{"id":9002,"date":"2016-12-20T22:12:25","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T06:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/group-looks-to-establish-kenai-peninsula-drug-detox-center\/"},"modified":"2016-12-20T22:12:25","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T06:12:25","slug":"group-looks-to-establish-kenai-peninsula-drug-detox-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/group-looks-to-establish-kenai-peninsula-drug-detox-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Group looks to establish Kenai Peninsula drug detox center"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>KENAI \u2014<\/strong> The operators of a residential drug treatment facility inside a Soldotna hospital are seeking funds from the state to become central Kenai Peninsula\u2019s first medical detox center.<\/p>\n<p>Coordinators from Serenity House have applied for a state grant to fund a new detox facility. Although Central Peninsula Hospital operates the drug treatment facility, the area still doesn\u2019t have a designated facility where people can go to safely detox from drug use.<\/p>\n<p>The hospital\u2019s emergency room accepts patients who are detoxing from drugs, which can delay care for others seeking medical help.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe looked at the data, and there\u2019s no way to fill this need without just starting to do it,\u201d Serenity House intake coordinator Shari Conner told the Peninsula Clarion. \u201cThe hospital is not really equipped to do it. Detoxing in a hospital just isn\u2019t really appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If the state grant gets approved, Conner said the new detox center would be located near the hospital\u2019s campus in downtown Soldotna. Part of the grant would fund education and access to other services for people struggling with addiction.<\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s application for funding comes as opioid addiction on the Kenai Peninsula and in the rest of Alaska has become a significant public health issue.<\/p>\n<p>The Kenai Peninsula Borough established the Healthcare Task Force, which met for more than a year to discuss how to improve the peninsula\u2019s health care system. The task force submitted a list of recommendations to borough officials in October calling on them to \u201cexplore the feasibility\u201d of supporting a detox facility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe task force recognizes that substance abuse and mental health are significant public health issues in the community, and understands that failure to address these issues leads to increase costs to the community, both through the health care and criminal justice systems,\u201d the recommendations state.<\/p>\n<p>Conner said Serenity House will continue working to establish a detox facility even if the state doesn\u2019t fund the project. The group has already received support from other medical providers in the community and is seeking out support from other sources.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re really hopeful,\u201d Conner said. \u201cWe had a lot of support letters, and we\u2019re hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KENAI \u2014 The operators of a residential drug treatment facility inside a Soldotna hospital are seeking funds from the state to become central Kenai Peninsula\u2019s first medical detox center. Coordinators from Serenity House have applied for a state grant to fund a new detox facility. Although Central Peninsula Hospital operates the drug treatment facility, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9002"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}