PARSHALL A residential recovery facility for those with alcohol and substance abuse issues has received a large grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to expand its services.
The grant of $735,992 will be used by the Parshall Resource Center in Parshall to expand its substance abuse treatment services.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/Center for Substance Abuse Treatment of the federal agency provided the grant money covering a three-year period which began Sept. 30 of this year. The funding is for $247,264 for the first year and then $244,364 for the next two years.
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Eloise Ogden/MDN
Karmon Taft, coordinator, is in the office of the Parshall Resource Center in Parshall, shown in this May 27 photo. Behind him is some of the food for the center-operated emergency food pantry. The resource center recently received a grant of more than $700,000 to expand its substance abuse treatment services.
"This funding will empower our rural communities to build the infrastructure necessary to provide accessible community-based services and recovery opportunities for years to come," said Karmon Taft, program coordinator for the resource center, a nonprofit organization.
The grant project will expand the number of clients that the resource center serves and enhance its services by adding social detoxification, drug toxicity screening, cultural education, outreach, particularly to returning Gulf War veterans and diagnosis of co-occurring mental health disorders, Taft said.
In regard to social detox, Taft said, "It will give us a 72-hour intervention window." He said social detox will get a person "out of the elements and off the street," and provide that person "a bed to sleep in." Staff will monitor the person and make referrals and/or coordinate services. Taft said that first 72-hours is a critical time period "when people are hurting" and need some help.
Currently, the resource center has a capacity of 14 beds, including eight transitional beds.
Under the grant project, cross training will be provided to staff of the resource center and Circle of Life, a treatment program in New Town, and 50 partner agency staff members who will be working with the resource center.
Taft noted special appreciation to Fort Berthold Community College in New Town "for its response and commitment to help meet the needs of the community."
History
The Parshall Resource Center has been in existence since 1992.
Both the resource center and Circle of Life were chartered by the Three Affiliated Tribes to provide culturally relevant services that meet state and federal standards.
"We wouldn't be here without the tribe," Taft said.
Most clients are American Indian, almost entirely members of the Three Affiliated Tribes Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. Most clients are males. Tribal court is responsible for the majority of the clientele and the other 40 percent are from referrals.
The resource center also operates an emergency food pantry project. The food pantry provides for members of the Three Affiliated Tribes and nontribal members who are in need. Volunteers with the resource center help stock and organize the items and also help carry items to vehicles when people come to pick up the items.
The food is purchased by the resource center from the Great Plains Food Bank in Fargo, which delivers the food. Every month a food order is placed by the resource center to the Fargo food bank.
"We need to build bridges, not just program to program," Taft said, of the resource center's efforts to help clients and also provide community services.