Turning Pointe provides pregnant and postpartum women a place to recover from substance use disorder

BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – It is  called Turning Pointe for Families, and it has been a turning point for countless women over the years.

It is a 16-bed residential recovery facility in Beckley specifically designed for pregnant or postpartum women with substance use disorder.

The facility is part of FMRS and has been around since May of 2012, and during National Recovery Month, those working at Turning Pointe are celebrating recovery but also raising awareness about the options out there. 

 Coty Sawyers is the residential operations coordinator for Turning Pointe and says they provide the women with group therapy, individual therapy and medically-assisted treatment. All of the women come into the program through referral whether that be personal or from court systems. 

“It is our policy to collaborate with those that are working with the court system, CPS. We do a lot of family visits, supervised visits,” Sawyers said. “We have areas designated for that. It’s important to us that we do those sorts of things. We want to do everything we can to help our client successfully complete treatment and be able to live happy and healthy lives with their children.” 

There is not a set timeline for how long the women have to be there as it is based on the individual.

However, once the women graduate from the program, there are other options for continued treatment within FMRS like the Mother program which is a residential program that turned outpatient treatment during COVID for any woman regardless if she is a mother or not.

While this field is often challenging, those who work for FMRS like Binicki Shrewsbury say it is about celebrating the small daily victories. 

“I think recovery is real and recovery is possible,” she said. “I don’t know if we see it on a daily basis, but we do see people changing on a daily basis.” 

And Sawyer added that Turning Pointe has certainly seen its own full circle moments. 

“We have seen a lot of clients that have successfully graduated from our program to become peer recovery coaches for you know, really all kinds of different organizations all over West Virginia, and then they are able to refer and help clients get to us, so that’s been really nice to see their success and for them to talk about the program and still be involved in getting new clients here and getting them the help that they need,” Sawyer said.

If you are interested in the Mother program or FMRS’ Learn Program for men, you can call (304) 256-7100 to set up an appointment for outpatient care. Their outpatient sessions  happen on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

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Anna Saunders
Anna Saunders is a weekend reporter for WOAY. With a diploma from Princeton Senior High School and a mother from Fayette County, she is no stranger to the area. She received a degree in Media Arts and Design from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia and wanted to return home to start her career as a reporter.