Answer Addiction

Tag: treatment centers

  • New York Invests In 14 New Addiction Treatment Centers

    New York Invests In 14 New Addiction Treatment Centers

    Recovery Community Centers will focus on long-term recovery and offer ongoing support to combat relapse.

    New York State is investing more than $5 million to support the opening of 14 new drug addiction treatment and recovery centers, bringing the total number of new centers opened since 2016 to 25. At the same time, two of the state’s existing addiction treatment facilities will be expanded.

    The funds were awarded by the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) as part of a statewide effort to combat the current opioid epidemic.

    The new treatment centers, called Recovery Community Centers, will focus on long-term recovery, offering ongoing support to combat relapse, which is a common part of addiction recovery.

    “Treatment alone is not enough for people dealing with addiction, and we need to make sure that the proper recovery supports are available,” said OASAS Commissioner Arlene González-Sánchez. “These new centers will offer people in recovery a chance to meet their peers going through the same challenges, receive help to reclaim their lives from addiction, and build a new life in recovery.”

    According to Niagara Frontier Publications, these centers will offer peer support, skill building, recreation, wellness education, employment readiness, and social activities with the help of professional staff, peers in recovery, and volunteers. This is just one part of a “multi-pronged approach” put into action by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

    “We are committed to investing in recovery centers across the state to help individuals and families struggling with addiction,” said Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul during her announcement of the funding plan.

    “This funding will establish 14 new recovery community centers and expand services at two existing centers across the state. We want to ensure people have access to the resources and services they need to lead healthy and safe lives and continue our efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.”

    This new grant comes on the heels of funding secured by Cuomo in December of 2018, when over $9 million was directed toward opioid addiction treatment services, including $2.1 million for new treatment facilities in high-risk areas. Prior to that, over $25 million was allocated to address the opioid epidemic in 19 counties in the state of New York in September.

    All of this funding is part of a national effort to halt the rising rates of opioid-related overdose deaths, which have increased six-fold from 1999 to 2017.

    Thankfully, preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) appear to show that these deaths are beginning to level off, likely due to comprehensive efforts by states across the country to expand addiction treatment and distribute the opioid overdose reversal drug, naloxone.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Restaurant That Gives Second Chances To People In Recovery Gets Rave Reviews

    Restaurant That Gives Second Chances To People In Recovery Gets Rave Reviews

    DV8 Kitchen provides a supportive, flexible work environment to ensure employees are “meeting their goals and staying on a good path.”

    One restaurant is not only giving people in recovery a second chance—they’re doing it incredibly well.

    DV8 Kitchen, which was recently featured in The Fix, opened last September, but it’s already garnered rave reviews and five stars on Yelp.

    All 25 employees at DV8 are in recovery from substance use disorder. Co-owner Rob Perez himself has 28 years of recovery. “I was a binge drinker. I didn’t have to drink everyday but when I did, I would frequently get out of control,” he told The Fix.

    With his Lexington, Kentucky eatery, Perez has created a workplace that caters to recovery. “Our staff don’t leave programs or meetings or houses and come to a foreign environment 40 hours a week, they come to a place where we all speak the same language, have the same customs, and discussions, so it’s a 24/7 program,” said Perez.

    The restaurant functions around the needs of the employees. For example, as Perez explained to the Dayton Daily News, DV8 does not open for dinner service so that employees may attend meetings, and tips are split evenly and added to paychecks instead of giving out cash.

    Schedules are flexible and work to fit in mandatory appointments for court or treatment centers, and each Tuesday a guest speaker comes in, covering topics including health and wellness, financial responsibility, teamwork and mindfulness.

    The restaurant works in partnership with treatment centers, where most new employees are hired from. “We work in tandem with the sober living houses to ensure the employee is meeting their goals and staying on a good path,” Perez told The Fix.

    Perez is well aware that, whether they like it or not, DV8 has something to prove. It’s more than a restaurant, it’s a chance to show people that “second chance” doesn’t mean “second rate.”

    Hoping to establish a higher standard for his restaurant, employees are paid 20% more than they would get at similar fast-casual restaurants, resulting in less turnover and better service, Perez told the Daily News.

    “I think that the customers see a different face of recovery. It is about helping the folks that work here,” Perez told the Daily News. “But it’s also about helping the general public understand that the recovery community is worth a shot. The recovery community can perform good work.”

    Perez believes that with hard work comes self-respect. “When you do a job with quality, you build self respect, self-esteem and pride in a craft you’re developing,” he told The Fix. “In recovery, we need a support system and an accountability system. And the camaraderie you get out of a job when you have common interests, backgrounds and circumstances, is pretty powerful.”

    View the original article at thefix.com