D.C.’s first sobering center, or “stabilization” center, opens this week to provide short-term care for people experiencing a substance-use crisis or emergency.

The stabilization center at 35 K St. NE, which opens Tuesday after months of delays, will provide 24/7 services for individuals 18 or older with no requirements for insurance or residency. For a period of one to three days, treatment teams will connect patients with nurses and nurse practitioners, peer specialists, and recovery coaches. The center will also provide medically assisted treatment like buprenorphine, and offer wrap-around services to continue recovery care, like placement in a longer-term facility.

The center, just off North Capitol Street near Union Station, is run by the Department of Behavorial Health in partnership with Arizona nonprofit Community Bridges, which is actively recruiting community members to serve as peer specialists, DBH director Barbara Bazron said Monday as officials cut the ribbon on the facility.

The center is designed to alleviate pressure on the city’s health system, notably emergency rooms and emergency psychiatric centers. In addition to individuals walking in or getting dropped off by friends or family members, D.C. Fire and EMS crews will be able to transport people to the sobering center instead of the emergency room. DC FEMS transported 3,800 people to the emergency department due to substance use — about 6.3% of all transports — in 2022, according to DC FEMS medical director Dr. Robert Holman.

While this new facility will only serve people over 18, DBH is also currently seeking applicants to run a 24/7 stabilization center for youth.

Mayor Muriel Bowser on Monday touted the opening as another “tool” in the city’s arsenal of services to address the city’s overdose crisis. While DBH runs multiple programs aimed at serving residents using drugs or in recovery, the city is facing increasingly dire pleas to ramp up its response as the fatal overdose rate continues to rise. Through the end of July of 2023, 296 people have died from overdosing, a 17% increase from the same period of 2022 — which was the deadliest year on record.

“It’s about time we got this place open,” At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson, who chairs the council’s health committee, said at the ribbon-cutting. The center, which as been in the works for two years, was originally supposed to open in the spring. “When I have conversations with hospitals, with [Fire Chief John Donnelly], he talks about the need for us to have some other place besides our emergency rooms for individuals who are suffering with substance use disorder to be stabilized and receive other forms of care.”

According to Bazron, the center is meant to be low-barrier and available to anyone regardless of residency or immigration status.

There’s funding in D.C.’s current budget for another stabilization center, something councilmembers and residents would like to see in Wards 5, 7, or 8, the wards with the highest overdose rates. The new center is located in Ward 6.

In addition to critiques of the center’s location, some advocates for harm reduction have said such a center does not go far enough to curb the overdose crisis; namely, it doesn’t keep people safe while they use. The stabilization center’s focus on abstinence and sobriety could create a barrier for individuals actively using drugs — or those who could benefit from a safe-use site, according to advocates. (Such a place allows visitors to use drugs safely with medical staff on hand to intervene in the case of an emergency.)

The opening of the stabilization center came just days after Henderson and Ward 5 councilmember Zachary Parker grilled Bazron and other administration officials in a hearing over the opioid crisis. The council has introduced a resolution calling on the mayor to declare a public health emergency over opioid deaths, which would allow the executive greater authority to implement policy, free up resources, and receive federal financial support.

Bowser said Monday she would “have some discussions” with councilmembers regarding the potential declaration.

Previously:
D.C.’s Opioid Crisis Is Worse Than Ever. Residents, Lawmakers Say Bowser Isn’t Doing Enough
As Local Opioid Fatalities Climb, Harm Reduction Advocates Push For Overdose Prevention Center

This post has been updated to correct that the sobering center is located at 35 K Street NE.