NSHC’s Liitfik Wellness Center has opened its doors

By Julia Lerner
The Liitfik Wellness and Training Center officially opened its doors to the public on Monday, May 17.
The center, an outpatient clinic supporting individuals with behavioral health, substance disorders and mental health crises, has been in the works for a decade.
“We started the concept for this back in 2011,” said Lance Johnson, who serves as the Behavioral Health Services Director at the Norton Sound Health Corporation. “Back then, it was just going to be a sobering center. But when we started surveying and reassessing the region, we realized we need a bigger concept than just a social detox. We need higher levels of care.”
The facility will serve individuals across the entire Bering Strait region experiencing substance disorders, suicidal behaviors and behavioral issues. It will also give NSHC an opportunity to address some of the bigger issues facing the community, including removing barriers to mental health support.
Alaskans face several challenges when trying to access support for substance abuse or behavioral healthcare, though Johnson hopes this facility will help mitigate those obstacles. One of the biggest issues, he said, is availability of support. Most facilities are far away, requiring Bering Strait residents to stay in Anchorage, away from their families and community support systems.
“There aren’t enough [treatment facilities] and their waitlists are sky-high,” Johnson said. “We’re sending too many people out of the region for substance abuse issues. We’re also looking at housing options, because we want to make sure people from the villages who need services are able to get here and have a place to stay for however long their treatment is.”
The Wellness Center will also provide hourly transit across Nome for individuals with mobility concerns. Transportation also “keeps people from having to walk in the wintertime or through the residential sections,” Johnson said. “We don’t want anybody passing out in a snowbank. We don’t want somebody in a severe storm who needs to get to shelter. We don’t want people running past the elementary school.”
Monday’s opening was just a soft opening for the center, and Johnson says there are several steps they need to take before their grand opening this fall.
On May 28, Nome’s homeless day center, currently housed at the Mini Convention Center, will move into the Wellness Center. Later in the summer, the center will start offering overnight services and sobering facilities.
The wellness center will combine medical treatment with cultural and traditional medicine, allowing individuals to reconnect with their communities through arts, sewing and carving.
“The sewing room and carving room are huge assets to have here for people who are in treatment,” Johnson said. “With the day shelter literally 10 feet away from it, we’ll be able to bring some of the folks out from the shelter and have them do some of those activities to get that connection back to their culture.”
“It will take us time to get to the residential treatment that we want to do,” Johnson said. “We keep taking steps in those directions.”
The end goal, he says, is to get people into recovery.