(Spirit Lake)– A facility in Spirit Lake that assists those suffering from addiction is making some changes. Jessica Amendt, Director of Discovery House, says one of those allowed them to increase the number of beds…
“We turned Discovery House into the women’s house and Daniel House into the men’s house. By that time there were three residents over there utilizing it as a transition home. All three of them were told that their lease would not be renewed at the end of the year and why. It wasn’t because they had done anything wrong, it was just because we are moving in this new direction. One of them has moved out; one is moving out later this week and the other one is out the end of this month and has secured housing for that. So because of that we went from having 10 beds to 24 beds so we were able to increase our numbers by 14.”
Amendt says they have also started up a program that involves more interaction with family members…
“We know that their success in recovery is not going to be longstanding if they’re not re-building those supports within their families. And so we really focused on that a lot with the residents and I’m happy to report that we’ve had four families that have gone through the program and have successfully been reunited with their children, are living on their own, working, and the families are reunited with no more DHS involvement.”
Amendt says other new programs include a holistic approach to rehabilitation. She says they also now have house managers, one man and one woman, on staff.
Amendt made her comments in her annual report at an Okoboji City Council meeting earlier this week.
