Peer respite center to help those in mental health, substance recovery

The peer respite center is being funded by a $1.4 million NCDHHS grant.
More than 20 people are already on the waiting list.

A new center in Henderson County for people in need of mental health, substance use or crisis support will soon begin accepting guests.

It will be staffed 24 hours a day by certified peer support counselors and host people for up to five days at a time, Lexie Wilkins told the Times-News Nov. 3.

“It is designed to be a steppingstone to help fill in the gaps,” he said.

Wilkins is the founder of the Love and Respect Community for Recovery and Wellness in Hendersonville, which partnered with Vaya Health and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to open the center, according to an Oct. 23 news release.

Groups behind a peer respite center, funded by a $1.4 million grant from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, held a ribbon cutting ceremony in October and are now putting the finishing touches on the facility before they open its doors.

“It’s not for any particular population of people,” he said.

He said it might serve someone living on the street, without anywhere to go to recover after surgery, someone badly overwhelmed with long-term care responsibilities for a loved one or someone between short-term and long-term treatment for substance use.

“This would be the ideal place for them, so they don’t have to return back to familiar places and things … Recovery is the atmosphere,” he said.

The center will put an emphasis on comfort and respect for guests, Wilkins said.

Doors on private bedrooms lock for privacy and security and guests can take advantage of a living room “with a big screen TV and all the furnishings of home,” he said.

“All a person has to bring is themselves,” he said.

For five years, Wilkins has run Love and Respect’s peer living room, a non-residential drop-in center, geared specifically towards people in recovery from substance use or trying to get into recovery.

He said that funding to sustain the respite center program will come from the same foundations, grants and fundraisers that Love and Respect depends on.

The respite center hasn’t started accepting guests yet but there are already more than 20 people on the waitlist, Wilkins said.

“Unfortunately, it’s not low-barrier, and not everyone that applies will be a fit,” he said.

Someone in active addiction or with disruptive behavioral problems might not be. But for someone working to get help, he hopes it can make a big difference.

Love and Respect’s recovery community organization, which includes the peer living room, is the best place for people looking to get into recovery, he said.

Wilkins knows about recovery. He’s been clean and sober for 20 years.

“Me and my whole crew and staff were, at one point in time, some of the people that would qualify for respite services, if it was available back then,” he said.

He pointed to the Oxford House, a nearby residential recovery community organization that helped him when he was living with active addiction, as a proof of concept.

The support and nurturing environment of living with people going through the same thing as you can be transformative, he said.

“We want to slay the stigma and get away from what society and media has depicted us as hopeless, derelict individuals that are going nowhere … we do come back, we do recover,” Wilkins said.

George Fabe Russell is the Henderson County Reporter for the Hendersonville Times-News. Tips, questions, comments? Email him at [email protected].

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