SNOW HILL – A local businessman took the opportunity this week to praise the Worcester County Health Department’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.
As he met with the Worcester County Commissioners to renew the lease for the WACS Center, Charles “Buddy” Jenkins expressed his appreciation for the work local health officials were doing to help those dealing with addiction.
“The health department you all have is about the best I’ve ever seen anywhere because they’ve got the big overview,” Jenkins said.
On Tuesday the commissioners approved a new lease with the Joan W. Jenkins Foundation for the WACS Center in West Ocean City. Since 1988, the WACS Center has been housed in the Route 50 building owned by the Joan W. Jenkins Foundation and operated in part by the Atlantic Club, a recovery organization.
After the commissioners approved the new lease, which is $51,000 a year and will increase 1 percent each fiscal year, Jenkins took the opportunity to discuss the health department’s approach and what he considers its success. He told the commissioners that there were various aspects to addiction and that the Worcester County Health Department worked to address each of them. He said that broad overview was vital.
“We today have a very unique model,” he said.
He said the WACS Center had space to address behavioral health and also hosted between 20 and 25 fellowship meetings a week. Fellowship, he added, was critical as individuals struggled to fight addiction because they couldn’t just go back to their same set of friends and expect to stay away from drugs.
He said more than 50,000 people walked through the WACS Center’s doors on an annual basis.
“That shows you the magnitude of what we’re dealing with,” he said.
The commissioners thanked Jenkins for his contributions to the cause. Jenkins and his family created the Joan W. Jenkins Foundation decades ago after seeing firsthand the tragedies that can be caused by drug and alcohol abuse. In the years since, the facility has been devoted to substance abuse treatment.
“Without that facility the county would be worse off than it is today,” Commissioner Bud Church said.
Commissioner Diana Purnell agreed.
“I know some people that have gone through your facility that are now leading a successful life,” she said.
Jenkins stressed the impact of local health officials and the programs they’d instituted to combat addiction in Worcester County.
“I can’t say enough about your health department,” he said.
