WELLSVILLE – Sara Pease, chief nursing officer of New Day Recovery, addressed the Wellsville Village Council Tuesday to speak with council members about her interest in expanding services into the village.

Pease said that New Day Recovery, based in Niles, has offices in Boardman, East Liverpool and Newton Falls, as well as a 240-bed detox facility in Niles, is looking to bring a sober living facility to Wellsville.

According to Pease, New Day Recovery is committed to getting addiction treatment and mental health treatment to people who need it the most, so they are looking to bring additional resources to Wellsville that would allow residents once they have completed treatment at a detox or residential facility they would be able to move into a home with additional support provided by the Mental Health Recovery Board.

Pease noted she feels the southern portion of Columbiana County is often overlooked when it comes to services such as this.

Pease said her purpose at the meeting was to touch base with council members and see if they had any questions for her before New Day Recovery even considered purchasing property in Wellsville. She also said she and her team looked at several properties in the village on Tuesday.

Council Member Aaron Smith asked her how long the organization has been established. Pease said it has been 10 years.

Council Member Cindy Mick asked if the property they were looking for could be an individual home, to which Pease said if it met the needs of having bedrooms plus a common gathering room for the residents. She also said the property has to be appropriate and something that the staff themselves would live in because the owner of the company won’t put patients in a home that staff themselves would not live it in. She also noted that the location needed to feel like a home for the residents.

She said the common room was important because many of the residents need to relearn how to socialize, communicate and have fun without the drugs.

Smith then asked about the program’s success rate, which Pease said was about 60%. She noted that success rate in detox is lower than anything else, but if they make it through, that the success rate improves. 

Pease noted that they do look into family situations and try to fix those if they can. She said she knows they can’t fix the family, but maybe they can fix the situation, such as getting employment so they can get a driver’s license and back child support taken care of and other issues. She said that when a person goes out to a sober living facility, the success rate becomes about 60%.

Pease also said the focus through the whole process isn’t just on the addiction, but also on mental and physical health, and social skills addressing the whole person so they can adjust back into an addiction free life and society.

Council Member Karen Dash asked Pease what she needed from the village and Pease responded she needs approval, support and an open mind because she wants New Day Recovery to be an ally in the community with people being able to see the success rates and the stories with the patients.

Council President Keith Thorn asked how many clients would be housed and if the recovery center works with the local drug courts, to which Pease said residents depends on the how many the property could comfortably accommodate and they regular work with the courts.

Mick asked how long a stay in sober living was, and Pease said that depends on the individual and the progress they make in counseling and getting a job and being ready to reintegrate back into society.

Mayor Bob Boley said he was for it. Police Lt. Marsha Eisenhart said Police Chief Eddie Wilson had already met with the team from New Day Recovery, and they were both on board with it, and several council members said they were okay with a sober living facility in the village.

Eisenhart said it meets the people where there are, and they are here, and they need the help, so they might as well offer it.

The presentation on Tuesday was for discussion purposes only and to let the village know what is being planned, but there are no concrete plans at the moment on the opening the sober living facility in the village yet as a lot of that depends on funding and purchasing suitable property.