WHEELING, W.Va. — John Antal, the Clinical Director of Serenity Hills Life Center, knows the importance of putting together all possible resources and minds in the fight against addiction.
Another resource has opened in Wheeling, as Serenity Hills Life Center, a new residential West Virginia licensed behavior health facility that serves as long-term substance use disorder recovery center for women, held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Friday.
“I think if we all cooperate and work together, it will form a sense of cohesion,” Antal said. “It just seems like there are never enough beds for the epidemic that is happening in the state of West Virginia.”
Serenity Hills Life Center will be located on 150 acres in Ohio County as the main building is 42,000 square feet and hold 72 beds.
Another 10 beds can be counted at a renovated farmhouse that will be used by pregnant women. A third structure will serve as a halfway house for patients in the next level of care.
According to a release on the center, space also includes a commercial kitchen, dining area, office spaces, a gym, a chapel, a learning library, classrooms, laundry facilities, and a full security system.
“This is a female population of adult women who are dealing with addiction issues whether drugs, alcohol, anything that is affecting them,” Antal said. “What we hope to do is serve the females of the state of West Virginia, especially the Ohio Valley.”
Women will be accepted into the facility based on referral sources such as case managers or the court system, or women can volunteer on their own.
From volunteering, an assessment will be taken at the facility to determine what service an individual will need.
Antal said the goal is to work with the women in a holistic manner, focusing on body, mind, and spirit.
A woman’s stay at the facility will be on a case-by-case basis depending on the addiction, how hard one is working and the resources and support outside of the facility, according to Antal.
“We want to help them understand where the addiction started, how they are dealing with the addiction and what we can do to work with them cognitively through rethinking and reframing the way they think about the lives they are living,” Antal said.
“Once you’re able to control your thoughts and feelings, you can control your actions.”
The property was purchased with a three-million-dollar grant from the Ryan Brown Addiction Prevention and Recovery Fund through the West Virginia Bureau of Behavioral Health and Health Facilities.
Antal said the facility already has referrals lined up and it will open to patients on June 10.