'We need to do something now': Drug counseling center seen as one way to save city

Declaring that efforts to stem drug addiction in Hagerstown are not working, city officials last week got behind a plan to build a walk-in, "on demand" counseling center to get people the help they need.

The center being planned by Brooke's House would be open 14 hours a day in the South End Shopping Center on Maryland Avenue and staffed by the sober-living program's clients who organizers say will be particularly adept at connecting with those in need.

The Hagerstown City Council on Tuesday decided to look at whether it can support the $232,000 project with money the city received from the American Rescue Plan Act.

Brooke's House, opened off Downsville Pike in 2019, offers substance abuse treatment, outpatient group treatment and intensive outpatient treatment to women suffering from addiction. It was named in honor of Brooke Simmers, a 19-year-old Clear Spring woman who died of a heroin overdose in 2015.

Misery to ministry: Maryland, top 5 nationally in opioid-related overdose death rates, seeks to change course

Simmers dreamed of managing a sober house for women, and when she died, her father, former Hagerstown Police Department narcotics officer Kevin Simmers, worked to make the home a reality.

Kevin Simmers oversaw $1 million in donations to establish Brooke's House, which today serves about 50 women a month.

Who will be able to use the new treatment center?

Simmers told Mayor Tekesha Martinez and the council that he now wants to extend his help to men through the counseling center. Women will also be able to get help there, as well as adolescents, he said.

"That's probably that fastest growing problem we have in our county right now is overdoses in the schools. We get a lot of calls for that," Simmers said.

More: What happened with the assault on officer, EMS situation at Springfield Middle School?

Brooke's House already has a coffee shop and a thrift store in the shopping center. Brooke's House Coffee & Chocolates and Brooke's House Thrift store helps clients learn job skills and the operations raise revenue for the organization. Brooke's House also runs a junk removal service.

Simmers said anyone suffering from addiction will be able to walk into the counseling center, get an assessment and be set up for a treatment plan.

He envisions it being open between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m., although he said the times could be shifted based on need.

Individuals will be assisted by Brooke's House clients who probably will have spent less that two years in recovery, and as a result, will have keen insight into the needs of the struggling, said Simmers. He said his experience tells him that drug users usually aren't interested in confiding to police, medics or health department workers.

Cannabis dosage: Legal marijuana edible dosage goes up. As have calls to the Maryland Poison Center.

When Brooke's House clients graduate from the program, they are required to give back to the organization through work like at the coffee shop or the thrift shop. They will also be able work as peer support staff at the counseling center, which many are excited about, Simmers said.

He said one aspect of the center's plans that he's lacking is housing for individuals. He has some space for females but not males.

So Simmers said if someone comes to the center on a Friday, Brooke's House staff will have to arrange for special help to keep them safe for the weekend. Simmers said Brooke's House has access to a local medical professional who can provide medicine like the anti-overdose agent Narcan to an individual to keep them safe until they can be assessed.

"I think once we're up and going, I think you'll see a lot of facilities open the door for us," Simmers said.

How is it being funded?

Simmers said Brooke's House can fund the approximately $400,000 it will require annually to run the center if the city can help pay for the construction of it. The county has committed $20,000 for the project, Simmers said.

Councilman Bob Bruchey suggested using $500,000 the city has set aside in American Rescue Plan Act funding. The money is being reserved for a 24-hour crisis center to help with the local drug crisis. That plan has been eyed by the state.

Referring to data from the Hagerstown Police Department contained in a document he was holding, Bruchey said the city is still facing a serious drug addiction threat.

"What we're doing currently is not working," Bruchey said. "We need to do something now. We've got to stop waiting on something to happen by someone else."

The Maryland Department of Health has been considering building four 24-hour crisis centers in the state, with one being in Western Maryland. The center would be a place for people in crisis to get referral help for addiction and homelessness, although it would not be a treatment center.

Simmers said both his counseling center and the crisis center could benefit Washington County. If the counseling center is built, it will be added to a number of initiatives already in place throughout the community to battle addiction. Among them is a mobile crisis unit operated by Way Station of the Shepherd Pratt Health System. The crisis unit works to diffuse addiction emergencies then sets up treatment for individuals.

Like the 'Wild West': 18-year-old Hagerstown man charged with several counts of attempted murder in shootout

And the Washington County Health Department has a crisis coordinator who works with first responders to improve care for overdose victims.

Simmers said in a phone interview Thursday that anything the community can offer in the addiction battle is needed.

"All hands on deck," he said.

Simmers said during Tuesday's council meeting that he and Councilwoman Shelley McIntire have sat on committees with local health officials since 2016 to study ways of battling addiction. He said the committees involve "a lot of great people with great ideas, but we just keep talking. And meanwhile, people keep dying and people keep overdosing."

"What we're doing at Brooke's House is we're doing something right now," he said.

McIntire acknowledged the city's pressing need.

"We've got to figure out a way to save this community," she said.

Councilman Kristin Aleshire said he read in the counseling center's plans that the facility won't be able to handle more complex mental health issues until it receives licensing to do so.

Aleshire wanted to know what that might look like for the shopping center, adding there was once a mental health center next door to city hall that didn't blend well with downtown.

Simmers assured Aleshire that the counseling center will be part of a solution and that there won't be "needles laying around on sidewalks."

'A lot of people suffering out there'

But Simmers also emphasized that he can't control everything about drug addiction, saying it infiltrates just about everywhere.

"We have that problem in downtown Hagerstown. We have that problem in the South End Shopping Center now. Tell me where we don't have that problem," Simmers said.

Simmers said Brooke's House gets a lot of its clients from in-patient facilities or through court referrals. He said there's a facility in Delaware that acts as a "feeder" to Brooke's House, and some clients come from Frederick. Brooke's House has also taken people off the street, "but that's very challenging," Simmers said.

He recounted once when a woman drove her daughter from Florida and left her in the parking lot of Brooke's House at 7 a.m.

"The need is real. There's a lot of people suffering out there," Simmers said.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Addiction counseling center planned in Hagerstown by Brooke's House