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Photo and article by Conor Griffith – BUSINESS EDITOR

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia has a new tool in its arsenal in the ongoing fight against substance abuse and addiction — WVU Medicine’s Center for Hope and Healing.

The center is a 29,305-square-foot addiction treatment facility that offers 12 beds for sub-acute medically managed withdrawal care, along with an additional 30 beds for residential care for up to 28 days.

The center held its grand opening Friday morning, which was followed by tours and an open house.

“When I saw the first pictures of the center, it brought tears to my eyes,” said Cici Brown, reflecting on having such a facility close to West Virginia University.

Brown attended the grand opening with her husband, Bobby. They lost their son, Ryan, in 2014 during the height of the opioid epidemic. He attended WVU.

The Browns took their story before the state Legislature, which subsequently passed House Bill 2428 during the 2017 regular session, creating the Ryan Brown Addiction Prevention and Recovery Fund.

As a result, the state Department of Health and Human Resources has committed $20.8 million toward substance use disorder programs to expand residential treatment services across the state.

The Center for Hope and Healing, which will be accepting its first patients Monday, will support adults struggling with substance use disorders through medically supervised withdrawal stabilization and residential treatment.

“If a person doesn’t want help, there’s nothing we can do for them. But if a person does want that help, we need to be there for them,” Bobby Brown said. “I feel this is just the beginning.”

The center’s treatment programs will include detoxification, residential treatment, individualized treatment plans, medication-assisted treatments, trauma-informed care and mindfulness-based practices, along with specialized programming for recent overdose survivors and pregnant women.

Patients can be admitted to the center either through referral from other institutes or self-referral.

Dr. James Berry, director of addiction services at WVU Medicine Chestnut Ridge Center, said the Center for Hope and Healing completes the range of services already offered around Morgantown.

“As an addiction doctor, one of our biggest annoyances was the inability to offer the full range of treatments in West Virginia,” he said.

Berry said that previously, once patients with substance use disorders were released from the hospital, they often had to seek long-term treatment elsewhere. Now that’s no longer the case, Berry said, adding that he envisions the new center becoming a regional resource for addiction treatment, not just a local one.

In addition to the grand opening Friday, a special gift was made in support of the Center for Hope and Healing.

Douglas Leech, CEO and founder of Ascension Recovery Services, contributed $60,000 to establish the Center for Hope and Healing Patient Care Fund.

“An option like this has only been offered in the past out of state to those who have commercial insurance and the ability to cash-pay a hefty fee,” Leech said of the new treatment center.

Leech added that WVU Medicine was there to offer him residential treatment when he needed it.

“WVU Medicine has always been there for me, and I’m grateful to be able to give back to an organization that helped me and so many others in our state,” he said.