Ribbon Cutting Held For New Crisis/Detox Center in St. Cloud

(KNSI) – Tuesday’s ribbon cutting for the new Crisis/Detox Center in Saint Cloud drew an impressive gathering of community members, politicians, law enforcement representatives, and other dignitaries. The showing reinforced the area’s commitment to addressing substance abuse, something that has fallen by the wayside in other parts of Minnesota.

The new Central Minnesota Mental Health Center facility will service Benton, Sherburne, Stearns, and Wright Counties. Director of Chemical Services Danielle Brant says the investment will help eliminate bottlenecks at area hospitals.

“If you were in a town that you could not access a detox center, you would likely go to your local emergency room. Now they’re dealing with staffing issues. They might not be full but they’re at full capacity for their ratio to staff. If you don’t have a detox center in the area that you can access, you plug up the emergency room,” Brant says.

She warns that the problem could mean that people needing to be admitted to the ER for serious medical events or unexpected injuries won’t have beds available for them. Brant says demand is on the rise, which will exacerbate the issue. It comes after two years of relative calm.

“We actually were low on census during the pandemic, even though we know people were drinking more. I think what happened is the typical ways that somebody might identify as a problem; getting pulled over, showing up to work intoxicated, or another event intoxicated…That wasn’t happening because people were isolated.”

Patients at the detox center are usually treated for 72 hours until the worst withdrawal symptoms are over. Brant says that isn’t the end of the process and CMMHC staff will help ensure things continue to progress.

“They would coordinate the care to connect to other services at discharge. So, whether that be a formal treatment program, sometimes it’s working with our homeless outreach to help them find appropriate housing, transportation issues, therapy…any type of service that the client feels they need on their journey towards recovery we can help connect them to.”

The center has roughly 15 beds for detox and the capacity of the crisis center will increase from five to nine beds.

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