LIMA — A new outpatient treatment center and recovery house has opened in Lima, increasing access to addiction treatment as the opioid epidemic worsens.
Lighthouse Behavioral Health Solutions, located at 924 N. Cable Road, came to Lima in September because, as chief legal officer Matt Fisher explained, “there was a void.”
The clinic, which also has a presence in Columbus and Marysville, combines intensive outpatient treatment with recovery housing, counseling, medication-assisted treatment and other services to help people find work and transition back to a normal life as they recover from addiction.
Lighthouse plans to eventually offer peer recovery in Lima, a service in which licensed peers who are also in recovery help others transition to sober living, and case management services to assist with Medicaid enrollment, vocational coaching and other basic life skills necessary for a successful recovery.
“Our goal is to help meet all of their needs,” said Jamie Declercq, clinical director in Lima. That often means helping clients find reliable transportation and housing, or getting a client signed up for food stamps, tasks that can become barriers to treatment.
“We take away all those barriers to treatment, so they can focus on the treatment,” she said.
Fisher said housing is typically the greatest barrier of all, which is why Lighthouse focuses on recovery housing.
The dorm-style recovery home can house about 48 people, who share a room with one other person and who have access to common areas to develop a sense of community among residents.
Lighthouse also offers partial hospitalization, an intensive outpatient program consisting of five-and-a-half hours of group therapy five days a week. As a person progresses through the program, group sessions meet less frequently and for shorter periods. The program then transitions into a traditional outpatient program, with one-on-one counseling and life coaching.
Declercq said the average patient spends one year in the program.
Patients don’t have to in Lighthouse’s recovery housing to enter treatment, but Declercq said many do. Patients using suboxone cannot live in recovery housing either, she said, but will have access to outpatient treatment.
“We’re looking at the person as a whole,” Declercq said. “We can’t just isolate mental health and physical health. They all impact each other.”
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