Gilmore Community Healing Center in Kalamazoo announced this week it would be closing permanently on Thursday. In a statement, Gilmore’s parent organization Community Healing Centers cited financial constraints for the “difficult but necessary decision.”
A current employee said the closure came as a total surprise.
Gilmore Community Healing Center was an inpatient residential treatment facility for people with substance use disorder. Employees say they were notified the facility would be shutting down on Tuesday, August 19.
Amie Jozwiack started as a peer recovery coach at Gilmore in June of this year. She says on Wednesday August 20, she was handed a memo of the full details of her termination — effective immediately Thursday, August 21.
“And now within 48 — a little over 48 hours notice, you know, my livelihood is gone. And I'm not the only one. There's about 20 of us there,” Jozwiack said.
A memo given to Jozwiack and other staff stated that employees would not receive PTO payouts due to “financial constraints", and said that employee health benefits end on August 21.
Patients discharged from treatment programs
The center offered detox services and a 14-day residential treatment program for people with substance use disorder. Jozwiack said 10 clients were in treatment at the center on August 19 when staff was told to discharge them immediately.
“We were told to find placement for them. Some of them we were able to place into sober living, which was an amazing thing, but a lot of them ended up going to their own homes. Um, so I'm not really sure what their plan is after treatment,” Jozwiack said.
Sober living is different from inpatient treatment. According to the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, sober living is a place where people in recovery can stay in a drug and alcohol-free environment, generally after completing a treatment program.
Jozwiack said all patients who were at Gilmore when staff was told to discharge them had signed 14-day consent-to-treat agreements, but none had completed the full program at the time of discharge. She said one patient left the facility on foot, and none were discharged to other inpatient facilities to resume treatment.
A statement released by Community Healing Centers said: “Any clients currently in treatment will be supported in completing their program with Community Healing Centers or will be transferred to another facility of their choosing.”
Community Healing Centers doesn’t operate any other inpatient treatment centers. Its Elizabeth Upjohn Center in Kalamazoo houses a children’s advocacy center and outpatient services, while its Carol’s Hope Center in St. Joseph offers peer recovery coaching.
Organization claims financial hardship
In the statement, Community Healing Centers referenced financial hardship within the organization and “funding cuts” as factors behind Gilmore’s closure, and said the decision came “despite our best efforts to save this critical programming”.
“This decision was not made lightly,” Community Healing Centers CEO Alisa Otto said in the statement. “In recent years—especially in the changing nonprofit funding landscape since COVID—many organizations have had to evaluate sustainability. Despite every effort to bridge the gap, the reimbursement rates for these services cover only about half the true cost of providing care.
"The current funding climate also means that our community cannot sustain services in this space, and we are grateful that other trusted organizations will continue to offer these services locally.”
Jozwiack, who went through treatment at Gilmore herself before joining the staff this year, said employees were blindsided by the decision.
“Things happened very quickly, and for the most part we were able to help our residents the best we can, but just the way that the employees were treated, I'm not okay with. This place was my home,” Jozwiack said.
A letter sent to Jozwiack detailing her eligibility for COBRA benefits was dated August 8, nearly two weeks before Jozwiack said employees were notified they’d be laid off.
Ashlin Hyatt was a licensed practical nurse at Gilmore until June of this year, when she said she left the organization due to concerns about its operations.
“I knew in my heart's heart, I swear to you that I knew this was going to happen. I knew that they were going to close. I knew they were going to treat their employees like crap,” Hyatt said.
Before joining the staff at Gilmore, Hyatt also went through treatment at the facility herself. Now, she’s coming up on five years clean in September. Hyatt said in her opinion, Gilmore’s closure will be devastating to the community.
"Gilmore is a beacon of light for this community and that's why I want this [story] out because it should have been fought for and it wasn't,” Hyatt said. “Also the people that had dedicated their lives should have been fought for as well but they were failed.”
