{"id":89460,"date":"2020-04-09T09:03:12","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T15:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/social-distancing-reduces-number-of-detox-referrals\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T10:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:55:24","slug":"social-distancing-reduces-number-of-detox-referrals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/social-distancing-reduces-number-of-detox-referrals\/","title":{"rendered":"Social distancing reduces number of Detox referrals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Thomas
Thomas Bentley, manager at Detox at Crossroads at Grandview, discusses how the command area at Detox works. The facility is located near Mercy Regional Medical Center and is operated by Axis Health System.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The number of people seeking care at Detox has halved since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, but as restrictions and stresses build through the monthlong stay-at-home order, numbers may rise.<\/p>\n

Fewer people drinking and driving means fewer people with DUIs referred to Detox by law enforcement, said Brian Ensign, director of residential and crisis services with Axis Health System\u2019s detox withdrawal program at Detox.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is just a short-term decrease in census and referrals. I think it will pop back up again. But for right now, with people worried and taking care of the crisis at hand, they\u2019re not out as much,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re still taking folks who are withdrawing off alcohol or methamphetamine or other kinds of opiates, mostly alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detox at Crossroads typically sees 10 referrals a day, and Ensign said the current number is about five per day from the counties it serves, La Plata, Montezuma, Archuleta, San Juan and Dolores.<\/p>\n

\"Detox
Detox at Crossroads at Grandview typically receives 10 new referrals per day pre-COVID-19. Currently, it is getting about five new referrals per day.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Clients from local law enforcement agencies in all five counties as well as the Colorado State Patrol, the Southern Ute Tribal Police and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Police Department are referred to Detox at Crossroads.<\/p>\n

The center also serves self-referrals, family referrals and medical referrals, and it is from these sources that Ensign worries client numbers may grow as COVID-19 restrictions endure through the end of the month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing business as usual, and we\u2019re taking care of people that we get. I don\u2019t want to guess at what\u2019s going to happen in the future. I\u2019m hopeful people will be taking care of themselves and not overusing and self-medicating with more alcohol and drugs than usual. Maybe I\u2019m hopeful, but we\u2019ll see,\u201d Ensign said.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas
Thomas Bentley, manager of Detox at Crossroads at Grandview, shows one of the rooms at the facility, which is operated by Axis Health System.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Restrictions have been placed on new referrals to Detox at Crossroads both to protect clients and employees. Patients with symptoms of COVID-19 \u2013 a dry cough, fever, body aches \u2013 are not being seen. And Detox is not taking COVID-19 positive patients, Ensign said.<\/p>\n

Pre-COVID-19 capacity at Detox at Crossroads is 16 patients at a time, but that has been cut to six to maintain social distancing and to abide by health recommendations for operations during the novel coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just taking precautions for clients and staff. We are asking staff members to wear masks for the protection of the patients. And we\u2019re assessing temperature and other vitals on a more regular basis for the patients. We have to make sure they don\u2019t transmit anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Clients
Clients with Detox at Crossroads at Grandview use a Breathalyzer to show they have no alcohol in their system before they can leave.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Detox at Crossroads is still running its outpatient monitoring program for probation and pretrial services with the Department of Human Services as well.<\/p>\n

The center has 20 employees, 10 full-time positions and 10 employees who work part-time shifts, and Ensign said the center has not had to look at furloughs or layoffs yet because of the decreased patient numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are continually watching our budget, but with less patients, our expenses are less. Our staffing has to be the same whether we have five patients or 15. We have a minimum staffing requirement, Ensign said. \u201cAt this point, we haven\u2019t cut, and hopefully we don\u2019t, we won\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

triggers, including stay-at-home order, could reverse trend<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[616,924,480,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-89460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-addiction","tag-alcohol","tag-dui","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89468,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89460\/revisions\/89468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89460"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=89460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}