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‘Hope becomes reality’: Mountaineer Women’s Center set to open

By Tabitha Johnston - Chronicle Staff | Apr 29, 2022

Mountaineer Behavioral Health CEO Jonathan Hartiens cuts the ribbon for Mountaineer Behavioral Health's Mountaineer Women's Center on Friday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Mountaineer Behavioral Health’s Mountaineer Women’s Center celebrated its impending opening on Friday afternoon, with a ribbon cutting ceremony and tour of its new facility, located beside the original MBH building at 3094 Charles Town Road in Kearneysville.

While MBH CEO Jonathan Hartiens said he had hoped the event would also be able to signal the opening of the center at the beginning of the next week, he noted that the center’s ability to open had been delayed until the beginning of May, due to supply chain issues that slowed down progress on the building.

As of Friday’s ceremony, Mountaineer Recovery Center Community Outreach Coordinator Terry Bullock said some of the things that have yet to be completed at the center, include the installation of technology, like televisions, hanging of artwork, construction of a gazebo and assembly of a playground for use by the under-school-aged children who will be staying in the center’s apartments with their mothers. Children five-and-up will not be able to be housed with their mothers at the center, due to the need for them to be enrolled in school. However, with this new center allowing young children to be housed in apartments with their mothers, Hartiens said he hopes the mothers will be more driven to overcome their addiction.

“I can’t think of a better way to think of Ryan, our son that we lost to a heroine overdose, than with a center like this!” said Charleston resident Cece Brown, who, together with her husband, founded the Ryan Brown Addiction Prevention and Recovery Fund in their son’s memory.

Financing through the fund is awarded via grants by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. In fact, both the women’s center project, which cost $3 million to build, and its predecessor, the original $3 million MBH building on the site, were completely paid for by the fund.

One of the bedrooms in the Mountaineer Women's Center's family apartments is almost ready for its first set of residents, who will be moving in this May. Tabitha Johnston

“We’re going to celebrate, not just this facility, but also each person that comes through this door,” Brown said. “When I come in here, I feel that people are important and they’re valued. That’s very important, when you’re looking at someone in addiction recovery in making changes in their lives, because they’re in a valley! And so, we need to support people and lift them up, rather than tear them down. And this place does that.

“Some of them who come in here will be a mom. They will be learning new skills to interact with people and their children, to build a healthy home,” Brown said, before referencing the organization’s motto. “One of the things that I think is important about this place, is that here, ‘hope becomes reality.'”

Other guest speakers at the event included MBH alumna Jane Ailshie, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), WVDHHR Bureau for Behavioral Health Commissioner Christina Mullins and State Senator Patricia Rucker (R-W.Va.-D16).

“As someone who has met countless people — both those who have recovered and turned their lives around, but also those who have loved ones who have not — [addiction] is so heartbreaking and so awful. It fills me with so much gratitude and thankfulness that now we are celebrating the opening of this facility, which is so crucial and so important,” Rucker said. “It is especially important that we allow for moms to stay with their young children — not only for the children’s sake, which they need their moms, but for the moms! If you want to give someone a reason to fight, a reason to turn their lives around, children is that reason, for 99.9 percent [of mothers].”

While not all of the women who will be living in the center will be doing so with their children, those who will be staying with their children in one of the center’s 12 family apartments can anticipate receiving treatment during the daytime, while their children are taken care of in the center’s nursery.

Mountaineer Recovery Center Community Outreach Coordinator Terry Bullock, right, leads a tour through the nursery in the Mountaineer Women's Center on Friday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

“The multi-generational impact of the Mountaineer Women’s Center is what makes it so satisfying,” Hartiens said. “The work we do today will likely leave an impact on the adult generation of tomorrow. Our staff is leaving a legacy for future generations, by making hope a reality for their moms.”

MBH has provided treatment for over 1,100 patients since its inception in Nov. 2019. Regretfully, the COVID-19 Pandemic increased the demand for substance abuse disorder treatment, leading MBH to expand its services to a multitude of new populations, including the Mountaineer Women’s Center and, once this project is completed, the Mountaineer Recovery Village. To learn more, visit https://www.mountaineerrecovery.com/.

To donate items to the MWC nursery, visit “https://www.amazon.com/baby-reg/mbhwomens-center-april-2022-kearneysville/3PG11DIHORM3L?fbclid=IwAR0Bnjj2fn138ZU3bQEI6DvOzLdonGAp_5MyUqKeX2QOEebT6k3C2Pa-vqA” rel=”noopener noreferrer” target=”_blank”>https://www.amazon.com/baby-reg/mbhwomens-center-april-2022-kearneysville/3PG11DIHORM3L?fbclid=IwAR0Bnjj2fn138ZU3bQEI6DvOzLdonGAp_5MyUqKeX2QOEebT6k3C2Pa-vqA.

The plot of land by the women's center will be outfitted with a gazebo and playground for residents to use in May. Tabitha Johnston

"Sonnet 44," donated by Karen Swineholt, of McLean, Va., is one of the many pieces of art on display in the Mountaineer Women's Center. The sculpture was inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese 44: Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers." Tabitha Johnston