LEBANON — The City Council on Wednesday is holding a public hearing on a request for the council’s support of two grant applications from an organization seeking to establish a residential addiction treatment facility for mothers and their children in Lebanon. If approved, the two grants could yield a combined $1 million.

The organization, Families Flourish Northeast, has a signed letter of intent with Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital to use the 11,000-square-foot Homestead building on APD’s campus on Mascoma Street. The two organizations are currently negotiating a long-term lease, and Families Flourish aims to begin renovating by the end of 2024.

As proposed, the facility would provide care for as many as 14 pregnant and parenting women and their children up to age 12. There are currently just two such facilities in New Hampshire, which comprise 26 treatment beds, and both are located in the southern part of the state and have waiting lists of as much as six months.

“Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of substance-exposed pregnancies and the severity of maternal substance use have increased in the Upper Valley, as well as statewide,” according to materials Families Flourish provided to the council ahead of its Wednesday meeting. “Unfortunately, treatment need far exceeds supply.”

Between 2018 and 2020, 25 of the 29 women participating in Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Moms in Recovery intensive outpatient treatment program who were referred to residential treatment declined the referral because they could not find gender-specific services that would allow them to bring their children with them or to visit with children who were not in their care.

Meanwhile, rates of babies born at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center who have had prenatal exposure to substances increased from just over 10% in 2020 to nearly 12% in 2021, the materials said. Statewide, the rate increased slightly from 6.7% to 7.1% from 2020 to 2021.

The 12-month program is to include three phases: stabilization, active treatment and transition. It will provide 24-hour care including substance use and psychiatric evaluation; individual and group therapy; medication as needed; parent-child psychotherapy; and parenting support. The organization also plans to work with the New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth, and Families to support family reunification for women who have lost custody of their children.

The City Council is being asked to approve a Community Development Block Grant application for as much as $500,000 and a Recovery Housing Program grant application for as much as the same amount. Both grants would come through the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority.

Families Flourish is currently seeking $4.9 million to renovate the building and launch the program. The organization so far has raised more than $250,000 for planning through the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. It also will be launching a capital campaign.

The meeting is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, online via lebanonnh.gov/live or by phone at 929-229-5356 (access code: 807 035 445#).

Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.

]]>