By SYDNEY KENT
New leadership accompanies new policy changes at Praxis, formally known as Landmark Recovery, an addiction recovery facility with a 90-person capacity.
In late February of this year, neighbors of the facility voiced concerns to the Bluffton Common Council surrounding practices at Praxis.
Bill Stoller, a resident of a nearby neighborhood who spoke as a representative of the Hi-Lo subdivision, said residents experienced Praxis patients entering the neighborhood. Patients would arrive without weather-appropriate clothing or cell phones, approaching their homes and asking for food, shelter, or to use a phone. Concerns had reached a climax when the body of a missing woman, formerly a patient at Praxis, was found in an abandoned area in the neighborhood.
In March, Praxis released an investigation report in response to these concerns, published on the city website, which identified issues found with facility operations. It also outlined actions Praxis intended to implement to remedy the concerns.
Actionable items promised from the report included:
• Updating discharge planning policies.
• Providing a charging station for cell phones.
• Providing a safe space for patients to wait once discharged.
• Providing patient education regarding community interaction.
One of the items from the report, a promise of new leadership, was implemented in April. Trevor Conger, the new executive director at Praxis, has a background in the military. Following six years of service as a sergeant with the Indiana National Guard, Conger worked in operations management. Conger said he hopes to bring more structure and organization to Praxis with his skill set, along with the help of the skills of the existing team.
Conger said the facility has made positive strides in staffing.
“We’re fully staffed now on our floor-level staff,” Conger said. “We do have some openings in nursing, patient engagement specialists, and clinical departments if there is interest. We accept applications and we would love to have local people join our team. However, we have enough staff to adequately care for the number of patients.”
Conger said “floor level staff” primarily includes patient engagement specialists, nurses, and other 24-hour staff. Conger said Praxis will continue to partner with Elite Medical to utilize staffing resources as needed.
An additional staffing change is the new assistant executive director of Praxis, Ethan Koby, who graduated from the program before beginning as a patient engagement specialist. Koby said he worked as a patient engagement manager and an operations implementation manager with Praxis before beginning as assistant executive director in March.
“I started in this field after being a patient,” Koby said. “Being in recovery was my driving force for moving towards employment here.”
According to the report, previous discharge planning policies did not effectively account for developing a safe discharge plan for some patients.
Koby said that these specific policies have been updated.
“For an unscheduled discharge, someone who decides abruptly to leave or is administratively discharged, those are the ones we used to not provide transportation to,” Koby said. “With recent policy changes, we’ve begun transporting people within a 50-mile radius on our end.”
Koby said when possible, Praxis will attempt to “schedule” discharges for the next day, which allows for additional transportation options.
Koby also said the facility has a new area where residents can “recoup” while waiting to be discharged. This area is part of the proposed wall mentioned in the report.
“We have a separate area off of the unit,” Koby said. “It has beanbag chairs, couches, a television, and charging stations so they can get their things charged. They can be in there to orchestrate their transportation, or hang tight while we arrange transportation.”
“Overall, making sure we have safe transportation for the people who decide to leave against our advice and no longer want to receive treatment,” Conger added. “Those were the main concerns, and now we have changed the policy by still providing them a ride and helping them understand we still want to get them safely to where they want to go.”
One concern mentioned at the February meeting was the demand Praxis places on police resources, with as many as five calls to the Bluffton Police Department per day. According to police logs, the number of daily incidents requiring the fire or police departments has decreased to approximately one or two times per day.
“The decline in needing police resources goes back to ensuring patients are being transported safely to where they go,” Conger said. “Most calls were from patients wanting to leave and not being able to use transportation.”
Conger said that he has maintained an open line of communication with the community and is “more than happy” to speak with the concerned neighbors of the facility on an ongoing basis.
Stoller responded to a request for comments with a similar hope. He shared his point of view on the changes community members have seen since the initial meeting in February.
“We are a residential community, the neighbors know each other and get along well. We aren’t a ‘high-end’ community, but it’s a nice neighborhood, we don’t want our property values to go down,” Stoller said. “A woman died a couple of blocks down from our house, it was a very sad situation for the community. However, I will say, it has improved. I have to give them (Praxis) credit for that.”
“We’re not seeing as many people in our neighborhood as we did under the previous leadership. We’ve still had a few, though nothing like it was before. We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they asked us if we wanted a fence. Overall, they have reduced their numbers, and that in itself has helped. Now, we mainly see the fire department there it seems almost daily, though not in our neighborhood. They also explained if people want to leave, they can’t keep them there against their will.”
“I want to add — we are glad Praxis is here, we know there is a need and we appreciate the point that people are there trying to get help, we’re sad that they’ve gotten to these points in life and want help to be available for them,” Stoller added. “We simply aren’t sure a residential area is the best option. We will see how things continue to progress. We would like to be included in knowing what is going on, we appreciate an open line of communication.”
Conger said he has continued to discuss updates and actions taken within the facility each week with the city and intends to continue this as long as it is needed.
“The purpose of the meetings is to find ways that we can improve efficiency so the community is not being negatively affected, rather positively, by us being here,” Conger said. “So far, we have made strides of improvement.”
“I have found a large impact of hearing community members and what their issues are,” Conger said. “Anyone from the community with comments can email me directly.” Conger suggested writing “community concerns” in the email subject line. Conger’s email is trevor.conger@praxistreatment.com.
sydney@news-banner.com
