Recovery: Michigan offers many options outside of residential care.

Despite Michigan being labeled a “rehab desert” by the 2026 Rehab Desert Index, some of the state’s leading mental health experts say the findings don’t offer a full picture. They spotlight the vast services and vital role that community mental health (CMH) agencies play in the rehab and recovery landscape. 

“I remember thinking this is probably a distorted bit of news intended to promote someone’s interests,” says OnPoint Allegan’s CEO Mark Witte, after reviewing the Index. “When I think about how the information was presented, I guess I’d say they don’t offer services in Michigan.”

Compiled by Milestone Treatment Center in New Jersey, the index defines a rehab desert as “a region where addiction treatment demand far, far exceeds available facilities, leaving people who urgently need help without timely access to structured care.” 

Milestone’s January 2026 investigation compared Google search volume for rehab-related terms against the number of licensed residential and inpatient facilities offering high-intensity care across each state. Using 13 addiction treatment keywords including “rehab near me,” “drug rehab,” and “detox centers,” they filtered results by places that offered substance abuse services in structured settings (such as residential) per SAMHSA’s 2024 National Directory of Mental Health Treatment Facilities. They divided the number of Google searches by the number of nearby facilities to determine a Rehab Desert Score, with a higher score indicating worse access to treatment. With a score of 419, Michigan placed third ahead of South Carolina and Colorado. 

“That’s not really an authoritative way of knowing how much treatment exists around a certain area,” Witte says. “That’s not necessarily the only way to measure that stuff.”

Witte points out some critical considerations. Solo counselors and services that are not residential or inpatient were excluded, and a Google search doesn’t mean that the searcher is actually looking for treatment. And what about recovery support services that decrease the need for intensive treatment programs? Milestone’s data has another limitation — it doesn’t speak to how many people are being treated.

An ecosystem not a desert

While Witte feels that Michiganders would benefit from more treatment facilities, he underscores that all across the state, CMH agencies provide services and support to those seeking help for substance use disorders (SUDs). 

“Every one of the five CMHs that operate within our seven-county region offer both mental health services and substance use disorder treatment,” Witte says. “We have a staff of people who consist of recovery coaches that include patient counseling staff.”

He adds that some of the facilities that they work with provide combined mental health and substance abuse treatment. Some psychiatric facilities have treatment providers that are as well-versed in mental health as they are in substance abuse services.

“On paper, they will not show up as a substance abuse treatment provider,” Witte says. “They’ll show up as a psychiatric facility, but treatment that the person receives there would be considered integrated or co-occurring care.”

He extols the availability and role of OnPoint’s recovery coaches — individuals in recovery who have dedicated their lives to working with others. 

“They are the people who are so essential in helping people be motivated to stay through the difficult work of staying in recovery,” Witte says. 

The “opposite of addiction is connection”

A Grants for the Benefit of Homeless Individuals (GBHI) Certified Peer Recovery Coach at OnPoint, Nicole Aldrich struggled with addiction for over two decades. As of October, she will have been in recovery for 13 years. In her role she meets people “where they’re at.”

“I support them, work beside them, bridge that gap … with them doing the work with the assistance and the support and the hope,” she says. 

Her support varies. It could be helping someone who needs a birth certificate, taking someone to a test, or filling applications. Aldrich shares the recent success story of a woman who was told she “wasn’t going to make it.” Since leaving a treatment center, she has been clean for a year. Aldrich went with her to share her story with others at the center.

“Watching the confidence in herself, that is huge. Watching people getting things for an apartment, housing that they’ve never had — there’s so much stuff,” Aldrich says. 

Some clients, she explains, want to find a church, a gym, or artistic opportunities. As a recovery coach, she supports clients in becoming self-sufficient as “the idea is for them to build that community of their own.” 

“I’ve seen people start their own TikTok videos and that actually inspires other people. It helps them, but it’s also inspiring other people,” she says. “I was at a conference and one of the keynote speaker’s main messages was that the opposite of addiction is connection, building that support and building that community really helps people.”

The role of community in recovery

In Washtenaw County, Joelen Kersten, substance use services clinical director at the Community Mental Health Partnership of Southeast Michigan (CMHPSM), plays an important role in supporting people looking for SUD support and recovery. 

“SUD resources are important because treatment and recovery programs work best in a community that embraces treatment and recovery and offers support, accountability, and motivation,” she says. “It should be a community that reduces isolation and provides growth opportunities for individuals in every stage of recovery.”

Kersten is not familiar with Milestone Treatment Center and can’t comment on the investigation. She can attest, however, to the numerous resources available.

She points to CMHPSM”s Substance Use Services Guide, which outlines the funding and providers of services available throughout Lenawee, Livingston, Monroe, and Washtenaw Counties. Home of New Vision also has a Washtenaw County-specific SUD resource guide. 

“Building a community that accepts and offers support to those in recovery is helpful in reducing the stigma associated with substance use disorders and people in recovery,” Kersten says. “When someone feels like they’ll receive help and not be judged for asking for that help, they are more likely to speak up and ask for it.”

Coordinating care is key

Like OnPoint’s Witte, Nicole Stroub feels that Milestone’s methodology is concerning. Stroub has been a member of the Michigan Association for Addiction Professionals (MAADAC)‘s Board of Directors since 2021. 

“I personally Google search treatment centers to get information on how to contact them regularly,” Stroub says. “Me, as MAADAC, I’m trying to get sponsors for our conference or trying to find somebody. People looking for jobs, they’re searching for treatment centers, but they’re not people seeking treatment.”

She points out that professionals put in a lot of effort coordinating care. Someone might go to a CMH for mental health services and might want them to coordinate care with their previous SUD treatment center.

“Somebody will go up North for treatment and come back down to their home county for outpatient, and we’ve got to coordinate care,” Stroub says. “That right there is a huge skew.”

Stroub became a peer recovery coach in 2016 and worked for Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Centers Flint Outpatient. For two-and-a-half years, she helped people rebuild their lives, with or without medication. Milestone’s investigation, she explains, “doesn’t even focus on the whole picture of what treatment is.”

“These people had full-time jobs, had to get their kids to school, did not have anybody else to watch their children,” she says. “Outpatient treatment was the only way for them to seek treatment and the support that they needed.”

Stroub says that the state is actually, “very, very rich in supports” as Michigan has so many options outside of residential facilities.

“The problem isn’t the resources,” she says. “It’s bridging the gap between the people that need them and the resource itself. MAADAC helps with that, and CMHs help with that.”

What Stroub sees is people in meetings who every single day “are trying like heck” to improve their communities. 

“There are coalitions and organizations all over Michigan that are just trying to say what can we do better to help our community?” she says. “So to say that we’re a desert is ridiculous.”

Photos by Doug Coombe.
Mark Witte photo by John Grap.
Nicole Aldrich and Nicole Straub photos courtesy subjects.

The MI Mental Health series highlights the opportunities that Michigan’s children, teens and adults of all ages have to find the mental health help they need, when and where they need it. It is made possible with funding from the Community Mental Health Association of Michigan, Center for Health and Research Transformation, Lifeways, OnPoint, Sanilac County CMH, Summit Pointe, Michigan Health and Hospital Association, Washtenaw CMH, and Public Safety Preservation Millage.