CONWAY — The Phoenix Recovery Center in Conway, a transitional-housing facility for parolees and other men with substance-abuse issues, is just days away from opening the first licensed drug-and-alcohol treatment facility in Faulkner County, the director said.
A 5,000-square-foot facility for counseling, meetings, meals and other services is near completion on Jersey Street in the Phoenix Recovery Center neighborhood.
Dean Castle, director of the center, said the program has been approved for 38 beds by the state Division of Behavioral Health Services. Those will be available in the townhouses that are on the same street as the treatment facility. The center will also offer an intensive outpatient program.
“Right now, it’s basically down to crunch time. We’re going down and doing the punch list of all the little
nuances, so hopefully, it will be completed in the next two weeks at the most,” he said.
Castle said 90 percent of the Phoenix Recovery Center’s residents are parolees from outside Faulkner County, and the other 10 percent are men who need a chemical-free environment. Some of the Phoenix residents will be admitted to residential treatment; other clients will be from the community at large, he said.
The Phoenix Recovery Center, which is owned by Matt Bell of Little Rock, is funding the project.
“We know that there’s a need in the community for treatment, and quite honestly, I convinced the owner that this was very much needed in Faulkner County,” Castle said. “It’s been talked about forever.”
Lisa Ray, clinical supervisor for the Phoenix Recovery Center, said the licensed facility is long overdue.
“It’s a miracle for one thing, just to be able to say we have this in Faulkner County,” she said. “This is not the first time somebody has tried — and I get it; nobody wants an addiction treatment center in their neighborhood — but the rest of the story is you’ve got people with drug and alcohol problems living all around you, so this is a place they’re going to get some help. I’m thrilled.”
She has more than 20 years of experience in addictions counseling and is the program director for addiction studies at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Castle said treatment will be offered pro bono when the center opens while the treatment program goes through a six-month accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, a nonprofit organization.
Ray said treatment will be for one client in the beginning, probably for 30 days.
“In order to get CARF accreditation, you have to have a track record from having a treatment client,” she said. Also, CARF accreditation is needed to bill insurance, Ray said.
Castle said the first residential clients likely will be men already living at the Phoenix Recovery Center.
“It’ll be open for residential treatment, which you can come in and stay — the average stay is 28 to 45 days, depending on insurance. We’ll also have an intensive outpatient program, which is the largest group of clients you end up with because people can still keep their jobs and go through treatment. Then we’ll have individual counseling, if needed. A lot of times, if there is a workplace incident, they’ll recommend treatment or counseling,” Castle said.
Ray said the intensive outpatient program will be added after the residential program begins.
“That’s not the first thing we’re going to roll out, but that’s definitely going to be coming really soon,” she said. “The success rates are really good with it because people have a stake. They want to go to that so they can stay in their own home and get some help.
“Finally, we’re going to have a treatment facility in Faulkner County where folks can get help without having to leave the county they live in. That in itself can be a barrier for somebody.”
The facility has a commercial kitchen where three meals a day will be served, Castle said.
“As it stands right now, we’re going to have to hire kitchen staff, as well as more counselors.”
An issue is that the conditional-use permit has lapsed for the Phoenix Recovery Center to operate an on-site treatment facility.
The Conway City Council approved the conditional-use permit in November 2014 to allow the center to offer clinical treatment services, and the program was supposed to come back in November 2015 for a review.
Castle said because the building was not completed, he did not get back on the City Council’s agenda. Mayor Tab Townsell said that was understandable. The issue was on the agenda in January, but it was not addressed, Castle said. The City Council voted 8-0 during that January meeting to hold a review of the matter in committee.
Matt Bell, who was in China, said in a telephone interview that he and Castle attended the January meeting but were told the Phoenix Recovery Center treatment-facility issue needed to be pulled to discuss “some of the issues out of the council meeting.” He has met with Conway Police Chief Jody Spradlin and Townsell.
“I haven’t heard back from the city,” Bell said.
City Attorney Chuck Clawson said that means the conditional-use permit has lapsed.
“It is officially expired, I think, but that doesn’t mean they can’t continue to finish out their facility,” Clawson said.
Townsell said that because of some residents’ concerns about the Phoenix Recovery Center’s transitional housing, the city wanted to investigate those concerns first, and that investigation is ongoing.
“We didn’t deal with it that night,” Townsell said. “We decided we weren’t ready to approach it. I think they are working with us; we’re the ones that have been holding off on consideration. We felt like we had to get some things resolved on the first issue (transitional housing). We have been in limbo talking through the various issues with them. I think we’re ready to separate them out and go on and clarify what’s going on with the treatment facility.
“I think we’re going to move to put it on the agenda very quickly and at least get us out of limbo and move forward. Then we can judge after a period of time whether we want to continue.”
Under the city’s 2013 amended ordinance to allow the transitional housing, residents are not allowed who have violent, robbery, sexual or firearms offenses. Spradlin said a few residents were found a month or two ago to have had robbery or firearms offenses.
Bell said those individuals were part of a re-entry program backed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and the parolees were selected by Arkansas Community Correction, not the Phoenix Recovery Center staff. Bell said the ACC officials sent some parolees with those violations, despite the fact that he told them of the city’s ordinance restricting him from having those residents.
Castle said last week that he isn’t worried about opening the center without the conditional-use permit because the City Council realizes the great need for a treatment facility
in Conway.
“We finally got the board to see that there is a problem with drugs and alcohol in the community, and it’s a well-needed service,” he said.
“My entire thing is education for everybody,” Castle said. “Please educate the children,” because drugs are readily available. “You can get heroin here in Conway very easily. It’s everything from marijuana to everything you can possibly think of here in Conway, which is scary.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.