The Lighthouse in Wytheville: A Short-Term Recovery Home Led by Peers
Support, Stability, and Recovery for People Struggling with Addiction or Mental Health Issues
Dustin Carter was down to one of two options for a place to live when he left a drug treatment center in southwest Virginia — one of which wasn’t close to a recovery home he wanted.
He could go back to where he came from – the gritty street corner in Richmond with easy access to illegal drugs and a community where substance use was common.
Or he could stay for two weeks at a peer-led wellness stay called The Lighthouse on Main Street in Wytheville, a town of 8,000 people nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwest Virginia. Michelle Ousley, who overcame substance use addiction and others who battled their own addictions and mental health issues, runs The Lighthouse.
A Lifesaver
Carter chose The Lighthouse over the Richmond street corner.
He says it likely saved his life.
“I have no doubt that coming here saved me from immediately going back there and getting right back into the fentanyl and, you know, the crack and meth and everything,” Carter said from a bright screened in porch in The Lighthouse. “And probably not only getting back into it but probably overdosing and potentially even losing my life.”
The Lighthouse is a 4,600-square-foot Queen Anne style home built on Wytheville’s Main Street around 1910. It’s two stories with six bedrooms and has a sprawling tree that produces red apples by the bushel in the front yard. The old house must have quite a few stories it could tell. Especially now.
A Pilot Project in Virginia
Mount Rogers Community Services staff run The Lighthouse, which was the first home of its kind in Virginia that offered short-term stays for folks in crisis. They all share the lived experiences of either addiction, mental health struggles, or both.
They also know about recovery and the struggles the folks who walk through the door are facing. Staff include Brian Inman, who had his own stay at The Lighthouse before becoming a peer recovery specialist. He now works overnight shifts to help people just like him.
“When I got here, I was a total mess,” Inman said. “I didn’t know if I would be able to make it here. But after the first few days, I mean, hearing the peers talk, I saw they were no different from me.”
Not long after that, he went to work at The Lighthouse.
“I decided, `Hey, this is what I want. I want to give back,’” he said.
A Place That’s Not a Hospital
Ousley describes The Lighthouse as a place to help people avoid a hospital stay because hospitals aren’t set up to help people the way the home and its staff can.
The home offers a two-week stay for people who may simply need a break and gives them the hope and support that things will get better. When stress piles up, or struggles with addiction flare up, or their mental health is not good, The Lighthouse is a safe, caring place to recoup, recover, and recharge.
Ousley spent 25 years in active addiction to drugs before getting sober and turning her life around at the age of 37. Ousley and the other staff who all have their own experiences with either addiction or mental health issues – sometimes both – offer support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. But two weeks is a small window.”
Making a Difference – Every Day
Not everyone who comes to The Lighthouse is ready to make a break from the lifestyle that leads to addiction or crisis. But they also get people who are at the point that they are ready to change their life.
“If we can get them at that point, and then we can start giving them resources and a safe place to be and things that they’ve not had, sometimes that’s all it is,” Ousley said. “That’s all the change that they need for them to be able to continue making better decisions for themselves.”
And folks at The Lighthouse are making a difference. Every day.
“Like these guys are, you know, they’re stuck with me,” Carter said with a grin, describing how he comes by often even after his two-week stay ended. “They’re my family. You know, Michelle stray cat adopted me, and now she’s stuck with me.”
But you have to be ready to make a change for The Lighthouse to really work, Carter said. The Lighthouse staff can help with job applications, run folks to jobs or appointments, help them figure out where to go next and how to get there, and what services are available. But to really flourish, it’s up to each person.
“You have to want it,” he said. “You have to help yourself.”
View The Lighthouse video.
About Mount Rogers Community Services — With a mission to help people, families, and communities thrive, Mount Rogers is a top provider of behavioral health services in southwest Virginia.
We offer services for mental health, behavioral health, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and substance use disorders. We also offer geriatric, counseling, early intervention, and other services in the city of Galax and the counties of Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, and Wythe.
