In recent Illinois healthcare news, Howard Buffett, the eldest son of Berkshire Hathaway’s billionaire CEO, Warren Buffett, plans to invest $30 million in social services programs in Decatur, Illinois aimed at fighting drug addiction.
The Howard G. Buffett Foundation will help build four new facilities including a residential rehabilitation building and an outpatient treatment center.
A Community Care Campus will endorse a multidisciplinary approach to addiction treatment. Three of the four facilities will be operated by Crossing Healthcare, a health center serving Decatur’s low-income residents.
To help clients adjust to a sober environment, the campus will reflect normal day-to-day life, including accommodations such as: a dental clinic, cafeteria, classrooms, a computer training lab, transitional housing, a three-quarter-mile walking path, a park with an outdoor pavilion, and even a movie theater.
Howard Buffett says the investment “will address the health of our community at multiple levels.”
Healthcare Weekly reports that Buffett takes no salary from his foundation and chooses projects to invest in only after consulting with community leaders.
In September 2017, Howard Buffett was named Sheriff of Macon County, where he previously served for three years as an undersheriff. With this new Crossing Healthcare collaboration, Buffet is joining Illinois’ health leaders in their efforts to change the system for the better.
“It is clear to me that it will take a significant investment of public and private resources to stop the trajectory of addiction rates, and it will take a comprehensive approach to reverse current trends and heal communities. I hope the Community Care Campus can serve as a model for how we do that,” said Buffett.
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