for the time being.
CATS was established in 1990 and started as a community assessment program that was created to be an alternative to jail for people that had been convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol. One year later, CATS opened a detoxification center and began focusing on addiction treatment.
The inpatient drug treatment center is the fifth facility operated by CATS in Ohio for people with substance use disorders. Its services will be completely covered by the state’s Medicaid insurance program.
Last week, Medina officials and the leaders of CATS welcomed the public to see the new inpatient drug treatment center, which has been built in the former location of the Summa Health Wadsworth-Rittman Medical Center’s physical wing.
The new inpatient substance abuse treatment center was approved in February 2017 when the Wadsworth-Rittman Area Joint Township Hospital District and Summa Health came to a legal settlement.
Summa signed a five year contract with CATS to bring forth this new inpatient drug treatment center to the area.
CATS’ representatives originally wanted to build an inpatient drug treatment center in the public square area of the city of Medina. However, Medina officials denied the proposal citing neighboring residents would not want an addiction treatment center in the area.
Officials from Wadsworth approached the representatives and suggested using the southeast
corner of the county. There has been an opioid problem, according to Wadsworth police.
There were 49 drug-related overdoses in Wadsworth in 2017, six of them resulting in death, according to the 2017 Wadsworth Police Department Annual Report. The police department successfully applied narcan on 30 of the 49 opioid-related overdoses.
The approximate cost for the remodeling of the new inpatient addiction treatment center is over $1.2 million and CATS is covering 66 percent of the total.
The facility will also have outpatient addiction treatment services but will focus on inpatient programs that will last approximately 40 days.
Medina County has had a system in place for fighting substance use disorder. The Medina County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Board (ADAMH) was established to help give the county drug and alcohol treatment services when needed. Their job is to find cost effective resources and assess the success rate of these addiction treatment services.
The ADAMH also strives to reduce the stigma of addiction and educate the public on substance use disorders. The health department established Project DAWN, which stands for Deaths Avoided with Naloxone, and aims to allow the public to have access Narcan.
The ADAMH Board partnered with the health department to establish the Medina County Opiate Task Force. The goals of the task force include to formulate long and short-term solutions to prevent and treat opioid use disorders.
Author: Robert B. Hayek
Robert B Hayek is a reporter for Addiction Now and covers features and local spotlight stories. He previously worked for Fox Sports as a production assistant as well as a writer and reporter for an online website called Real Talk Sports Network. He has lived in Southern California his entire life, is a lover of books and writing and also surfs. Contact Robert at roberth@addictionnow.com
