Adding space for recovery

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

Catholic Charities Worcester County is preparing to expand its 50-year-old Crozier House to serve dozens more men in recovery – at a time when pandemic stresses are contributing to increased substance abuse.
Crozier House, for men addressing substance use and co-occurring disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorders, is attached to the Catholic Charities administrative office building at 10 Hammond St. in Worcester.
A long-term goal is to find another location for the offices, renovate the building and add Crozier House beds where the offices are, said Timothy McMahon, executive director of Catholic Charities Worcester County.
“Our Worcester Emergency Services would remain at 10 Hammond St.,” so clients can easily access the food pantry, clothing distribution, and case management and immigration services, he said.
Plans are already in the works for re-opening and expanding the program for Crozier House graduates – using an adjacent house at 19A Ripley St. that Catholic Charities owns. The graduate program was temporarily phased out last spring.
Mr. McMahon and Scott Eaton, Crozier House director, told The Catholic Free Press the following about the program and plans for expansion.
“We get referrals by the dozens,” sometimes dozens a day, Mr. Eaton said. Some are self-referrals, some are from facilities, including correctional facilities. It’s like a ladder: people can stay in a detox facility for up to five days, then go to a clinical stabilization facility for up to 14 days, then a transitional stabilization facility for up to 60 days, he said. Then they can go to a long-term residence like Crozier House for three to six months.
“Due to the pandemic we expect an overflow,” Mr. Eaton said. “Alcohol sales went up.… The referrals are coming in now – I’m seeing more than the norm.”
 He attributed the current uptick in referrals to the anxiety and depression that increased during the months of isolation. Also, some people did not have the knowledge or technology to participate in 12-step meetings that had gone virtual, leaving them without that support.
During the pandemic, Crozier House residents have had socially distanced individual meetings with a staff counselor and daily clinical groups, Mr. Eaton said. They could also participate in 12-step Zoom meetings.
Asked if the Catholic faith or spirituality play a role at Crozier House, Mr. McMahon said, “It’s part of our Catholic teachings that we serve those in need of help.” People might not feel comfortable coming for that help if Catholic Charities was trying to make them Catholics, and that’s not part of the agency’s mission, he said.
Before the pandemic “the state was very focused on addressing the opioid crisis,” Mr. McMahon said. With the current focus on the coronavirus “we don’t want to lose sight of the recovery issues that remain out there, and are even greater since COVID,” he said.
Crozier House has 30 beds for men in its long-term residential care; they pay a percentage of what they make at their jobs for rent, Mr. Eaton said. He said the rent is sent to the state to contribute to the cost of their care, and costs of the Crozier House program are primarily covered by the men’s medical insurance.
Crozier House also had six beds in its Bishop Flanagan Center for graduates of the residential program who needed a little more time in a program before going out on their own. The center was housed in the same space as the residential program, he said. Men could stay in the graduate program for up to 90 days as they transitioned to independent living.
The graduate program was temporarily phased out in preparation for the expansion, and that enabled Crozier House to use those six beds to quarantine residential program participants who’d been exposed to the virus, Mr. Eaton said. Now those rooms have been spruced up so six more men can enter the residential program. He said he’s working on renewing and adding required licenses so that program can have 36 residents at a time, hopefully by June or July.
The Ripley Street house is to be renovated and the graduate program established there with beds for 12 men, hopefully by this fall, Mr. McMahon said. He said money for renovations will come from Catholic Charities’ investments, and grants will be sought from the state and private foundations. Once the men move in and pay room and board, that will cover the costs, he said. 
Catholic Charities hopes to add 20 more beds to the residential program, using what is now office space, but no timetable has been set, Mr. McMahon said. After renovations and licensing, the residential program could have 56 men at a time.