A new residential program offering three levels of care for substance abuse has opened up in suburban Onondaga County. It’s the first facility in upstate New York that offers stabilization, rehabilitation and reintegration in one location.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said a facility like Elements of CNY could have helped her nephew, who died of a heroin overdose.
"He overdosed seeking treatment facilities. There weren’t enough beds for him," Hochul said. "I want to be one of the last families to tell that story."
Hochul said residential facilities that offer support to recovery are key to helping anyone overcome an addiction.
"A residential facility is really a key component to addressing the whole spectrum of needs of individuals," she said. "Let them come here and get the counseling they need and get the peer support and coping strategies. When they go back out, how they are going to handle temptations when they go back into their prior world."
The 75-bed facility run by Helio Health in the Town of Clay takes individuals who have already taken the first step toward recovery, according to Helio Health Regional Residential Director Kristen Morey.
"We do not provide the detox, so the medical monitoring piece. So that would be when a person is at a point when they can transition out of that and still they continue to need support and maybe monitored and the recovery, and they would transition here," said Morey.
The idea is to let people access the exact level of care that is right for them. There are 55 stabilization and rehabilitation beds, and 20 reintegration apartments that can be used while an individual returns to their prior life.
