AARS plans for expansion to meet growing needs of people struggling with substance use

Alaska had only been a state for 23 years when Alaska Addiction Rehabilitation Services (AARS) began serving adults struggling with substance use disorder (SUD) in the Mat-Su Borough, providing treatment services to more than 3,300 Alaskans.

Founded in 1982, AARS was located on Palmer-Wasilla Highway, but in 2012, relocated to Nugen’s Ranch, which AARS now owns, with more than 116 acres of farm land in Point Mackenzie. Continuing to build on its success, and to better serve a growing wait list, AARS is now preparing for expansion with plans to double its current 26-bed facility.

“AARS serves not just the Matanuska Valley but statewide, and with a growing numbers of referrals for service, we could only able to accept 58 and admit 28 through the course of the year,” says Executive Director Bryan Brandenburg.

Currently, there are 60 beds in the Mat-Su Valley for people seeking treatment, so Brandenburg and the board of directors began talking expansion, and those plans began in 2022 to meet the growing needs of Alaskans suffering from SUD who want to enter recovery and reintegrate back into the community as productive citizens.

AARS is in Phase I, which is fully funded thanks to a $3M Federal Appropriation that Senator Lisa Murkowski oversaw, and a FY25 Capital Grant from Governor Mike Dunleavy that will pay for a portion of the Phase II construction, which is expected to break ground next spring.

“To complete Phase II, we’ll need another $9 million, so we are currently working with funders like the Mat-Su Health Foundation, Rasmussen, all those folks to raise additional funding to complete Phase II.”

Brandenburg says that the referrals have decreased slightly, along with referral sources coming from other treatment providers and less from the Department of Corrections, and he believes that is due in part to the Day One Center and the Crisis Stabilization Services offered by True North Recovery and Set Free Alaska.

“I think as a result of that, they are able to stabilize people and get them into alternative treatment or get them back into their homes or back into treatment that they were already receiving.”

Brandenburg says that AARS has also expanded their treatment protocols to now offer five levels of care for SUD, ranging from intensive residential treatment program all the way down to outpatient transitional program.

“We provide all of those services here on site. We’ve added two transitional housing units, with five beds for females and five beds for males,” he says, adding that those beds are offered not just to clients of AARS but to other treatment programs around the state.

Brandenburg says they have also been working with the Department of Corrections (DOC) and working with inmates transitioning to AARS for treatment and for vocational training as part of transitioning back into the community, adding a 16-bed housing unit they will be bringing online next summer.

Another part of the expansion happening is the addition of a separate 3,000 square foot office space for outpatient staff as the treatment facility has grown.

The other big piece that AARS has added is a vocational training program.

“We have a restaurant-ready program…and that is just thriving like you wouldn’t believe.” Brandenburg says that is the first step in a culinary arts program they are developing.

Additionally, AARS offers a welding program, basic carpentry program and will be adding a small engine repair program.

“With these programs, it allows them (clients) to get a leg up, a foot in the door upon re-entry,” says Corbin Thurneau, Director of Operations who also oversees the farming and ranching and the vocational programs.

“This opportunity to do the vocational training that Corbin has been developing and doing a really good job sourcing that out is just a great opportunity and the clients are super-excited about it,” says Bridget Akerley, Director of Clinical Operations.

AARS owns and operates Nugen’s Ranch which is in addition to being home to AARS’ treatment buildings, also has several hay fields, large vegetable gardens, livestock pens, chicken coops, and two large greenhouses. They’ve expanded the hayfields by 25 acres and the vegetable fields by 15 acres, and if that weren’t enough, they also added another full-size greenhouse. Some of the produce grown and eggs laid by the 100 hens housed in the coops is sold at the Wasilla Farmers’ Market, Friday Flings in Palmer and even at Three Bears.

With all that, the core mission of AARS remains providing client-centered quality treatment services to adults living with substance use disorder and co-occurring disorders from all regions of the State of Alaska.

“We are very pleased with the product that we have here, and we believe in our success rate.”

For more information about AARS and Nugen’s Ranch, please visit www.aarsrecovery.org