Friday, November 16, 2012
YOUNGSTOWN
Parents struggling with addiction no longer have to find sitters for their children — or have their children sit in — while they get treatment at Meridian Community Care.
A new baby-sitting room is just one of the many features of Meridian’s main campus renovation and expansion that began in September 2011. Company officials had a ribbon-cutting and offered tours Thursday of the 12,000-square-foot expansion at 527 N. Meridian Road.
“It was important for us to keep our location because the most important thing is to have more people have access to treatment. We’ve been here about 40 years,” said Leanne Miller, a marketing and development coordinator at Meridian.
The main campus added 15 counseling offices and two group rooms in its recovery building and expanded counseling services for adults and youths in addition to increased preventive programming.
“By expanding our facility, we hope to ensure that more people get access to treatment. We will also be able to provide more integrated services for clients and their families to support their long-term recovery,” said Larry Moliterno, president and chief executive of Meridian Community Care, in a news release.
Miller said Meridian now has the space to offer “integrated health care” for clients.
“We’ll be able to give them primary health care if they don’t have a primary doctor. It will be a one-stop shop,” she said.
Miller said the expansion is bittersweet for staff because it means more people need treatment services.
“Absolutely we do see the need for more care and our goal at Meridian is to eliminate addiction. We hope one day to be out of a job,” Miller said.
“We want addiction to be gone from the community, but right now we have to expand services because the need is so much greater,” she added.