Local substance abuse treatment centers offer an array of services to individuals in need, including substance use and mental health treatment, crisis intervention, nonmedical detox services, long-term recovery services and more.

Among the several health treatment centers in town, Coastal Horizons and The Healing Place have worked relentlessly to meet community demand. And both have established physical presences with the intention of ensuring there’s enough space and services to accommodate clients.

As for Coastal Horizons, the private, nonprofit health treatment center operates in 58 counties, with many of its buildings located in Southeastern North Carolina, according to Margaret Weller-Stargell, president and CEO. It’s also been in operation for nearly 55 years.

“We have, over time, been able to have a more diversified treatment approach so that we know that we’re meeting the needs of the community with a tailored plan of care for individuals,” said Weller-Stargell. “Those services include individual counseling, peer support, family and group counseling, medication-assisted treatment, psychiatric care and a full array of supportive services.”

The health treatment center’s other offerings include substance use and mental health services, mental health awareness training, crisis intervention, community-based family services, school-based health services, justice services and veteran services. It also offers primary care and wellness services through Horizon Health.

Its major funding sources come from the federal and state government, New Hanover County, the city of Wilmington, Cape Fear Area United Way, Cape Fear Memorial Foundation, Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, N.C. Council for Women, Duke Endowment and corporate, individual and foundation giving.

And according to Weller-Stargell, the nonprofit has had several building expansions in recent years to offer more services to individuals in need.

In the past few years, Coastal Horizons added space for a child site in Brunswick County, and that allowed its Shallotte office to expand to add an opioid treatment program, said Weller-Stargell. She added that they established an opioid treatment program in Pender County as well and spoke on the addition of mobile clinics in multiple counties.

“In terms of expansion, we have added two mobile clinics that serve rural counties and communities, and those are largely focused on Bladen, Columbus and Brunswick,” she said. “Those mobile clinics are vitally important to those rural communities.”

The health treatment center’s Wilmington Health Access for Teens program has also doubled in size in terms of the number of clients it is seeing, she said. Coastal Horizons was able to expand that program since it moved from its Oleander location to a new building.

Weller-Stargell said that Coastal Horizons is also in the process of building a new administration building. She added that that would allow the nonprofit to expand its treatment operations in New Hanover County. Plus, the health treatment center moved its justice services to a stand-alone building on South 17th Street, ensuring that all of those services are housed in that building.

“When you look at the behavioral health, the substance use and mental health needs in our community, we do look to expand, not just in this county but in the other counties we serve as well,” she said.

She also emphasized that Coastal Horizons is meeting community demand, expressing that the center is always looking to bridge gaps in its services by either addressing the provided services directly, or by linking with community partners to make sure that they can address the needs of individuals.

“It’s a program that we can all be very proud and happy is here because it does meet the needs of so many people every single day,” she said.

The Healing Place is also on a mission to meet community demand.

According to its website, its mission is to transform individuals affected by addiction or homelessness through accountability and connection. It offers services for both men and women and welcomes everyone regardless of race, gender, religion or economic status.

But as for its history, a lot of groundwork went into starting The Healing Place.

It took nearly 10 years for the program to get to New Hanover County, said executive director Brian Mingia. In addition, officials originally wanted to have two locations, but due to some permitting issues and other problems encountered along the way, the project had died multiple times, Mingia said. But determination led to the eventual birth of the health treatment center.

“It was really only through the perseverance of both Trillium and New Hanover County that this program actually came into existence here,” Mingia said. “Trillium was the entity that donated the land to the project, and New Hanover County paid for the building here, so we have five buildings on roughly 9 acres of land.”

The Healing Place in New Hanover County is modeled after The Healing Place in Louisville, Kentucky, and it uses a nationally recognized social model recovery program, according to its website.

Mingia also said that one of the reasons The Healing Place program was selected for New Hanover County is that it was an alternative to some of the things that already existed in town. He added that the health treatment center is the only free long-term recovery program in New Hanover County.

“We are the largest in this region, and with the opioid use as well the addiction as a whole here in this community, there was an alternative that needed to be presented,” he said.

Individuals in The Healing Place’s long-term residential recovery program typically complete it in six to nine months, but the length of stay depends on each individual. And for both The Healing Place’s long-term recovery and nonmedical detox programs, individuals 18 and older struggling with substance abuse can join.

The nonmedical detox program strives to detoxify and stabilize individuals from drugs or alcohol. In addition, the program offers peer-led recovery and separate accommodations for men and women.

“It’s free of cost to individuals that are coming through the program, and it is incredibly low barrier,” Mingia said. The Healing Place campus has 200 beds.

In 2022, The Healing Place received a grant of $200,000 from the New Hanover Community  Endowment. In the same year, Coastal Horizons received $250,000 from the endowment. The endowment was created from the sale of county-owned New Hanover Regional Medical Center to Novant Health in 2021.