Rehab patients rally against closure of facility
A group of substance abuse survivors rallied Tuesday outside a Connellsville outpatient treatment facility after learning through a certified letter the service provider was closing Oct. 31.
Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services, Inc.(SPHS), a non-profit agency located at 1047 Morrell Ave., has provided substance abuse treatment, detoxification and buprenorphine services to the community since 2003. Individual and group therapy is conducted Monday through Saturday with licensed counselors on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Danielle Fronius of Connellsville, a patient that organized the rally, said she received the letter from SPHS last week.
Although SPHS issued a letter, Fronius said she and other patients initially heard of the facility’s closing from the landlord.
“We have all worked so hard to regain everything we have lost over the years of our active addictions — our children’s respect, loved ones and most important, our lives,” said Fronius, who has been a patient at the facility since March. “Addiction kills people every day, and if SPHS Connellsville closes, what will happen to the clients that have come so far and worked so hard to get where they are today?”
The agency announced in the letter dated Sept. 3 that, effective immediately, it would no longer accept new patients and encouraged current patients to seek treatment at another provider as soon as possible. The letter, signed by Kellie McKevitt, SPHS executive director, went on to state that as of Oct. 31, SPHS would no longer provide any drug and alcohol outpatient or suboxone services at the Connellsville location.
Suboxone and buprenorphine are drugs used to treat opioid addiction.
Patients were further asked in the letter to contact their insurance carrier to find a participating physician in the area that accepts their insurance and told they could ask the Connellsville staff for assistance.
McKevitt could not be reached for comment.
The facility has five full-time and two, part-time employees that were informed of the closing last week during a brief meeting with an SPHS administrator from Charleroi, according to an employee from the Connellsville office who asked not to be identified.
Luther Sheets, SPHS chief operations officer, said the Connellsville facility is closing because of the costs associated with operating a licensed quality treatment program. “There’s a lot of compliance when you become licensed… you fall under state regulations and how to conduct a program,” said Sheets.
According to Sheets, the Connellsville facility has 115 patients in treatment – 37 of whom live in the city.
“We will find them other providers to offer the quality of care that we couldn’t maintain in Connellsville,” said Sheets. “We’re jut not going to walk away from these folks.”
Sheets added SPHS is currently referring patients to a Connellsville physician and treatment center in Uniontown as the closest providers.
Fronius’ cousin, Tiffany Fronius, said the treatment program at Connellsville has helped her stay off the streets.
“We get homework, books, a tablet, watch informative movies, do a self inventory…this is what they do for us to help us recover,” said Tiffany Fronius.
Danielle Fronius said the closing only gives patients 52 days to find another facility, and other places she called have a waiting list of between three and six months.
“Other programs do not have the intense counseling we need to help us with our lives in recovery,” said Fronius.
Danielle Fronius said a lot of patients walk to the facility and that the closing would impact their recovery if they are unable to travel or have to wait several months to continue treatment elsewhere.
“We don’t want to live the rest of our lives on suboxone and they’re teaching us how to do that (here),” said Danielle Fronius.
Barry Evans said he has received services at the Connellsville facility since January. Evans added the he spoke with McKevitt about the closing and was told it was a corporate decision.
“I’ll be alright, but there are people that come into the program that are still on the fence and it may cost them their lives,” said Evans.
Danielle Fronius has started a petition which currently has 125 signatures. She hopes the petition and a Facebook page titled Save SPHS will prompt the company to have a change of heart and leave the facility open. She will be circulating the petition through the end of the week.