Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness is closing its 10-bed detox program in Bangor due to lack of funds, according to co-CEOs Lisa Sockabasin and Rebecca Petrie.
The closure will cut the number of detox beds in the region in half, further straining a network of addiction recovery services that is already stretched thin. It’s a sign that more sweeping changes are needed statewide to support the recovery infrastructure that has grown during Gov. Janet Mills’ tenure.
Detox is a multi-day inpatient program, often the first step someone takes toward recovery from substance use disorder. The nonprofit’s Cedar Road Detox Facility on Mt Hope Avenue accepted people, including those on MaineCare, who wished to detox from opiates, alcohol and stimulants, and offered counseling alongside 24/7 withdrawal management. Clients typically stayed between three and seven days, according to Petrie.
Cedar Road served about 500 people last year, Petrie said. Its closure will leave Wellspring’s 10-bed New Horizons center in Hampden as the only detox program within an hour of Bangor.
“Detox Beds historically have been very difficult to find,” she said. “There’s a significant gap, and we’re extremely heartbroken that it’s due to financial reasons that we had to close.”
Cedar Road opened three years ago but has struggled to maintain funding since President Doanld Trump took office and his administration slashed many federal grant programs.
“Over the past year, we’ve been working really hard to address a shortage in funding for the detox center,” Petrie said, noting that reimbursements for the detox program only cover about one third of its operating expenses. That gap forced the organization to rely on federal grants, but those grants were frozen last year and several ended more recently.
That left the nonprofit with a $2 million gap, Sockabasin said. “It’s math. It’s that simple,” she added.
Funding a detox program can be tricky because many health grant programs restrict how funds can be used. For example, Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness was a recipient of rural health transformation funds, the federal program that was created as part of the Trump administration’s “big beautiful bill” — but those funds cannot be used for detox. Instead, the nonprofit plans to put them toward behavioral health case management and crisis management services.
Mills has touted her administration’s work to expand addiction services, which she made a priority when she took office amid record-high overdose deaths. Recovery advocates hope her successor will work to stabilize the services established during Mills’ tenure.
In Sockabasin’s view, the detox center’s closure represents an opportunity to “critically interrogate the system” that supports recovery services in Maine and shows that ensuring access to addiction treatment requires more sweeping legislative change. Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness cannot fix the system alone, she said, emphasizing that solutions must take into account flaws in the reimbursement model and the high costs associated with employing medical staff.
It’s not just detox centers that struggle to find adequate funding, Sockabasin added, pointing to rural recovery centers that lack a sustainable funding stream.
“People are going to be harmed in the meantime, while we’re all trying to figure it out. And that, to me, is unacceptable,” she said.
Thirty-one people staffed Cedar Road, and 24 have been laid off, Petrie said. The remaining workers will continue to provide medication-assisted treatment and substance use counseling at the facility on an outpatient basis.
The facility is no longer taking new clients, and the inpatient program will officially end when current clients finish treatment next week.
In addition to Wellspring, there are three detox programs in the Portland area and three hospital-based programs elsewhere in the state: Maine General Medical Center in Augusta, St. Mary’s Center for Recovery in Lewiston and Pen Bay Hospital in Rockport.
Wellspring’s executive director, Rick Gwinn, was not immediately available for comment Friday afternoon.