'Never Alone' in local drug recovery

As they say, “you can’t do it alone.” And many believe that applies to “kicking the drug habit.”

Help in doing just that is available right here in the Mission Valley. That’s in Ronan at Never Alone Recovery Hall. It’s in the former Boys & Girls Club building on U.S. Highway 93 on the north edge of town, adjacent to Dairy Queen.

Don Roberts is the licensed addiction counselor and a peer support specialist at Never Alone, and he got the center going in 2009. He also started Narcotics Anonymous in the valley. It’s “peer support” on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

“I was looking at treatment options in this area,” Roberts said, and he brings his own experiences with drugs, including alcohol, freely to the table. He talks about the importance of a “support system,” such as what Never Alone provides.

“Our biggest tool is our recovery experience,” Roberts stressed. “We have recovery workbooks, we have homework. We have groups and one-on-one.

“This is a medical condition, not an acute condition,” he said of being addicted to drugs. “A good number of us have years of recovery experience.”

When Never Alone started, Roberts has only about six or seven people who came into the hall. “Our core group is about 30 of us,” he said. “We see a variety of drop-ins. We serve about 10 people a day.”

Why start an operation like Never Alone Recovery in the Mission Valley? Roberts said it was because of the need for peer-group counseling, and there was no “peer-based” addiction recovery offering here — until Never Alone got off the ground.

Never Alone was located on Main Street in Ronan, and moved to the current location in mid-February. “We outgrew it,” Roberts said of the former facility, and it needed repairs. So he went the Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council and asked for help. The response was the use of the former Boys & Girls Club, owned by the tribes. It’s only a temporary home, though, since Never Alone has to find a new location for operation in August.

Roberts wrote a Morgan Family Foundation grant, and Never Alone was awarded a $48,000 grant to help with operational expenses. “We’re not dependent on a big government grant,” Roberts said. He added that Sunburst is covering the liability insurance for the current building. Never Alone has applied for a BHAM (Behavior Health Alliance of Montana) grant. Two local retired psychiatrists donated the Internet connection at the building and gave Never Alone computers.

People who have addiction issues have several options at Never Alone. They can come in for one-on-one counseling, or become part of a peer group setting.

Groups meet in the evening on specific days Monday-Saturday, from 6 to 8 p.m. The schedule: Monday, women’s support; Tuesday, seeking safety PTSD and trauma; Wednesday, 12-step; Thursday, relapse prevention and early recovery skills; Friday, road to recovery (a Native American-based group); and Saturday, parenting skills. Sunday evening is family movie night where all members of the family are welcome.

Never Alone hours for individual peer support is noon to 4 p.m.

“I came here to get clean,” said Roberts, who admits to being addicted to methamphetamines and other drugs. “It fundamentally changes your life ... I’ve been ‘clean’ now for nine-and-a-half years.”

Krystal Orman is a peer support counselor at Never Alone, on the staff for two-and-a-half years. “It has changed my life ever since,” she said.

In the second part of this report about Never Alone Recovery Hall in next week’s Lake County Leader, you will hear from Orman and James Sabolish, an addiction recovery group participant.