March 11, 2020
MHA treatment facility paving road to recovery
By JILL DENNING GACKLE
It’s called Good Road Recovery Center for a reason.
A product of the MHA Nation, the drug treatment center in north Bismarck provides 120-day residential treatment programs and outpatient options to Native Americans who need to find a path to long-term recovery.
The $25 million 20,000 square foot facility was a brainchild of a lot of people who saw the effects of alcohol and drugs on tribal members.
Ty Thompson, executive director of the facility, is one of those. He said Chairman Mark Fox recognized that there was a need for a treatment center when the plans were discussed in 2015. The surge in population, sometimes large amounts of money and the appeal of alcohol and drugs, ignited a problem on the reservation.
Thompson, who was schooled in addiction and trained at other facilities in the nation and state, said he wasn’t comfortable with starting a 30 or 60-day recovery. He wanted a program that would stick – 120 days – and get the clients on the road to a lifetime of recovery.
The facility now serves eight females and eight males in separate residential wings and hosts a variety of 12-step meetings in its cafeteria. More than 50 clients have been through the various in-patient and out-patient programs with about half of those coming from the Fort Berthold Reservation. The other half come from other places in and outside North Dakota, but all are enrolled tribal members.
A product of the MHA Nation, the drug treatment center in north Bismarck provides 120-day residential treatment programs and outpatient options to Native Americans who need to find a path to long-term recovery.
The $25 million 20,000 square foot facility was a brainchild of a lot of people who saw the effects of alcohol and drugs on tribal members.
Ty Thompson, executive director of the facility, is one of those. He said Chairman Mark Fox recognized that there was a need for a treatment center when the plans were discussed in 2015. The surge in population, sometimes large amounts of money and the appeal of alcohol and drugs, ignited a problem on the reservation.
Thompson, who was schooled in addiction and trained at other facilities in the nation and state, said he wasn’t comfortable with starting a 30 or 60-day recovery. He wanted a program that would stick – 120 days – and get the clients on the road to a lifetime of recovery.
The facility now serves eight females and eight males in separate residential wings and hosts a variety of 12-step meetings in its cafeteria. More than 50 clients have been through the various in-patient and out-patient programs with about half of those coming from the Fort Berthold Reservation. The other half come from other places in and outside North Dakota, but all are enrolled tribal members.
