Recovery Café Orting Valley Fights Opioid Addiction In Pierce Co.

ORTING, WA — A new peer-focused opioid addiction recovery program is opening in Orting this month and Pierce County officials have invited the surrounding communities to attend its grand opening.

In response to increased fatal opioid-related overdoses across Washington State and the nation, Pierce County officials and local leaders across the Orting Valley sought a proven method of providing effective drug treatment and addiction recovery they could share with residents in Bonney Lake, Buckley, Eatonville, Puyallup, and Sumner. After a year of planning and preparation, the county will open its Recovery Café Orting Valley on Nov. 17.

From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 113 Varner Ave. SE in Orting, Pierce County councilors and officials, along with church leaders, will join Recovery Café founder Killian Noe to host the grand opening event.

Founded in 2003 and built up over years of work in the field, Recovery Café opened its doors in Seattle in 2004. Since then, the nonprofit organization has been awarded for its work and seen its model adopted in cities across the U.S.

According to Dennis Paschke, executive director for Recovery Café Orting Valley, the nonprofit in its last annual report boasted a 90 percent success rate among its members for maintaining longterm sobriety after they were introduced to the Recovery Café method.

"Recovery Café is a proven foundation for peer support and recovery," Paschke said in a statement. "This necessary resource in the Orting Valley will save lives and families from the devastation of addiction. Recovery Cafés in other areas have been extremely successful in helping their members on their journey to long-term recovery."

The decision to install a Recovery Café in Orting Valley followed a year of deadly drug overdoses that devastated the area, affecting families from all walks of life in 2017, Paschke told Patch. With residents expressing anger, sadness, and disappointment, Paschke said neighbors showed a huge outpouring of concern and emotion.

"They asked, 'What could we do?'," he said. "There was a tremendous sense of helplessness."

Recovery Café Orting Valley, Paschke said, will hopefully provide some answers.

Though it's not designed as a replacement or alternative to traditional drug and alcohol addiction groups, such as any of the 12-step Anonymous programs, Recovery Café is similar in that it demands peer support and uses a circle of recovery coaches to build up recovering addicts and get them back on a path to a better, sober life.

"Opioid addiction is real and does not discriminate," Pierce County Human Services Director Peter Ansara told Patch in an email. "The overdose epidemic takes many lives. We see the faces every day. They are your neighbor, a family member or coworker. In Washington state the impacts of overdose deaths have cost $34 billion from 2013 to 2016."

According to data and statistics provided by the Washington State Department of Health, Pierce County between 2012 and 2016 reported 653 deaths caused by both heroin and prescription opioid overdoses — a 70 percent increase from the number of deaths reported between 2000 and 2004.

Paschke hopes to see the Recovery Café's history of success play out in real time in Orting.

Recovery Café Orting Valley will reportedly work in conjunction with other treatment centers and physicians to help fill in the circle and provide effective assistance to help keep participants clean and sober.

The grand opening event will reportedly be attended by leaders who have been largely influential in bringing the nonprofit to the area. Pierce County Councilor Derek Young, District Superintendent United Methodist Church Reverend Kathleen Weber, Ansara and Noe are all expected to speak.

Following the guest speakers and a ribbon-cutting ceremony, attendees will be invited to take an open house tour of the facility.

For more information, visit RecoveryCafe.org.

Image via Shutterstock