The Healing Place of New Hanover County holds its grand opening ceremony

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Healing Place of New Hanover County opened earlier this year, but they held their grand opening ceremony on Thursday, and gave some insight on the progress.

“As of right now, we have roughly 123 individuals in the program. We have 23 folks who have gotten into the phase portion of the program, so long-term recovery. We will be opening up detox in the near future,” said Brian Mingia, Executive Director of The Healing Place.

Some controversy has been raised regarding the style of treatment by officials in the past, questioning its effectiveness of non-medication. But according to Cindy Ehlers, COO of Trillium Health Resources, she’s seeing change firsthand.

“So, yesterday when I came out to get set up for the event today, I got to spend some time in the community with the men. I learned in that group, just how powerful this setting is to change the lives of people. I heard it, I feel the evidence right there in the moment,” Ehlers explained.

Ehlers explained more about the treatment style.

“So, the setting offers people the opportunity to be educated about their illness, to be empowered to make all the decisions about the direction they’re going to go. To have support from the community, that’s probably one of the key things is the support the community provides,” Ehlers added.

Angela Nelson toured the facility and for her, the visit was personal.

“I’m just elated. I’m actually from Wilmington, so to have my addiction explode in this area and to now have the facility and the organization to actually have me get my life back here, where my addiction took off is really emotional.” said Nelson.

The facility loves to hire alumni who have completed the program, as they feel they can offer better guidance to those going through treatment.