Star Tribune
Minnesota addiction treatment centers closing, despite high demand
Minnesota teens struggling with drugs or alcohol have few options for help after several treatment centers closed last year.
Clinics that prescribed opioid addiction medication shut down in Duluth and Inver Grove Heights in the fall, as did a decades-old residential treatment program in New Ulm.
And as 2023 came to an end, so did a nonprofit’s drug treatment program for mothers at a St. Louis Park housing complex.
Addiction treatment providers stopped services in at least 10 Minnesota locations in 2023, often citing a lack of staff and perilously thin margins. Others scaled back.
Program closures in 2023 surpassed any year that several providers said they can recall, and the closures are coming as deadly overdoses and demand for services remain high. On average, more than three people died every day in Minnesota from an overdose, according to Minnesota Department of Health data on confirmed deaths in 2023.
“It’s been a nightmare,” said Jack Benson, executive director at the metro-area On-Belay House Anthony Louis Center that serves teenagers. “We’re seeing a lot more deaths.”
The state is hearing about “unprecedented degrees of challenge” in addiction treatment, as well as other helping professions such as nursing and mental health care, said Department of Human Services Assistant Commissioner Eric Grumdahl. It’s hard to find and hang onto workers willing to do the challenging jobs, state administrative requirements are burdensome and companies are still limping from pandemic setbacks and inflation, he said.
Then there’s the state’s reimbursement rates. A recently released state study showed the rates the state pays providers do not line up with what they are spending to do the work. DHS officials recommended widespread increases, and both Democrats and Republicans stressed the need for rate changes at a January hearing.
But spending in the upcoming legislative session is expected to be minimal and a budget deficit might be on the horizon. That could mean organizations will have to wait for rate increases.
However, Grumdahl noted the state is still distributing some of the roughly $200 million legislators approved last year for behavioral health. He said portions of that money are going to help start up or expand substance use treatment, including family treatment centers, culturally specific programs and harm reduction measures to reduce fatal overdoses.
“This is not a simple solution. It’s a really complicated problem that is, in many ways, decades in the making,” he said. “So rates is a part of that, administrative simplification is a part of that, removing the barriers to licensure and entering the field is part of that.”
Overdoses feared amid service shortages
Benson has heard about several teens who died from overdoses in the past year as they waited for a treatment center bed to become available.
While some companies did open or expand facilities in 2023, providers said they believe more places have closed. Benson’s organization shut down five locations in recent years, but reopened one last year. Meanwhile, closures of other companies’ adolescent facilities in Mora, Burnsville and Roseville last year have funneled more people to their waitlist. He said working with teens comes with additional licensing and staffing requirements and low state reimbursement rates make it “very, very difficult.”
It’s not just adolescent centers shutting down: Providers offering various levels of service – from residential inpatient treatment to outpatient therapy services to clinics offering medication-assisted treatment – have closed their doors.
Organizations are also mothballing programs, having staff take on more cases or selling real estate to stay viable, said Brian Zirbes, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Resources for Recovery and Chemical Health. He said the association surveyed more than 120 of its members last summer and found a number of them were “on the ropes.”
“They have been scaling down, scaling back to stay alive,” Zirbes said.
It’s difficult to get an exact count of how many substance use treatment providers closed in Minnesota over the past year. DHS licensing data show that among hundreds of licensed providers, dozens closed last year and there was a substantial drop in treatment providers’ overall client capacity. But the numbers are flawed.
Some agencies DHS listed as closed told the Star Tribune they were still fully operating, while others listed as having active licenses have closed. The data only reflects closures reported to the agency, but providers are not obligated to report a closure, according to a DHS spokesman, who said they also mark a place as closed when a provider fails to pay a renewal fee at the end of the year.
The state licensing data doesn’t reflect a closure at one of Cindi Naumann’s businesses. She said she and her business partners at Freedom Center and New Freedom have spent years providing drug and alcohol treatment to rural communities in central Minnesota with the goal of “literally trying to save lives.”
Last year they closed two locations, an outpatient center in Cambridge that was serving more than 100 clients a year prior to the pandemic and a 15-bed facility that offered housing and treatment in Princeton. They have another facility left in Princeton, she said, but it has a waitlist.
“That was very, very sad for us,” Naumann said of the closures, noting that business was hampered by stagnant reimbursement rates, a lack of staff and lost income from the pandemic. “Once the pandemic hit and since then it’s just been impossible to keep things staffed and to move forward.”
Providers in rural communities said having fewer facilities means people have to look harder and drive farther, or must piece together sparse public transportation options to get the help they need.
It’s critical to seize the moment when someone is ready for treatment, and long distances and waitlists get in the way, said Marti Paulson, CEO of Project Turnabout in western Minnesota. Paulson, who is president of the Minnesota Alliance of Rural Addiction Treatment Programs, said in her 20 years in the business she’s never seen anything close to the closure levels of 2023. She worries about the consequences.
“If you are in active addiction,” she said. “A waiting list is asking for overdose.”
Star Tribune
These Minnesotans spent big to influence the presidential race
A look at the top Minnesota donors to the political groups supporting Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.
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Star Tribune
Love is Blind Minneapolis release date set
Twin Cities, get ready to potentially spot an ex on the Minneapolis season of Love Is Blind, which was officially announced Wednesday night.
The anticipated reunion episode that closed out season 7, set in Washington, D.C., included the surprise announcement. The eighth season will launch on Valentine’s Day.
“This Valentine’s Day 2025 will mark the five-year anniversary of the premiere of Love Is Blind, and it is going to be the launch of season 8, which takes place in Minneapolis,” host Vanessa Lachey said in a moment also posted to social media.
Three of the incoming Minneapolis singles were introduced in the reunion episode. When asked about the challenges of the dating scene in Minneapolis, one contestant shared a sentiment many Minnesotans will be familiar with.
“It’s such a small community, it’s not like a major city but it’s also not a small town. So you kind of see the same people over and over, and it’s a small bar scene,” he said.
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.