WASHINGTON COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) — Since the beginning, Brooke’s house has been a go-to resource for people struggling with drugs to receive help in their recovery.

With their recovery home and their two other establishments, they have been able to help women through multiple stages of recovery and now they are expanding even further to turn this empty space into an outpatient counseling center, something that is lacking in Washington county.

“It’s very challenging getting appointments for drug and alcohol treatment within our community, Founder Kevin Simmers said. “Our goal here is to really address the person’s individual needs and be able to come up with a treatment plan that will be effective and hopefully will give the person a chance at long-term sobriety and long-term success.”

It seems outpatient addiction counseling services are in short supply in Washington County, but according to Brooke’s House Founder Kevin Simmers, the new counseling center will be able to serve many who may have not had the opportunity to receive help before.

“Some of the services that are going to be available are walk-in access to treatment,” Clinical Director, Frank Vincent explained. “We’re going to have different levels of treatment from education to outpatient to intensive outpatient with the ability to refer to even inpatient and long-term residential.”

Courtney Gunter has seen what addiction can do to someone firsthand and has been involved with Brooke’s House since 2021. She says the counseling center will be one more tool for people in need of help.

“All treatment centers definitely help, but the counseling aspect of it, I go in my experience the disease of addiction and struggling I know just having that person you can talk to is really helps like having that one on one, so I think that that’s going to really help,” Gunter said.

“We’re just trying to give people more options and more access to treatment,” Simmers said. “Make helping people understand the whole model of addiction and also give them the fundamentals for recovery for lifelong success.”

The counseling center is expected to be up and running by early May of this year. It will be located alongside other Brooke’s House facilities.