Heroin task force considering social detox center in La Crosse

County had one in 2010 that closed four years later

A decade ago, when the city of La Crosse had an alcohol abuse task force, the idea of a “social detox center” was proposed, giving substance abusers a place to recover.

The project was tried for a few years, and now it’s being studied again by the La Crosse County Heroin Task Force, as a way to help drug addicts.  

“It was a good thing to try and we learned a lot,” Donna Christianson,  a supervisor with the La Crosse County Human Services Dept., told the task force of the earlier program. “We admitted, initially, around five percent of people for social detox and that kind of dwindled. By 2014 we stopped going it altogether.”

Christianson went on to explain to the heroin panel how the center worked, including 24-hour supervision/observation.

“Helping them to resolve the alcohol or sedative intoxication,” she said. “Making sure you’re monitoring them in case they do go through withdrawal, because then you need a different level of care.”

A detox house was opened in La Crosse County in 2010.