Arapahoe House of Colorado to end detox services next June

DENVER – Arapahoe House of Colorado, the state’s largest provider of substance abuse treatment, is ending all of its detox services in six months.

Mike Butler, the non-profit’s CEO, knows firsthand what resources like the center mean to Coloradans.

“I have close to 29 years of sobriety, and not a day goes by that I’m not thinking about drinking,” he said. “I’m committed to helping others like me find the help that they need.”

But he says Arapahoe House isn’t being reimbursed enough for the 10,000 patients it puts through detox each year, and that the business can’t keep up with the funding gap.

“With the changing landscape and the complexity around health care reform, we’re having to make tough decisions about where we’re focusing our resources,” Butler said.

He says three in 10 Coloradans suffer from some sort of substance abuse or mental health disorder, and that someone in Colorado will die of an accidental overdose every 9 ½ hours.

“There’s a tremendous and overwhelming need for treatment in Colorado,” Butler said. “Every day we turn around individuals who are at a point in their illness where they need help and we can’t get them into our programs fast enough.”

Arapahoe House will stop detox services on June 30 of next year. It says it will put those resources toward more in-treatment programs they believe will have a lasting impact.

Arapahoe House has three detox centers in Aurora, Commerce City and Wheat Ridge. Butler says he’s working with other organizations to fill the void they will leave next summer.