Approaching 4 years, The Link proves successes, looks for long-term plan

It took 114 visits to The Link before the man agreed to go into treatment for addiction.

“It took 114 times to empower that guy to finally seek the care and ‘link’ him to the right services,” Mayor Paul TenHaken said. “The guy finally got the treatment he needed. Now, he has a car. He has a job. He has an apartment. His car had insurance. He’s making it. But it took 114 times.”

How do you measure return on investment in a case like that?

TenHaken didn’t attempt to answer it in a joint report Tuesday to the Sioux Falls City Council and Minnehaha County Commission but used the anecdote to illustrate that lives are being changed at the downtown triage center.

It was launched and is governed by the city of Sioux Falls, Minnehaha County, Avera Health and Sanford Health.

Since June 2021, more than 13,000 triage visits have occurred at The Link, which is at 123 N. Dakota Ave., and more than 3,600 unique individuals have been served.

At neighboring City Hall, “we have had very, very few problems with The Link,” said TenHaken, who also serves as board chair. “They have been an excellent neighbor to us.”

He called it “one of the hardest projects I’ve been involved in as mayor” but also one of the most rewarding.

The Link is managed by Avera, which “is not making any money on this,” TenHaken added. “In fact, they’re losing money on this, but they do this because it’s part of their mission.”

What has become clear in almost four years, though, is that The Link is keeping people from going to jail for detoxification services. What once amounted to hundreds of people every month has dropped to single digits, and those cases are only for particularly violent people.

Instead, people are coming into The Link’s sobering unit for acute intoxication, entering “an observation program, non-medical, after an individual has gone through a medical triage and we’ve determined that’s the track they’re going to go into,” said Julie Haddock, nurse manager.

They usually spend six to eight hours there sleeping off the effects of alcohol or other substances.

“It’s a simple, safe, secure place to rest and then move on,” Haddock said.

Sometimes, though, people opt to go to a substance withdrawal unit for a medically managed bed or choose to enter a treatment program.

“The road through addiction is not linear,” Haddock said. “We celebrate the small successes.”

Here’s a look at other services offered:

Recently, Southeastern Behavioral Health has begun partnering at The Link to help connect those individuals with serious mental illness to an appropriate course of treatment. The nonprofit also helps with group programming at the center, “really focusing on motivation,” Southeastern’s CEO, Tiffany Wolfgang, said. “It’s a really probably scary time for somebody … and if we can help find the course of treatment at the moment, that’s the role we’re there to play.”

The Link also is keeping people from hospital emergency rooms and in half of the cases providing a place to go for those who couldn’t see any other alternatives.

Next steps for The Link include reevaluating its governance to bring in more subject matter experts instead of the mayor and other top organizational leaders on the board, as well as determining a more long-term funding model.

“We aren’t sustainable in our current funding model,” TenHaken said. “The Link is not a money-making facility, so we’re looking at what the long-term funding model through 2030 looks like.”

The Link is open for walk-in visitors 24 hours a day, or they can call 605-275-1000 to learn more.