LEBANON — As a nonprofit continues to work towards construction on a residential substance use treatment center for moms and their children, they are looking at other ways to support a community in dire need.
“As much as we are focusing on building and getting the building open, we are also focusing on how can we start supporting this community before the roof is on and the doors are open,” said Bethany Cottrell, executive director of Families Flourish Northeast.
Though originally expected to open by the end of this year, challenges including delays in federal funding have pushed the opening to sometime in 2027, said Cottrell.
The Enfield-based nonprofit secured city approval to start building a three-story residential treatment facility with space for 12 moms and their children on Mount Support Road near Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center last summer. The nonprofit was established for this purpose in 2020.
Site preparations are underway, and the project team is working on securing permits, completing environmental reviews and finalizing funding, Cottrell said. They expect to break ground soon, according to a recent news release, but do not have an exact date yet.
Due to inflation, Cottrell said the estimated cost of the project has climbed from about $8 million last summer to $12.2 million.
The nonprofit has secured about three-quarters of the funding through federal allocations, grants and other sources. They plan to secure a loan from Claremont Savings Bank’s community loan fund to cover the remaining cost to begin construction while fundraising is ongoing.
In the meantime, Cottrell said the nonprofit is also looking at ways to provide support to mothers in need before the facility is complete and hopes to start offering case management services at the beginning of 2027.
Families Flourish is partnering with support providers like Dartmouth Health and TLC Family Resource Center to build a “continuum of care” to bring patients into.
“When a pregnant woman is identified and she is referred to our program, instead of us saying we’ll call you when we’re open, we can say we’ll connect you with someone now, and they can start providing those services.”
The service will involve working directly with clients, especially in more rural and underserved parts of the region, and connecting them with a dedicated “point person” and outpatient resources that already exist.
Case management will also be useful when Families Flourish does open because there is likely to be a waitlist for the intensive inpatient treatment that will be offered, Cottrell said.
Sullivan County has a particularly high need for this kind of care.
Of all babies born in the county in 2024, about 15% were exposed to substances including cannabis, nicotine, opioids, cocaine and other stimulants as infants, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. Sullivan County is second only to Coos County for the amount of infant substance exposure in the state and is a maternal healthcare desert.
A recent study determined that in New Hampshire, one of the most important issues in women’s health is increasing access to behavioral health services, including substance use disorder.
“There are few providers, waiting lists are long (six months to a year for adults
and often longer for children), and travel times and distances are long or infeasible,” stated the women’s health care access report completed in May by the NH Insurance Department.
