Changes are coming to the Rapid City Care Campus. While adding cultural programming, officials say it comes at the cost of some safe beds at the facility.
The number of safe beds at the Care Campus, a Rapid City substance abuse center, have dropped. Now, there are just 12 and overseers are reassessing the number of detox beds.
Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller said it represents a shift in programming away from long-term stays and toward meaningful addiction treatment.
“It’s a philosophical change that we’ve done, working closely together with all our partners - Pennington County Human Services, Rapid City Police Department with their quality-of-life unit – and assessing how do we best serve those needs in a way that continues to increase public safety,” Mueller said.
He said the office is preparing to connect with local Native-oriented entities to provide extra cultural opportunities.
“They’re helping us evaluate the services we’re providing and seeing if they think their organization can fill that niche in our community to provide the next level of service that might have some better outcomes as far as people with a lot of historical trauma who really need a lot of work and a lot of help,” Mueller said.
Despite these changes, Mueller said he still stands by the Care Campus as a place adding value to the community.
“It allows us to partner together in the community in ways law enforcement traditionally does not do," Mueller said. "The harm-reduction model we have in the safe beds gives people a safe place to stay so they’re not being victimized in the community, but maybe more importantly it gives us an opportunity to have an interaction to try and case manage, help them, and understand the resources we have in the community to change their lives.”
New standards are also being introduced at the campus aiming to further foster a positive and healing environment in the facility user base.