WE ARE THE ONLY AND LONGEST STANDING HALFWAY HOUSE FOR MEN IN THE AREA!
Bethesda is a Halfway House for Male Alcoholics and Drug addicts. It was founded in 1971 and has served our area for over 50 years. In those years Bethesda has housed over 3,700 residents and in our two year follow-up studies we were able to document that at least 2,000 of those residents were still clean and sober after being on their own for 2 years.
- More than 70,000 Americans died from drug-involved overdose in 2019
- Addiction has now transitioned from Alcohol to Drugs in many cases
- The age of residents in our house have changed from 45-50 years old to now 25-40 years old
- Recovery is longer lasting when residents stay longer – we ask them to stay at least 6 months
- We see pill addiction now more than ever: Oxycontin, Valium, Xanax, and Opana
- Heroin laced with Fentanyl is continuing to increase with a lower chance of recovery and a high overdose/ death rate
- Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine
ABOUT BETHESDA HALFWAY HOUSE
Bethesda, Inc. was started as the Freeman House on March 11, 1971 by Reverend John Stone and five members of his Church. The Freeman House was in the white, two-story house beside the Baptist Church in Southern Pines. With the help of Mr. Larry Johnson and other members of Bethesda Presbyterian Church, when the Baptist Church decided to add-on, we had help to move. We bought the education building from Middle Presbyterian Church on October 1, 1973. On February 5th of 1974, we changed the name to Bethesda. On January 18, 1977, Bethesda increased residents from eight to eighteen. We began Social Detox on January 1, 1987. Mr. Mac Bivins retired as Director on June 30, 1989 and Mr. Glenn Greene became the Director of Bethesda on July 1, 1989 and for over thirty years still serves at Bethesda today.
We have had over 3,700 residents of which nearly 60% were still clean and sober two years after leaving Bethesda. Out of over 4,000 clients in detox, 90% went to treatment (3,650). There were 68% or 2,758 that went to Samaritan Colony and 62% or 1,709 returned to our halfway house.
Bethesda halfway house has been in Moore County, North Carolina for over fifty years and has seen a change from mostly alcoholics to almost all drug addicted; ages from 45 to 50 years old to now being 25 to 35 years old. We now see more people addicted to pills such as Oxycontin and Xanax. We see tobacco shops now selling generic marijuana, called Spice, Monkey Spice and other names. We are also seeing energy drinks that have ephedrine in them. In North Carolina alone we have seen Heroin overdoses increase by 56% in the last five years. Now Heroin laced with Fentanyl; is causing many deaths upward of 5 lives lost per week.
Our society is changing rapidly and more substances are being weaponized on a daily basis in the name of making money, but they are ruining people and families. This continues to drive us to work harder to help people get their lives back and live a long healthy life.
WHAT WE DO AND HOW
Building Relationships
Bethesda works with Samaritan Colony, Sandhills Mental Health, Daymark and other treatment programs in our area to identify the alcoholics and addicts that are in need of our help. Also, many families or the person themselves call us each day requesting our services. Since we are the only halfway house for men in this area, our waiting list gets long at times.
Donations enable us to be able to keep our residents in a safe environment as they develop living skills without the crutch of alcohol or drugs. Donations allow us to put gas in our vans, so we can take our patients to look for jobs and to commute to work. It helps provide nutritional meals and a clean bed for them to sleep in at night. Without donations it would be very difficult to pay the expenses necessary to provide services for those in desperate need of help in our community. This help lets us continue to support, teach and mentor those less fortunate here in our area.
