ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – Monday, the Roanoke Planning Commission approved rezoning a building on Patterson Avenue that will serve as a housing facility and treatment center for women with high-risk pregnancies.
Several community partners are working together to revive a residential treatment facility for the Roanoke Valley.
“Pregnancy is a pivotal time for women; it is often a driver of wanting to go into treatment. And so it’s a great time to have this intervention. And for them to get treatment and learn how to be in recovery while they’re parenting,” said the Chief Compliance Officer for Anderson Treatment, Ali Hamed-Moore.
Hamed-Moore said having a community together helps parenting through the stress of substance use disorder treatment.
“They’ll live here together in community,” emphasized Hamed-Moore. “They’ll receive their treatment on site. And that means therapists who are LCSW and LPCs will deliver group treatment and they’ll learn how to be in recovery with their babies.”
“It made a lot of sense for us to get involved, even though it’s technically not residential units, it’s still, you know, that the need is still there,” said Executive Director for Restoration Housing Isabel Thornton.
The only treatment facility in Southwest Virginia, Bethany Hall, closed in late 2022.
Across the entire commonwealth, only two programs serve moms and children together.
“We plan to have a tight partnership where, you know, we’re providing prenatal care, postpartum care, addiction treatment, and when setting and a residential facility as well, and provide those wraparound services because as we know as moms, that about takes a village to, to raise a child, especially in a vulnerable patient population like this,” said Dr. Kimberly Simcox, physician and former board member of Bethany Hall.
Simcox explained that 88% of common causes of pregnancy-associated deaths result from overdoses.
“We are also neonatal abstinence syndrome or substance-exposed infants, the state rate for substance-exposed infants is about 4.8 per 1,000 births,” clarified Simcox. “But in our area, that number is approaching 30 per 1,000 births.”
There are six bedrooms with a capacity for 16 women and their infants. They say their projected start date would be in the summer of 2024 and dependent on the amount of fundraising.
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Published: Mar. 19, 2024 on WDBJ7 By Amaiya Howard
