For Immediate Release
Nov. 9, 2010
Contact: Dawn Erickson, 417-862-3339
Email Dawn Erickson here
Reception offers rare glimpse into Springfield addiction treatment facility
The boxy brick building on Springfield’s South Park Avenue is a little less mysterious to a group of residents who attended a reception last week at Sigma House.
Sigma House Recovery Center opened its doors for a group of longtime supporters and advocates in early November for the first of a series of profile-building activities.
The not-for-profit drug and alcohol addiction treatment center was established 33 years ago in Springfield; yet many residents are unaware of its existence or its purpose. It houses a staff of about 35 people who treat an estimated 1,500 local people each year for drug and alcohol addiction.
Dozens of guests were invited to tour the facility, which provides inpatient treatment for up to about 24 residential clients and about a dozen more in the detoxification unit. The center is staffed 24 hours each day, seven days each week.
“Touring the building is a rare opportunity,” said Executive Director Merna Leisure-Eppick. “Treatment centers are subject to strict privacy guidelines set by the federal government, much like hospitals. The privacy rules affect everyone who comes here as a client or staff member or guest.”
Visitors are rarely permitted in the client treatment, residential and detoxification areas to ensure the clients’ privacy. Those who are allowed to enter the client treatment area are required to sign a confidentiality agreement that forbids communication about the clients they may see inside the facility. Cameras and recording devices are banned from the treatment area.
The treatment center was built in 1977 by the Council of Churches of the Ozarks. It was moved to its present location at 800 S. Park Ave. in 1991.
The recovery center has kept a low profile within the community for several reasons, Leisure-Eppick said.
“The American public is slowly changing its attitude about the stigma surrounding drug addiction, alcoholism and treatment,” she said. “Twenty years ago, and even more recently, the typical attitude is that addicts become addicts because they make bad choices. That attitude has changed as the public becomes more and more aware that addiction is a disease and must be treated as such.”
Another reason that the recovery center has remained “under the radar” is that it has been quite successful at obtaining and fulfilling federal, state and local government contracts for services and has not approached the community for major funding since it was founded. Until recently, the agency operated without a marketing plan or donor base, which is not at all typical of non-profit agencies, Leisure-Eppick said.
“Local churches have been very good to us,” she said. “Several of them bring donated items on a regular basis. We have some faithful individual followers who also bring items often. But we have never sent out an appeal to the community.
“We have been fortunate to have been able to work quietly within the community, but the government funding that has carried us may not do so forever,” she said. “We have to be ready to sustain our agency, with or without government contracts. We have to raise our profile by sharing enough information about the agency to create an interest.”
Sigma House of Springfield, Inc., is the flagship of a group of recovery centers in Southwest Missouri. The agency also includes the Larry Simmering Recovery Center in Branson (a full-service residential center similar in capacity to Sigma House), Addiction Free Life Center in Springfield (for outpatient services only) and Sigma House Central Counseling Center in Nixa (for outpatient Medicaid-eligible clients). The corporation is also landlord to a transitional living complex. The agency employs a staff of about 75 people including more than 30 professional counselors with a combined 400 years of specialization in addiction recovery. Together, the centers provide treatment for an estimated 4,000 people per year.
“Addiction treatment is no mystery,” Leisure-Eppick said. “A typical day in the life of a residential client at Sigma House Recovery Center begins early and continues all day and evening with individual and group counseling sessions, classroom work and training, support groups, and breaks for meals and some recreational time. An inpatient usually stays for two to three weeks. Length of stay is determined by the clinical staff based on an individual’s need, and then a client typically transitions into outpatient treatment. Family involvement is strongly encouraged. Treatment intensity decreases over several months as clients gain confidence in their ability to abstain from drugs and alcohol. We provide aftercare to the extent that any client needs it to achieve long-term abstinence and again become a responsible, productive member of the community.”
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Note: Published in part 11-20-10 in the Springfield News-Leader