The Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) Addiction Recovery Division
provides detoxification and transitional residential services to the
people of Boulder County. Police departments across Boulder County bring
people to our facility when they cannot care for themselves because of
drug or alcohol intoxication. Clients are also referred from local
hospitals, the homeless shelter, drug court, and other local agencies.
In addition, many residents come to the facility for help when they can’t stop
drinking or using drugs.
Clients
We serve a wide variety of clients, including the homeless
population, CU students, and the general public. Some of our clients are
chronic alcoholics or addicts who we have seen numerous times over the
years. Other clients may not have a chronic alcohol or drug problem, but
they made a bad choice and ended up in our facility by order of the
court. Clients can be very drunk, high, angry, irrational,
disrespectful, combative, disheveled in appearance, and/or have poor
personal hygiene. Clients vomit on occasion and sometimes are
incontinent.
Hours
The facility is open 24 hours per day, 365 days per year, and it
currently has the capacity to serve 20 clients at any given time. There
are three shifts; during the day and evening hours the facility is
staffed by 3 people, and overnight it is staffed by 2 people.
Staff Responsibilities
Staff responsibilities are many. Staff is responsible for safely
detoxing clients from drugs or alcohol. This includes monitoring
clients’ vital signs and withdrawal symptoms, consulting with the
hospital, and completing hourly client safety checks. Staff uses
behavior management to ensure safety, and they often use de-escalation
skills when working with belligerent clients.
Staff is also responsible for completing admission paperwork and
procedures, as well as discharge paperwork. They work with clients after
they have stabilized to talk about treatment options and/or next steps.
Staff works hard with these clients to create good treatment plans and
transition plans to follow after leaving the ARC. Staff provides educational
treatment groups and works with an onsite therapist to provide other
treatment assignments. In addition to all of these services, our staff
provides breathalyzers for many clients (10-100 people /day) who must
provide proof of sobriety to their probation officers.
Supervision:
Supervision will be provided by the Detox Coordinator and the shift
supervisor.
Website:
www.BoulderCountyHealth.org/behavhlth/detox/
