CFR asks Webster County for $64,800 to cover detox stays for unfunded residents

Michelle Dela Riva, executive director of CFR, asked county officials during a budget review to fund unfunded or underfunded detox stays, requesting $64,800 for fiscal year 2027.

Dela Riva said CFR, a nonprofit based in Fort Dodge founded in 1968, operates a clinical 3.7 medically monitored detox program with 24-hour nursing and physician evaluations. She told the meeting that over the past 18 months CFR served 285 Webster County residents in that program and that 59 of those patients had no funding source. "The request is for 64,800 for fiscal year 27," she said.

Why it matters: Dela Riva argued county funding would be more cost-effective than emergency-room care for people in withdrawal. She said patients without access to residential detox often wind up in hospital emergency departments and sometimes in intensive-care units, which she said can cost roughly $2,000 a day versus CFR's stated daily program rate of $450. The agency described the request as a way to avoid higher downstream public costs and to ensure locally available clinical detox capacity.

Details and context: Dela Riva said the 3.7 program provides an intake physical, substance-use evaluations to determine level of care and round-the-clock nursing. She said changes in funding following an alignment with IHHS and the loss of prior IPN grant support removed a funding stream that previously covered some residential services, prompting the current county request. Dela Riva noted that Webster County has funded the detox program in the past (around $80,000 in 2016'2017, she said) but that the county did not provide the same support more recently.

Next steps: Board members thanked Dela Riva and asked for supporting documentation. One board member noted tight budgets and said the county would review the materials she promised to send. No formal vote or decision was recorded at the meeting.