A Sioux Falls addiction treatment center is celebrating a milestone in its third year—helping its 10,000th triaged-patient.
The center is a collaborative effort between Sioux Falls, Minnehaha County and two major hospital systems.
The Link is a center in Sioux Falls is dedicated to helping individuals suffering from addiction to drugs or other mental health challenges.
Dr. Ronald Place, the CEO of Avera-McKennan Hospital and University Health Center in Sioux Falls, said the Link Center has helped lower jail and hospital admissions.
“Thirty-five percent of the individuals who come to the Link, in the past would have been taken to jail. And majority of them, would have had some sort of drug charge. In fact, the numbers of drug charges in the City of Sioux Falls has dropped from in the neighborhood of 300 a month to about 20 a month, in large part because it is just people who are intoxicated. Now, they go somewhere else,” said Place.
Place said the Link is connected to a network of hospitals, both Avera and Sanford, which can provide further medical help if needed.
Sioux Falls Mayor Paul TenHaken said the Link Center has made a large impact on behavioral health in the city.
“To me, that is a way better experience. Not that we are trying to provide white glove experience for detox, but it does make people more apt to what to maybe take a step or make a move towards what got them there in the first place, because now we have services available to them, options available, for them to make a decision of, ‘hey, I don’t want to be in here again,’ said TenHaken. "We didn’t have that before. So, that has been a huge win, I think, for the community.”
The center is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week for individuals having an addiction or mental health crisis.
