Community members will have an opportunity Thursday to tour a new Lawrence residential treatment facility before it opens its doors to clients seeking recovery from substance use disorders.
The building with a midcentury modern aesthetic that once housed a Super 8 motel will soon open its doors to adults who want to make positive moves toward recovery and better mental health.
And those who’d like a sneak peek of what Avalon and its staff have to offer can visit the center from 3 to 7 p.m. Thursday during an open house at 801 Iowa St. Learn more about the event and RSVP at this link.
David Hawley and Aaron Thakker, co-founders of Avalon Wellness & Recovery, have spent years dreaming about the project and working with investors to turn their vision into a reality. Wednesday morning, they paused to talk about what Avalon can offer its future clients.
“We just had to have trust and patience in the process, because there’s a lot to get overwhelmed about. There’s a lot of things for us to do,” Hawley said.
Instead of paying a designer to create Avalon from the ground up, Thakker said, he and Hawley and their staff did much of that themselves and with intention. Hawley said the goal was to create an empathetic patient-centric experience and to stay focused on what it’s like for clients going through addiction as well as how addiction affects their family and friends.
“We’re going to meet the client where they’re at, and as we’re learning kind of what we have, we’re going to have to make adjustments to our policies and procedures,” Hawley said.
The facility just obtained its Kansas licensure to provide residential treatment for substance use disorder. As early as next week, Hawley said, Avalon would slowly start admitting clients. Eight clients would be the max early on, but eventually the facility will offer 60 beds, including eight for detox, as well as medication-assisted treatment.
“And it’s going to be a while until we get accredited, which is really when our census is going to kind of kick up,” Hawley said.
Avalon aims to attain accreditation by both The Joint Commission and Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, or CARF.
Punchlists still pepper doors throughout the building’s three levels. Construction and weather delays have set the project back, but much progress has been made in recent months. The dust is mostly gone. A cleaning crew scrubs windows and baseboards while someone vacuums. Staff work in their offices.
Awaiting clients are an outdoor swimming pool, a gym, a media room with arcade games, and gender-specific spas with infrared saunas and cold-water immersion vats. There are also spaces for communication with friends and family, meetings, small- and large-group therapy, yoga, meditation, art therapy and more.
HyVee will provide meals until Avalon reaches census numbers. At that point, Hawley said, an in-house chef would be hired to take over food service.
A group of staff members huddled around a conference table Wednesday talking about their zeal for recovery. Gigantic Post-It Notes behind them revealed priorities.
Hawley said much of his staff’s passion for recovery from addiction comes from their own life experiences. Hawley himself has been in recovery for nearly 22 years. He said he once spent time detoxing in a facility in Ohio, but Avalon would offer a much different experience than he had in his early 20s as a college student. It was miserable.
“And again, I was dealing with a different era, a different time, where it was just like, ‘You’re going to suffer through this,’ and ‘You deserve to suffer through this,’ was kind of like the stigma that was thrown out back then,” Hawley said.
Much thought and consideration have been put into details such as soft furniture, colors and lighting. Situated next to Centennial Park, Avalon will offer opportunities for clients to take walks and connect with nature.
Tim Luedtke, program director and lead therapist, said he and other staff envision Avalon not only as a place for clients to complete treatment. Luedtke said it would allow clients to experience life on a sober level but also learn about the root causes of their addiction while creating a path to longterm recovery.
“It’s about what we can do for the rest of our lives to make those life changes, show them a different way of life,” Luedtke said.
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Tricia Masenthin (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at tmasenthin (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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