Daymark Recovery Services has been selected to run the treatment facilities administered by Sandhills Center for Mental Health Services.

The company was also awarded $125,000 in start-up funding, but the contracting phase of the transition remains to be completed. The annual value of the contract is estimated to be $5.5 million.

In an interview last week, Sandhills Center CEO Michael Watson explained the move would allow the organization to operate solely as a management entity, and to become accredited to process Medicaid claims.

“We are excited about the opportunity of working with Daymark Recovery

Services,” Watson said Friday. “I have great confidence that the transition will be as seamless as possible. Daymark will be providing the same services, at the same

locations, with a large percentage of the same staff.”

The step was necessary, Watson explained, to comply with state and national accreditation requirements that the management and delivery of services must be

separated to avoid conflicts of interest.

Daymark already provides services in Davidson, Cabarrus, Davie, Forsyth, Rowan, Stanly, Stokes, Union and Rockingham counties.

The company’s website describes its values.

“Daymark Recovery Services, Inc. serves those with the greatest needs and facing the greatest challenges with a coordinated effort of services,” it reads. “Services are culturally sensitive, strength based and delivered in congruence with natural community supports and each consumer’s personal support system. Services will promote safety and recovery while always respecting the rights of self-determination.”

“When we looked at expansion in the past, we’ve looked at organizations that put an emphasis on the professional services - therapy, medical care, and those types of services - as opposed to the paraprofessional, community support types of services,” Daymark CEO Billy West said. “When we look at partners, we like what we see in Sandhills. They’ve retained many of their clinics through reform, and they’ve retained many of the services they offer, and they emphasize offering good care. It fits our model.”

“We approved the plan to go ahead with the transition to a private provider,” said Thad Ussery, a Richmond County Commissioner and vice chairman of the Sandhills Center Board. “We haven’t approved the contract yet, that is something we’ll have to come back and look at, but we’ll certainly have that done by the June meeting. This provider comes pretty highly recommended. We’re ready to move on with it, and I think they can handle the job.”

Watson said the contract would most likely be in the area of $5.5 million in his previous interview.

Family First is one of the private providers of services in Rockingham, currently going through the process of gaining accreditation, according to owner Wendell Wells.

“I don’t really know how that will affect us,” Wells said. “Anything that’s going to benefit the clients, I’m all for it. Any change at the state or local level is fine with me, it’s the clients we have concern for.”