This article by Tommy Gardner was published by the Stowe Reporter on Oct. 31.
A University of Vermont professor wants to establish a substance abuse treatment center in Stowe that would rival institutions like the Betty Ford Center and Mayo Clinic.
Silver Pines at Stowe would be a “medically supervised withdrawal treatment center” for people with substance abuse disorders.
William Cats-Baril, the center’s CEO, said he thinks Stowe is the perfect place for people from New England, Quebec and beyond to come for cutting-edge treatment.
“Stowe is a place that, in my view, is therapeutic. It’s beautiful,” Cats-Baril said this week. “It’s a place that makes you happy to be alive. As you know, some of these people are in great despair, and I believe that beautiful nature helps.”
Cats-Baril will present his plans to the Stowe Development Review Board Nov. 5. He intends to take over the space at 3430 Mountain Road most recently occupied by the North American Hockey Academy, which relocated to Boston earlier this year. He has the property under contract, according to the review board agenda.
The review board is being asked to approve a change of use at the property, from a school to a long-term-care facility.
According to an overview of the project, Silver Pines will provide 24-hour care for people “who are experiencing subacute medical, emotional and cognitive problems.” The maximum capacity would be 32 patients.
Cats-Baril said the treatment system is proprietary — in a Sept. 23 letter of intent to the Green Mountain Care Board, he refers to “neural network-based algorithms, using machine-learning principles” that customize each patient’s treatment regimen — but he said it would mark a “new approach to treating addiction.” Patients would be in-house for at least seven to 14 days, and be attended to at a nearly one-to-one staff-patient ratio.
He said Silver Pines would offer medically assisted treatment at a level offered by only one other place in Vermont — the Brattleboro Retreat. But, he said, the Stowe clinic would differ from the Retreat in two key ways.
First, the treatment will be customized to each patient. Second, unlike the Brattleboro Retreat and Valley Vista, an addiction treatment center in Bradford, patients wouldn’t be referred to Silver Pines, whether by primary doctors or court-ordered rehab.
“We are a completely voluntary facility,” Cats-Baril said. “If a patient tells you tomorrow they want to leave, we will make arrangements.”
The clinic would offer concierge service to take care of all transportation to Stowe from wherever they are living. The idea would be to then arrange for the patient to check into somewhere more traditional for long-term rehabilitation.
Since the patients will be on site the whole time, Cats-Baril said the town doesn’t have to worry about people constantly coming in and out of treatment “looking like zombies walking down Mountain Road.”
He touted the economic benefits to the area, too. Families would likely stay in hotels and eat at restaurants. And Silver Pines would have roughly 20 full-time employees.
“I’ll make a small contribution, but a contribution, with high-paying, good jobs,” he said.
Stowe physician Katie Marvin said places like Valley Vista do “a great job for patients who need that level of care,” but has heard there’s more of a wait than usual for inpatient beds for people who need high-level care.
“So, more inpatient beds in the state would be helpful, especially if they embraced the hub-and-spoke model,” Marvin said, referring to the state’s system of medication-assisted treatment that uses nine regional “hubs” supported by more than 75 “spokes” around the state — doctors, nurses and counselors offering treatment.
She touted Lamoille County’s medication-assisted treatment network, which has seven partners — Treatment Associates in Morrisville, Stowe Family Practice, Cambridge Family Practice, Hardwick Area Health Center, Morrisville Family Health Care, Dr. Betsy Perez, and the newly opened Tamarack Family Medicine in Morrisville.
“There’s a lot of positive things going on here and we are lucky to have all of the resources,” Marvin said, adding there are “many, many community members in recovery all around us.”
It’s unclear at this early stage what kind of clientele Silver Pines would attract, but Cats-Baril has high hopes of attracting people from across the country and Canada.
He said the goal is “to have a Betty Ford, a Mayo Clinic kind of place, where people actually see Stowe as a world-class place for treatment.”
The Stowe Development Review Board will discuss the project Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. at the Akeley Memorial Building.
