The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up new challenges for those who look to the Lost & Found Recovery Center for support. Director Jann Johnson says the health precaution to isolate complicates recovery: “Our people need those connections.” Photo/Nancy Hanson.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

People on the path to recovery from alcohol and drug addiction need people. “We tell our people not to isolate,” says Jann Johnson, executive director of Moorhead’s Lost & Found Recovery Center. “They need community support.
“But what, then, does COVID-19 do? The health precautions we’ve been taking for the last six months put them into isolation.”
That’s why, she says, the recovery center has been seeing so many of their people in relapse. Now, as the staff of five professionals and their peer recovery coaches have begun to reintroduce well-spaced group meetings and increase carefully scheduled face-to-face sessions, some are returning to pick up the quest for sobriety once more.
Jann estimates that half of the people who seek the center’s coaching and support have suffered the effects of months spent apart from others, as well as all the stresses that have piled on – job furloughs or losses, uncertainty about the future and the impact of living in a time of unprecedented unrest. “Many have come back and are going back to work on their recovery,” she says. “They have to be able to pick up and start over.
“For some, that happens the next day. But sometimes we don’t hear from them for a good long while.”
The recovery center has been a safe harbor for those grappling with substance abuse and their families for more than 30 years. Founded in 1987 with a bequest to Trinity Lutheran Church, it was envisioned by major donor Thea Gullings as a resource for counseling problem drinkers and their families, as well as education to prevent addiction. She knew whereof she spoke; she had lost two sons, one to alcoholism and another in an accident with a drunk driver.
The center, according to her wishes, was originally called the Lost & Found Ministry. Its name was changed several years ago, Jann notes, to broaden the welcome it offers clients. “Many of our people come from jail or probation,” she notes, “and not all are comfortable with the church atmosphere.” Still Christian in its approach, it hosts Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, both solidly faith-based programs, but also SMART (Self-Management And Recovery Training), a science-based, self-empowered program based on mutual support.
Lost & Found does not offer treatment. Instead, Jann explains, it works with people on the path to recovery and their family members, friends, employers and allies. A large part of its mission is providing information and assistance to family members on how to intervene with someone who has the problem. The staff conducts chemical dependency and mental health evaluations.
The other part picks up after individuals have completed treatment. Staff and a small contingent of volunteers with specialized training meet with clients. Sometimes that means supportive one-on-one conversations with another woman or man who has walked the path of recovery in their own life. They have completed 40 hours of education on peer support to qualify for their role. “They’ve been in recovery themselves and can identify the feelings and challenges. They know the system,” Jann says.
At other times, the peer support specialist helps reconnect the recovering addict – often referred to them after jail or probation – with reconnecting with what they need to get their lives back on track. “We guide them through the system,” the director explains. “It could be dealing with the legal issues – getting a new ID or drivers license, finding housing, obtaining food. We want to teach them how to advocate for themselves.”
About 60% of those who come to Lost & Found are referred through the justice system. The remaining 40% is heavily weighted toward referrals by parents who recognize their son or daughter needs their help.
When the novel coronavirus pandemic struck the region, Jann and her staff locked the doors and turned to the phone. It kept on ringing, with calls coming from parents struggling with their children, employers looking for information, and people who simply needed a sympathetic ear.
“But we just weren’t connected enough,” the director reports. After about a month of that, they returned to their offices, carefully resuming face-to-face encounters. Now some support groups have resumed in the large meeting area in their location at 111 Seventh St. S. “Obviously you get father sitting with someone for an hour than talking on the phone,” she observes. In-person meetings are especially important during the first sessions with a new client.
COVID restrictions have affected the Lost & Found Center’s crown jewel, its quarter-million-dollar library of books, videos and other materials on the topic of recovery. The library is well used by their clients as well as parents and families, educators and others. It’s still open to the public even though the center’s door is locked. “Just ring the doorbell,” Jann advises.
A Moorhead native, she has managed the center for about five years. A graduate of both Concordia (with a bachelor’s) and MSUM (with a master’s degree in community counseling), she spent the first part of her career in retail management in Arizona. Most recently, she was assistant dean at Franklin College near Indianapolis, Indiana. When her mother developed heart problems, she retired and returned here to care for her.
Creating more awareness of the problems created by alcohol and drugs remains a priority for Lost & Found. As children begin to develop drug problems as early as in fifth or sixth grade, she says, parents need to become more aware.
“Alcohol and drugs are so normalized in our society,” she muses. “When you think of what people do for entertainment, how they socialize, what do you think of? You go out for a drink after work. You celebrate special occasions with alcohol. You have a drink before meals. You watch people having a great time drinking on TV. Kids grow up seeing it all around them.
“What they don’t show is the bad side.” She adds, “Most of the time, the reason is a hole – a hole that needs to be filled, a trauma in someone’s past. I think all – all – of our people have something painful in their past. Alcohol and drugs are a way to cover up that pain.”
Some of the pain, she acknowledges, is coming from what’s going on all around us. “COVID is keeping people home. We’ve seen an increase in violence. People are feeling more angry, and they don’t have the outlet of going out and seeing other people. They’ve had no vacations, no parties, no get-togethers with friends. On top of that, there’s so much unrest in the world. People pick up some of that. It’s no wonder they are struggling. You can’t not be affected.”