ITHACA, N.Y. — The Alcohol and Drug Council of Tompkins County (ADC) will cease current operations after struggling to overcome financial headwinds, ADC Executive Director Stacy Cangelosi told The Ithaca Voice.
The halt to operations calls into question the fate of the 40-bed detox center the ADC spearheaded the development of — a facility long identified as missing from the region’s healthcare and addiction services.
ADC Board President Michelle Flinn declined a request for an interview with The Ithaca Voice. Cangelosi provided a written statement on behalf of the ADC Board of Directors.
“Fees for services provided by ADC have not been sufficient to cover operating expenses or allow for the opening of Detox,” the ADC Board of Directors said. “The Board of Directors came to this final decision to cease current patient services and focus on a future structure for ADC to open Detox.”
Cangelosi said it was a decision that came after no additional infusion of funding from third party sources materialized.
The organization will eventually lay off almost the entire staff of about 44 people, Cangelosi said. Layoffs began Monday, and more are planned in the coming days. The layoffs will eventually result in the discontinuation of all the harm reduction, prevention, counseling, and treatment services the organization provides.
“We are taking a staggered approach to ensure we provide care to our patients until they are all safely transferred,” Cangelosi said.
It’s a painful blow for the ADC, a private nonprofit that was founded in 1965 and has become a pillar of addiction treatment services in the community.
The Alcohol and Drug Council was heralded in 2023 for spearheading the development and opening of a detox center in Tompkins County. But the detox center has not been able to fully open since it was completed in May as the ADC struggled to hire nurses to staff the facility.
Asked if the inability to open the detox center influenced ADC closing its operations, Cangelosi said the organization’s financial situation “cannot be reduced to a single factor.”
Cangelosi said that a small number of team members will remain to develop a plan to open detox services.
“It is our greatest hope that ADC will open detox services under a future organizational structure” with the support of New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports, Cangelosi said.