Winner Update: Wells House, Inc.
In 2015 we had 2 houses and 27 patients. In 2018 we have 6 houses and 107 patients. We try to give our patients as many recovery tools as possible. Addiction is a chronic relapsing disease of the brain, but it also is a disease of the body and the spirit as well. When recovery touches the spirit, real change happens. What we’re spending this money on, (and it’s going to last us a long time), is providing more recovery tools for our patients. We only take Medicaid, which pays for the groups and the counseling and all of the mental health assessments and treatment that we give our patients. A lot of our patients when they come to us, they have no job. A lot of them are homeless. A lot of them come from incarceration, most of them estranged from their families, no hope, no means of getting better, of getting ahead in life, getting themselves together. So when they come to our program and we are offering them all the different tools, all the different supports, we keep them with us up to four months. Most of them that’s insurance driven, but most of them get to stay for 4 1/2 months, which is an incredible period of time when you’re trying to change the course you’re on, when you’re trying to change the way you think and the way you act and the way you eat and the way you sleep and the way you relate to other people and the way you treat your family. It’s a lot. I do want to say thank you to you all. The community needs to invest in this health crisis. This is a public health crisis and as we all know, the overdose epidemic that is alive and well in Frederick County as it is around the country, around the world I’m sure. This is something that the community showed that they care. Last quarter when you all voted us as the winners, we had the feeling of inclusion, which is not usually the feeling that we have. We feel very isolated. Addiction is not pretty. But we really felt included in his community last fall, last quarter. And I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and our patients thank you.
