Ballad Health celebrates start of Strong Futures Virginia renovation

NORTON – With $2.6 million in hand, Ballad Health has broken drywall for its second substance abuse treatment facility in the region. Ballad officials joined Virginia state Sen. Todd Pillion, Rapha Foundation Executive Director Mark Vanover and Anne & Gene Worrell Foundation President Holly Hatcher Friday at the former Mountain View Hospital in Norton for a ceremonial wall-breaking with sledgehammers for Strong Futures Virginia. The Norton facility will be Ballad's second inpatient/outpatient residential substance abuse treatment center in the region for pregnant, post-partum and parenting mothers. While the Tennessee site in Greeneville has been open to patients across East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, since 2021, the Norton facility will focus on patients from the Southwest Virginia area of Ballad operations in Wise, Lee, Dickenson and Russell counties. "Just because the purpose of the building has changed doesn't mean miracles won't be happening here again — they will be," Ballad CEO Alan Levine said during Friday's ceremony. "We've seen it happen with the first program we started in Greeneville." Levine said Strong Futures Tennessee has demonstrated that patient services go beyond direct addiction treatment. He cited an example where one mother was connected with job placement services and help getting a car. At the same time, he said, her son was getting specialized help through Ballad's Early Learning Center to prepare for school. "That's how you change these cycles," said Levine. "You intervene and you go where people need. You have to have those different ways of touching the patients, the families and the women who suffer from this." "Distance, cost, limited access to care have often stood in the way of recovery," Pillion, chair of Virginia's Opioid Abatement Authority Commission, said of a lack of residential programs for substance abuse treatment. "Let's keep working together to bring hope and healing to every family in need." In addition to a $996,336 check presented by Pillion. initial renovation and operating funding comes from: Rapha Foundation - $500,000 Anne and Gene Worrell Foundation - $500,000 Federal Health Resources and Services Administration $605,000 "We've been on a journey for the last eight years," said Ballad Behavioral Health Services CEO Tammy Albright, "and part of our commitment is to grow services for mental health and substance abuse, and those are so closely tied together." Albright said the Norton Strong Futures facility will be supported by Ballad providers in the area, including the OB/GYN facility at Norton Community Hospital. Proximity to Norton Elementary and Middle School means that children staying with their mothers in the low-intensity inpatient treatment program can attend school within a half mile of the hospital. Renovations could be completed in late 2026 to start operations. Ballad has identified a need to treat as many as 100 patients between inpatient and outpatient settings. The facility will have 55 patient beds. Blake Denton, a Strong Futures Tennessee graduate now working as a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist in the program, cried as she told how Strong Futures had helped her with recovery treatment and helping her become a better mother for her daughters. "Today I'm a mother, a homeowner and a church member," said Denton. "Just a few years ago I struggled with addiction. I lived on the street and I was in and out of jail. In 2020 I surrendered my daughters to my mom and my dad. In that moment I knew I needed to turn my life around. My daughters deserved more, I deserved more and Strong Futures knew that I could do more." Denton credited Strong Futures with a safe place to live and she went through treatment and regained custody of her children. "As a peer recovery specialist, I hear stories like mine every day," said Denton. "As Strong Futures expands, I can't help but think of the women who will come after me in this new facility, the families that will receive healing." Substance abuse was one issue the Rapha Foundation board of directors faced at the organization's 2019 founding, said Vanover. "There's no silver bullet, and it requires a multitude of solutions," Vanover said, adding that the Ballad Health Foundation's Jack Simpson contacted him a year ago to consider support for Strong Futures. "Rapha in Hebrew means healing," said Vanover. "and I can't think of a more healing program than the Strong Futures program." "We fully support the vision of Strong Futures, which is coming alongside and around women with comprehensive care and their families and high quality services," said Hatcher. "Transformational change and innovation takes a multi-sector approach. It is individuals and families donating. It is foundations donating. It is business and government donating, and when we all work together we can make systemic change." Pillion said the current $2.6 million will help with capital renovation to the 46-year-old hospital — last used as a long-term care facility until three years ago — and with operational costs for the first year it is open. He added that he would like to see a continuing allotment in Virginia's budget.