BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – Addiction treatment and prevention programs provide much-needed services to the community. Organizations like Heartview in Bismarck employ counselors to help people break their substance abuse disorders. However, it and other organizations like it need funding in order to provide those services. In January, the state of North Dakota received over seven million dollars in opioid settlement funds. Representatives from behavioral health organizations gathered recently to report where those funds have gone. Heartview says they put money toward a new scholarship for addiction counselors.
“There’s just a lack of access for services, and that lack of access is really just built into, ‘I don’t have professionals, I don’t have the licensed individuals to provide that treatment.’ So, by funding the program of the training academy of addiction professionals, we’re helping to change that, especially in areas like Western North Dakota,” said Kurt Snyder, Heartview’s Executive Director.
Snyder said in the past couple of years, they were able to train about four counselors. This year, they’re training 26. Bismarck isn’t the only city benefiting from this funding. Jonathan Layne with Endeavor Sober Living in Minot said they used their grant money to purchase and renovate an apartment building for mothers recovering from addiction.
“Addiction, it’s not a little 30-day magic wand deal. So, we’re about sustainability and the long-term. We provide rides to continuing treatment and to meetings and to other things the girls need to work,” Layne said.
North Dakota Health and Human Services says nearly 900 North Dakotans have benefited from these grant funds over the past six months.
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