Joplin One Year Later: Treatment Facility Gets a New Beginning

One year ago, .

On May 22, 2011, when a EF-5 tornado tore through the southwest Missouri town it destroyed the organization’s treatment center and girl group home. The nonprofit organization has more than 25 facilities in the state of Missouri that focus on treating substance abuse as well as providing support services to families and youth.

One year later, things look a light brighter than that gloomy day.

Earlier this month, PFH broke ground for a $4 million, 21,000 square foot facility that will aid youth and their families dealing with substance abuse issues in Joplin and surrounding areas, according to a press release from the organization.

“Our commitment to serving youth and their families in Joplin has never waned,” President and CEO Michael T. Schwend said in a press release. “While sometimes discouraged over the past year, we have trudged forward with the amazing support that we’ve received from this community, the Department of Mental Health, and other healthcare providers from not only Joplin, but from around the Midwest.”

Last year, senior vice president of eastern and central programming Jim Wallis said that the priority for the organization remained to serve their clients.

“We’ve got the whole agency who have dropped everything to take care of our brothers and sisters in Joplin,” he said to Florissant Patch last year. “The first and foremost effort is to take care of our clients and families and staff and their families,” Wallis said. “As we take care of ourselves and clients, we’ll move toward the community.”

The one bright spot that emerged from the tornado was the opening of a new facility on the other side of Joplin that had not suffered significant damage. At that time, the facility was slated to open in July and would house all of the organization’s services.

However, PFH decided to sell their new property to St. John’s Mercy Hospital to aid the facility’s shortage of inpatient beds.

The new building, which is slated to open next spring, will offer “residential services, as well as outpatient substance abuse programming to adolescents and their families. The vision of this project is to serve youth and their families in neighboring counties with the use of satellite offices and traveling counselors,” according to the press release.

“We know that we may need to get to families who are most in need, rather than expecting them to be able to get to our offices” Wallis said in a press release.

The new building will be located next door to where the Mercy building is located.

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