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Addictive Disease Center

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Text Box: Part Four: A New Foundation Click here for “Part 3: Building a home,” the third installment of McLeod Center’s history. The years between 1983 and 1993 were a time of consolidation, redefinition, and growth for Open House that resulted in a new foundation for service. The organization had settled into a consolidated location that seemed to assure a long term home and future of service delivery but restlessness was astir in the soul of Open House  and in hearts and minds of the community. With certainty, cocaine use was changing the communities’ view of drug dependency in a fashion that resulted in the community routinely questioning the ability and adequacy of local treatment providers to respond to the threats to young people. With equal certainty, Open House, began to recognize the necessity to do more, to embrace a mission of expanded capacity, and to listen to the quiet, demanding or anguished ways that addicted or dependent people cry out for help. One of the most significant steps taken was the establishment of an adolescent treatment component. Up until that period no services designed specifically for adolescents experiencing alcohol or drug dependency issues existed in Mecklenburg County primarily because no funding sources existed. After Open House initiated the new adolescent services still no funding sources for adolescent services existed. The first of many responses to cries for help even when funds were not available immediately had occurred. Open House would not again be hesitant or timid in trying to respond to community need. A first understanding of the phenomenon of people responding to services developed on a comprehension of their pain and need began to emerge and, ultimately, to guide Open House. All adolescent services were initially limited to outpatient after school programs. Based on Open House’s demonstration of a commitment to adolescent care the alcohol and drug section North Carolina department of Human Services soon offered funding for a group home for adolescents. Accompanying the group home funding was support for the local school district to provide teachers and staff necessary to create an alternative school on the Open House campus. To further expand adolescent services a local woman’s club raised funds for the development of a facility to serve an even larger group of adolescents. As a result of the clubs efforts, Continuation Place, a 6000 square foot, twenty bed facility on the Open House campus opened in 1989. With some trepidation, male and female adolescents were served in Continuation place initially. The fears about the behavior of adolescent males in close proximity to adolescent females turned out to be based on false assumptions. The behavior of the males was easily controlled and directed. The females, who were assumed to more innocent and vulnerable, proved to be far more manipulative and sexually aggressive than the males. As things developed the females planned every liaison and every deception that resulted in sexual activity. Once the staff issued their official surrender to their overwhelming skills demonstrated in Continuation Place, the females were moved into an off campus all female group home. At the group home the females turned all of their manipulative skills upon one another, resulting in conflicts that routinely left the group home empty as two females fled west while the other three headed south. After investing more than $250,000.00 in an attempt to treat adolescent females, Open House finally acceded to the superior and persistent manipulation of the residents. The group home for females was closed and designated for use by the adolescent males. On the other hand, residential services for male adolescents have not been interrupted since their inception. Another event of significant impact during the period occurred when an employee of a State Senator was treated successfully in the Open House residential program As a result of a staff member’s successful treatment and subsequent praise for the care received at Open House, the Senator wanted a similar facility in his home county. Through his seniority in the Senate and force of personality funds were soon appropriated for the development of a facility in Black Mountain that came to be called McLeod Center West. When the facility opened in 1987 Open House was still Open House.  A change of the corporate name to McLeod Addictive Disease Center was still seven years in the future. Some years before, however, in an early attempt to honor founder, Dr. Jonnie McLeod, the residential component of Open House had come to be named McLeod Center. As an extension of its parent organization, the new program in Black Mountain was named McLeod  Center West - Open House West just didn’t have the necessary cache. McLeod Center West was operated by Open House. through a challenging and enlightening five years. From the first meeting with officials from the local Area Mental Health Authority, when the focus of the meeting was not on the clients but on just when Open House. could transfer all of its knowledge and experience in developing and operating residential services and the entirety of McLeod Center West to their management, Open House was treated as an unnecessary and unwelcome presence. McLeod Center West managed to ignore the politics swirling about and provided high quality recovery services for adults in a wing of Black Mountain Center, a state facility. Some important realities were learned about the dynamics of dealing with Area Mental Health Authorities during those five years. Much was learned about the challenges of developing service away from the primary location of Open House. More was learned from the clients about their desire to begin their recovery for addiction and their willingness to pay for services that they needed and were priced fairly. Years after the transfer of the facility to the local Area Mental Health Authority, small but consistent payments were received from former clients clearing their debt and expressing gratitude for the lives in recovery that they experienced after their McLeod West experience. Insights that would play significantly in molding future expansions were earned in the mountains of western North Carolina at McLeod Center West.  Open House, once transformed into McLeod Addictive Disease Center would be back to the mountains of North Carolina. In 1991 the thirty-six bed adult residential treatment facility was completed on the Remount Road Campus. The facility marked a dramatic change in the organizations commitment to quality facilities and quality services. Open House could compete on level ground with other inpatient providers for the first time. The construction of the dormitory assured that a master plan for the development of a campus like environment was near completion. Now instead of broken concrete and industrial vistas a sense of seclusion, privacy and safety developed in a court yard of grass, trees and flowers. On the verge of a new identity in 1993, Open House had been transformed during the past decade. Its full occupancy of 145 Remount was complete. Buildings designed to serve the increasing needs in the community occupied all available space. Open House  had expanded to offer the community a nearly complete array of services had been implemented in response to increasing demand. Only detoxification services and residential aftercare were not available. More services for people with addictive disease were concentrated on its campus than were available from most other organizations combined. Open House had consolidated its services and solidified its role in the communities struggle with addiction and its consequences.

S. Eugene Hall became McLeod Addictive Disease Center’s Executive Director in 1981 and was named President in 1994.  Under Mr. Hall’s leadership McLeod Center has become the largest comprehensive addiction treatment center in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.  

This column will be updated monthly, so check back often!

 

 

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