Dickinson County Supervisors Hear Update From Discovery House
Dickinson County Supervisors Hear Update From Discovery House
November 18, 2021Steve Schwaller
(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors Tuesday heard an update from the new Executive Director of Discovery House in Spirit Lake. Jessica Amendt informed the board of her background and some of her plans for the facility. Among them, she says, is the need to rebuild relationships of residents with their families…
“We can send them to all of the 12 step meetings and all of the substance abuse counseling and mental health counseling and psychiatrists that we want and we can put them in a sober living environment, but ultimately when the time comes for them to leave, if they do not have that relationship with their family, we’re going to see them again. And I can say that from almost 20 years of experience. I know that that is why we have people that come back. And I also am aware of the fact that substance use disorders are stemming from underlying trauma. And so one of the other things that I’m working on is making sur that we have the ability within the house to be able to address past traumas with the individuals that are staying with us, because if we don’t address those we’re not ever going to get rid of the self medicating that they’re doing with substances.”
Amendt told the supervisors Discovery House is also looking into offering another service as well…
“We discovered within the last two weeks there is a huge, and I’ve known this for awhile, but there’s a huge need to be able to temporarily house domestic violence victims as well. We don’t have a shelter anymore in this area. I started my career with CAASA so I know the importance of having a shelter. It makes me very sad that there isn’t one.”
In order to do that, Amendt says they’ll need to install a security system.
As we reported previously, Amendt recently began her new duties at Discovery House after longtime Executive Director Julie Scheib retired from the position.
