Dave J. was at the desk and Dean M. shook our hand as came together for our weekly meeting. Keith O. provided the invocation asking the Lord’s blessing on the day, the program and the food. Hal L. introduced Ingrid Salvesen, student guest from M-State and a graduate of the local school. She intends to become a veterinarian and with encouragement from her parents is beginning pursuit of that degree at M-State Fergus Falls. Keith O. introduced Brian Tjaden as a guest for the last time; next week he will become a member. Bonnie D. led us in “My Bonnie lies Over the Ocean” compete with calisthenics and “Smile”
Ryan W. brought us up to date on the rose sale. We are oversold by five dozen so don’t sell any more. They were distributed at Service Food last Thursday, with the morning club taking care of the morning distribution and our club mostly responsible for the afternoon shifts.
Anthony N. is in charge of our bell ringing effort and requested input on a preferred date, the location will be Service Food. The consensus was a Friday in December.
Brags and Fines: Elaine O. shared her thought that the rose sale was an excellent project and brought a measure of good will to our community. Wally C. brought us up to date on his absence last week, seems his youngest grandson had his fourth birthday on Nov 4th and he his 80th on the 7th and they celebrated together in Wisc. He made up at the Beaver Dam club and reported all the local political dignitaries attended and the food was excellent. Anthony N spoke of coffee cups he had acquired.
Program: Katie J. introduced Otter Tail County Director of Human Services Deb Sjostrom. Her task was to discuss the prospects of securing Northstar Behavioral Health (NBH) to provide a number of services for chemical dependent (CD) clients in Otter Tail County. Deb filled in for Luke Wendlant from NBH who had to cancel his appearance today due to illness.
Deb explained NBH is a for profit company now successfully providing such services at five locations in Minnesota. The county has successfully reached a lease agreement with NBH which will result in their expansion to Fergus Falls. They hope to open as early as January 2020 with phase one of their project, a 16 bed treatment facility in the county owned CARE building located at 1174 Western Ave in Fergus Falls.
Deb begin with some history of behavioral health treatment in the county. For decades it was provided at the Regional Treatment Center; this ended in 2008 when the RTC CD facility closed. In preparation for the closing, Otter Tail County built the CARE building mentioned above and established a 60-bed treatment facility. After a few years of operation the federal folks began enforcing a long standing rule that such facilities could not be larger than 16 beds. The CARE operations then moved to the Catholic Charities site to right size their operations. Catholic Charities 16 bed facility serves only men who meet the eligibility requirements.
Initial plans with Northstar call for the establishment and operation of a 16 bed inpatient chemical addiction service for men. That will be followed by the establishment of a separate but equal 16 bed inpatient facility in the same building to provide CD services to women. Tentative plans are to follow with the addition of some outpatient services including possibly medically assisted detox services.
County Social Services is mandated to conduct assessments of adults and children, complete referrals for appropriate treatment and authorize funding for eligible participants. In 2018. 896 referrals for assessment were received, 620 assessments were conducted and 326 were referred and received some level of CD treatment. Comparing primary substance of abuse, those referred by County Social Services self reported, from 2016 to 2018, alcohol and opiates/synthetics decreased while heroin and meth increased. In 2018 meth was the primary substance of abuse for 36.8% of those requiring treatment and alcohol accounted for 35.6%.
Deb said that since chemical addiction support services including detox and addiction recovery have been nearly absent in our County for several years, the burden on emergency rooms and the strain on people affected by addiction has been significant. She is hopeful this development will result in better access to these services for people in our County and encouraged anyone who would like more information for themselves or for someone they love, to contact her or NBH. She handed out NBH brochures and said her contact information is available on the county website (218-998-8185), email address dsjostrom@co.ottertail.mn.us). She also encouraged the club to consider having Luke come for a program to update us on the services at NBH after they are operating in Fergus Falls.
Thanks, Katie for bringing an excellent informative program and for reviewing and improving this account of it.
