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Stella Maris, a drug treatment center on Cleveland鈥檚 West Side, hosts numerous in-person meetings each week, as clients consult with caregivers and attend group sessions with others in recovery.

The coronavirus has changed that, forcing the treatment facility鈥檚 staff to rewire their services on the fly.

The center shut down its campus to outside visitors two weeks ago and now offers phone- and video-based outpatient care, Executive Director Daniel Lettenberger-Klein said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 taken a lot of creativity and collaboration between clients and staff,鈥� he said.  

Stella Maris set up computer stations in its housing facilities so on-campus clients can talk with counselors remotely, Lettenberger-Klein said. Clients who live on their own are able to join sessions by phone or videoconference.

The treatment center was able to pull this off with help virtual conferencing company GoToMeeting, which offered Stella Maris 90 days of free service.

Still, Stella Maris has had to scale back some services. It can only offer detox for 12 people at a time, rather than the usual 20 鈥� a move meant to put more distance between patients.

鈥淚n the midst of a pandemic, we have a horrendous opiate epidemic still going on,鈥� Lettenberger-Klein said. 鈥淧eople didn鈥檛 just stop using. It means that there鈥檚 less access to care.鈥�

The center has been screening all incoming detox patients and no cases of COVID-19 have been reported on campus, Stella Maris leaders said.

Stella Maris鈥� housing units are at full capacity, but residents 鈥� like so many other Ohioans 鈥� are hunkered down to wait out the pandemic and help slow its spread, Lettenberger-Klein said. A number of them have recently lost jobs.  

鈥淢ost clients that we have, 90 percent are at or below the poverty line, and many of them are from homeless services,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s part of reentry and in our supportive housing, their expectation is to have a job. So that鈥檚 been waived for the time being, and we鈥檙e just keeping people safe.鈥�

Like so many other businesses and non-profits, Stella Maris itself has taken a financial hit during the crisis, he said, but has not laid off workers. The center applied for assistance from the COVID-19 rapid-response fund set up by Northeast Ohio鈥檚 philanthropic groups.

鈥淲e鈥檙e fortunate enough to have some reserves to weather a storm short term,鈥� Lettenberger-Klein said. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 keep everybody employed for months on end doing this, but we need to take care of the people who take care of our people.鈥�