Writing a resume may not be the first thought on recovering drug addicts? minds, but it?s essential to succeeding in society.
Addicts can learn how to do so when a long-term drug treatment center opens in March in Sykesville, the first in the state to focus on improving patients? professional skills.
“If you have a place to put your head at night, it?s easier to work on all the other issues in your life that surround you when you use,” said Susan Doyle, director of the Carroll County Health Department?s Addictions Bureau.
When 10 minors died about seven years ago from heroin overdoses, county officials began planning for a center that could do more for people.
And while the first patients won?t be admitted for a few months, the county is close to signing Spectrum Health Systems Inc. to runthe $3.5 million center, Doyle said.
The center will treat about 70 patients each year, admitting them for six to nine months at a time. It has one part-time nurse, but patients will generally go elsewhere to treat their physical addiction, Doyle said.
The center, at 15,000 square feet, gives patients a place to live so they can learn how to get a job, write a resume, cope with mental illness and earn their GED, Doyle said.
“It?s more of a holistic approach of looking at the patients than what we have right now,” Doyle said.
About 70 percent of inmates at the Carroll County jail are there for drug-related offenses, and often they will relapse if they don?t learn how to get a job, said Lt. Phil Kasten, spokesman for the sheriff?s office.
“It helps break that cycle and gets them the skills they need to become a successful citizen,” he said.
The center will first take in Carroll County residents, but if any of the 48 beds are still open, recovering addicts from other counties will be accepted, Doyle said.
