After years of drinking, she knew she had to get help.

“I knew I had to go to rehab,” said Paola, 28. “I was scared to just go straight into a rehab center.”

A friend of hers works at Meritus Medical Center and gave her the number of a community peer recovery coach at the Meritus Crisis Center.

He told her to come to the six-bed inpatient facility which supports the needs of those struggling with addiction.

The program, on the Meritus campus off Robinwood Drive, is for patients 18 and older who might have experienced an overdose and/or are willing to go to long-term treatment for addiction.

The average stay is two days while a plan is made to link the patient directly to residential or intensive outpatient treatment, such as the InStep program at Brook Lane Health Service’s North Village.

“I was finding any excuse not to go to residential rehab,” Paola said. “The Crisis Center workers showed me the steps to accept the fact that rehab would be a good choice for me.”

Paola was one of 350 patients seeking to end the cycle of addiction who came to the Crisis Center last year. The facility, which was opened Sept. 15, 2023, through a partnership between Meritus and Brook Lane, builds upon the success of a pilot initiative that featured three crisis stabilization beds, launched in August 2022.

It was born out of the need to address the rising number of overdose deaths that had plagued the region and the nation since the mid-2010s.

At the high point in 2022, 114 people in Washington County died by overdosing on opioids, fentanyl, alcohol and other drugs, according to the Maryland Department of Health.

However, fatal overdose deaths in the county decreased in 2023 and 2024.

There were 57 people who died by overdosing, a 38 percent drop from 2023, when 93 people died, according to MDH statistics.

Meritus behavioral health leaders attribute the decrease to multiple factors, including the prevalence of medications that counteract the effects of an opioid overdose, such as naloxone, as well as improved behavioral health treatment in the community.

“While there is no one solution to the epidemic of addiction, we feel confident the Crisis Center played a role in the drop in fatal overdoses,” said Allen Twigg, chief operating officer of Brook Lane Health Services, which became an affiliate of Meritus Health in 2024. “Every time we open a door to immediate help, we avert a potential tragedy.”

Paola said she was happy a door was opened to her in those scary days in early November.

After filling out paperwork, talking to a therapist and having her blood drawn, she got a short tour. Then, the therapist gave a rundown of what would happen during her stay.

That included going over the benefits of a residential rehab facility versus an outpatient program. Ultimately, she was connected with a rehab facility in Frederick County.

“I really liked that,” she said. “If I hadn’t gone to the Crisis Center, I wouldn’t have done residential.”

The Crisis Center is another way Meritus is meeting its mission of improving the health of the community.

“We provide a safe place that has medical resources when needed, and it’s proving to be a successful model,” said Jeff O’Neal, chief executive officer of Brook Lane.

Metrics indicate the program has been successful. The number of people readmitted over 90 days is only 10 percent.

“These beds aren’t just a place to land,” O’Neal said. “They’re a launching pad for recovery.”

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Meritus Health, Western Maryland’s largest health care provider, is located at the crossroads of Western Maryland, Southern Pennsylvania and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The mission of Meritus Health is to improve the health of the region by providing the best healthcare, health services and medical education. As an anchor organization for the community, Meritus has 4,000 employees and serves more than 200,000 residents of the tristate region through Meritus Medical Center, Brook Lane Health Services, Meritus Medical Group, Meritus Home Health, Meritus Equipped for Life, and the Meritus School of Osteopathic Medicine. More information can be found at www.MeritusHealth.com or visit our Facebook page or LinkedIn page.