The business of recovery is not about competing with other organizations involved in helping people with substance use disorders, leaders from Recovery Center of Ohio said, but it is about working in tandem for their patients and clients.
“People think there’s a lot of competition, but unfortunately there’s enough people who need help for all of us to work together,” said Traci Mason, vice president of the Recovery Center of Ohio, the parent company of the Recovery Center of Dayton.
The Recovery Center of Dayton may connect their clients with other organizations with different programs and tools, while still holding a space for the patient in their program, she said.
“If we have a client who comes in and they need detox, I’m going to send them to a detox facility, but I’m going to hold their bed so they don’t lose that space in being able to come into our program when they complete detox,” Mason said. “Community partnership is extremely important.”
Located at 7345 Far Hills Ave. in Centerville, the Recovery Center of Dayton is the third Ohio location for the Recovery Center of Ohio, a subsidiary of the Recovery Center USA.
Recovery Center USA opened its first location in Baltimore in 2016, providing services to those with substance use disorders. It expanded in Maryland, later opening locations in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The Recovery Center of Ohio has locations in Cincinnati and Columbus, opening the Centerville location in 2021. Founder and CEO Dr. Warrick Stewart-Darby opened the first Ohio location in Cincinnati in 2020.
The Recovery Center of Dayton offers intensive outpatient and residential programs for those in recovery from a substance use disorder. It has four recovery houses spread out in the Dayton region, offering 48 beds for those who need a new place to live in separate from the environment they were in previously where they may have been using substances or unhoused.
“It allows them to focus more on the treatment itself rather than trying to work on housing needs and getting to appointments,” said Jesse Dennison, the center’s new clinical director.
The housing is provided at no cost to the client, Mason said.
Instead of having to live in a shelter or try to take a bus to get to appointments, group sessions and/or medical treatment, the Recovery Center gives their clients a safe place to sleep and transportation to appointments, Dennison said. This allows the clients to focus on their recovery.
“We try to make it a structured environment, very recovery focused,” said Brandy Wilson, housing director for the Recovery Center of Ohio. “We lead a meeting every morning to start the day positive and in a recovery mindset. We call it morning meditation.”
Clients within the center’s programs, which are typically six months long, must have used substances within the past 90 days to qualify, Dennison said.
The Recovery Center is also building a peer support program, which includes support personnel who can connect with patients and clients in recovery before their assessment for the program is done, Mason said.
“This is a calling, working with this population,” Mason said.
Some of the Recovery Center’s former clients have taken up that calling and joined the staff at the center.
“It was awesome. They helped me with everything from peer support to case management,” Kim Marcum, a graduate of the program, said about her experience.
“They were great. I couldn’t have done it without them,” she said.
Now, working as a house manager for the center, Marcum loves working with the clients, she said.
“It’s amazing because now I can save their lives like Recovery Center of Ohio saved my life,” Marcum said.
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