Paducah Sun Article, 8/10/2021

By Hannah Saad

Gov. Andy Beshear stopped in Paducah Monday to visit Lifeline Recovery Center and tour one of the two new dormitories on the men’s campus with Lifeline employees. Beshear spoke to a group of Lifeline staff members, board members, city officials and local media about the importance of having different types of treatment services, including residential services offered by Lifeline, to fight the opioid epidemic.

“We are afflicted with an epidemic that is taking the lives of our peers, our parents, and those that we love. We think a lot about our current pandemic, which is deadly, and which we have to defeat. But that doesn’t mean that this epidemic isn’t going to persist,” Beshear said.

Lifeline, a nine-month, Christ-centered, nonprofit recovery program, serves about 150 people struggling with life-controlling addictions each year. Most of the clients the center has served since opening in 2004 are from western Kentucky. The recovery center has built two new dormitories on its men’s campus to house 50 men in different phases of treatment. Lifeline received more than $600,000 in contributions to the dorm project, including more than $100,000 from Paducah Leadership Class 34’s fundraising project, according to published reports.

Beshear was joined by Rocky Adkins, senior adviser to the governor; Steven Powless, board chairman of Lifeline Recovery Center; Ashley Miller, executive director of Lifeline; and Jaquelyn Cannon, program coordinator of Lifeline. Also in attendance were Mayor George Bray, Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Wilson and City Commissioner Raynarldo Henderson.

Powless spoke to the crowd about how treating one person for addiction can help more than just the person in treatment. “If one individual is saved and is cured from his life-controlling addiction, then what it stands to serve for that individual’s family, and their children and grandchildren, and on, it’s pretty incredible,” Powless said.

Miller and Powless took the governor and Adkins to tour Hunt Hall, named after Ken Hunt, a Lifeline board member and owner of A&K Construction, the company that worked on the dorm project. Powless said Lifeline received its certificate of occupancy for Hunt Hall this past Friday. The construction of the building was funded entirely by donations, Powless added.

Hunt Hall is geared toward residents in the last six months of the nine-month treatment program, and includes a transitional area for residents in the last three months of the program, who have jobs and are preparing to graduate the program.

In the last three months of the program, patients have the option to either live on the campus or at home. Miller told the governor she hopes having a transitional area in the dorm hall gives an option to those who feel like they are not ready to go to their home environments or who feel they need more guidance from program coordinators in the last phase of treatment.

While on the dorm hall tour, Beshear spoke to Miller and Powless about options for funding and grant money from the state now that Lifeline is licensed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services as an inpatient entity for alcohol and other treatment.

Cannon, a program director who is also a Lifeline graduate, spoke to the crowd about how she rebuilt her life after 10 years of addiction and attributed her overcoming her addiction and rebuilding her life to God and to Lifeline. “Had [Lifeline] not given me the tools to stay sober and the courage to hold on to the promises of God, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Cannon said.

Since 2013, 63% of program participants remain sober one year after completion of the program — the goal is to raise this number to 70% by 2022, according to Lifeline’s website.

Beshear also spoke about the importance of giving people who are recovering another chance at life, and to give them credit for trying to beat their addiction. “Addiction has got to be the hardest thing ever imaginable to beat,” Beshear said.

The center is licensed for both inpatient and outpatient services. In July, Lifeline received a three-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, an independent, international, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services. The accreditation indicates that a recovery center conforms to treatment standards and represents a commitment to improving the quality of lives of its patients, according to CARF.

Beshear was in Paducah a month ago to award the city and CenterPoint Recovery Center for Men, a 120-bed facility for men going through treatment for substance abuse, a $200,000 grant to address a reduction in funds at CenterPoint which occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Executive director Ashley Miller said the two licenses and accreditation are Lifeline’s firsts.

“We have worked many years to achieve these milestones,” she said. “Meeting the strict standards for licensure and accreditation is a wonderful affirmation of our recovery program and reflects the commitment to excellence from our staff and volunteers. It is a stamp of approval to give our clients and their families confidence in the treatment we offer.”

Lifeline Recovery Center is a Christ-centered recovery program for those dealing with life-controlling addictions. Started in 2004 in Paducah, Ky., the program has served more than 2,000 people with a 63 percent success rate of sobriety after one year. Each year, about 150 people benefit from the 12-step Celebrate Recovery program, structured lifestyle changes, Bible study, counseling, volunteer service at community organizations, job skills training and employment. The nine-month program relies on a staff of 15, including many graduates, and 75 volunteers, as well as contracted professional counseling services. It is a nonprofit organization, depending on charitable donations for more than 75 percent of its budget. Most clients come from Western Kentucky.