November 7, 2019 | From City of New Orleans
MAYOR CANTRELL CELEBRATES OPENING OF LOUISIANA’S ONLY SOBERING CENTER
NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell today joined partners and leaders to celebrate the opening of the state's only Sobering Center, a 25-bed facility near the French Quarter that treats residents and visitors for serious public intoxication. Intoxicated individuals stay at the facility to sober up under the care of trained staff so they are less vulnerable and ready to return to their residence. Odyssey House Louisiana is working with the support of the New Orleans Health Department, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services and New Orleans Police Department.
“This is about people, this is about meeting them where they are, this is about not only getting them to be sober, but meeting their needs through restorative approaches and help them get on better footing,” said Mayor Cantrell. “This is what the City of New Orleans is about – our people.”
Mayor Cantrell noted that discussion and planning for the Sobering Center goes back more than a year, and thanked Odyssey House Louisiana CEO Ed Carlson in this multi-agency partnership. She also thanked City Council President Helena Moreno for her work on the legislative side to help make the Center happen.
“This is the most support that the Odyssey House has gotten in years. We deal a lot with very difficult indigent populations, and we try to help turn people’s lives around and in all kinds of different ways. We’re going to be intervening with people that have substance abuse problems. And we keep them out of the criminal justice system, we keep them out of the hospitals and clogging up our system in other ways, and we intervene with them and have real meaning to make change for them,” said CEO Carlson.
[WATCH: Facebook Live video of Thursday's ribbon-cutting ceremony]
“This is a great collaboration of a lot minds, a lot of passion, and even more hard work through the years. Sobering Centers in other cities have proven to reduce emergency visits and improve public health outcomes for persons with chronic illnesses. including substance use disorders and homelessness. This space is expected to the decrease the number of ambulance trips to our local emergency departments, thus freeing hospital beds for persons with conditions requiring more acute medical intervention,” said New Orleans Emergency Medical Services Director Dr. Emily Nichols. “In just a few short weeks, we’ve seen that the average turnaround time to drop a patient at the Sobering Center is about 13 minutes, as opposed to waits up to an hour in the hospital. Sobering Center clients are medically supervised in the same manner as a hospital, but they also receive case management support to help those needing assistance with short- and long- term stabilization. It’s a win for first responders, hospitals and, most importantly, the people in need that are utilizing this service.”
“The opening of the Sobering Center is one of many steps that the City of New Orleans is taking under Mayor Cantrell’s leadership to reach people where they are and use a harm-reduction approach. That’s how we look at everything we do when we are serving populations, especially those with substance-use disorders,” said Health Director Dr. Jennifer Avegno. “Our city has a complicated relationship with alcohol, which all too often not only impacts our residents but also our visitors and our loved ones. In the Health Department, we see this affect physical health, mental health, relationships and housing stability. This will be a place where people can be safe and have access to a compassionate place to sober up for a few hours – whether you are a one-time visitor to this city or a chronic alcohol user.”
The New Orleans City Council today passed an ordinance permitting the New Orleans Police Department to join EMS in picking up and dropping off potential clients to the Sobering Center.
The Sobering Center addresses public safety for both inebriated clients and the general population. This helps remove individuals from vulnerable situations or those that might escalating and place them into to a safe, secure environment until they are able to make more conscious choices. While there clients are monitored for specific cues, recover from immediate acute alcohol impairment, and have a “warm handoff” into medically supported detox or additional services if appropriate.
Working with the Mayor’s Office of Human Rights and Equity, public safety agencies in general and the Sobering Center in particular work with clients to ensure they are comfortable in gender-specific and gender-fluid or gender non-binary situations – whether at pick-up or while in the Center.
The Sobering Center began receiving clients nearly two months ago, and EMS began pick-up service in mid-October. OHL runs the facility, while the City provided nearly $1 million in funding with the hope of securing grants, matching funds and additional partnerships moving forward.
There are approximately 20 similar cities either in place or planning to open across the United States, including Houston and Austin, Texas, and Baltimore, Md. Studies have shown that services such as these ease the strain on EMS and police work on the streets as well as capacity in emergency rooms and jails. The Center, similarly to the recently opened Low Barrier Shelter serving homeless residents, operates on the principal of providing as many doors as possible for residents and visitors to get access to medical and behavioral services such as those provided by OHL. So far, Carlson noted, 20 percent of the clients have been connected to additional services.
Early data from the early weeks of service reveal a diverse range of clients, from “chronic inebriates” to visitors from the United Kingdom.
Learn more at the Odyssey House’s Sobering Center web page.