A nonprofit for veterans in Baltimore is adding its own addiction treatment services to help not just vets, but anyone who needs help. MCVet opened its new intensive outpatient treatment program Monday in Baltimore to help more people without a waitlist.
The nonprofit already offers housing and job placement for vets, but found over 70% also needed help with a substance abuse problem, so now they can offer treatment at their facility for the homeless population instead of referring them elsewhere.
"What we also realize beside the veteran population, the general population at large is having a problem in the state, within the country, within the nation so our goal is to be able to provide those services right here," MCVet executive director Jeffery Kendrick said.
"We have had to attend, unfortunately, some funerals for clients that we've seen that have lost their lives to the disease of addiction, so we hope by adding this other scope we can save lives and help people in the process," counselor Candace Vice said.
Counselors will hold both group counseling and one-on-one sessions to talk about education and relapse prevention.
The program gets billed to medical insurance but Kendrick said most vets qualify for Medicaid anyway and they won't turn anyone away. They expect to serve 30 people the first 3 months.
