RCA Hopes to One Day Create Neighborhoods Much Like Riverbank House Drug Rehab in New Hampshire
Recovery Centers of America, the up and coming chain of commercial addiction treatment facilities backed by the Big Pharma investors at Deerfield Management and headed up by a real estate developer and former pharmaceutical executive, is hoping to establish recovery neighborhoods much like the model practiced for years by Riverbank House in New Hampshire.
RCA’s vision for the future includes the hope that “RCA Recovery Campuses will become centers of recovery communities in the cities and towns they serve. RCA will host and support 12 Steps and other group meetings for all members of the local recovery community in well-appointed, safe and comfortable meeting rooms.”
What the Experts Say about Recovery Neighborhood Approach
Whatever your reaction to commercial treatment centers backed by venture capitalists who have one foot in Big Pharma and another in addiction care, the recovery neighborhood model that RCA hopes to one day adopt is a concept backed by experts in the field of addiction science.
SAMHSA’s “Four Major Dimensions that Support a Life in Recovery” — Health, Home, Purpose, and Community — are central components to the Recovery Neighborhood model.
The Recovery Research Institute of MGH and Harvard Medical School is even more direct, stating:
Recovery communities and support services are a critical component of ongoing care for people in recovery.
One Drug Rehab in New Hampshire Pioneers the Model
Riverbank House in New Hampshire is a drug and alcohol residential program that promotes the long-term care model endorsed by experts in the field of addiction science. Riverbank House believes that an acute care institutional model that confines the patient during addiction treatment does not prepare the person for a real life in recovery. The Riverbank House recovery neighborhood in New Hampshire constitutes an actual small city neighborhood, providing experiential, hands-on, real world practice in the daily maintenance of addiction recovery. RBH men in recovery can live and thrive drug-free in the neighborhood for as long as it takes them to reach their personal, social, educational, and vocational goals.
When asked if Riverbank House hosts and supports 12 Step groups, the neighborhood residents seemed taken aback. “We practice the 12 steps and we are proud of our membership in 12 Step groups,” one man said as his friends nodded in agreement. “But we’ve been taught to respect the 12 Traditions as well as the 12 Steps.” He turned to his friends before asking, “How could Riverbank House host and support any 12 Step group and still abide by those Traditions?”
The neighborhood resident, one presumes, is referring to Traditions 6 and 7, which suggest that every AA group refrains from affiliation with outside enterprises and that each group remains self-supporting.
Long-term addiction care in safe recovery communities encourages such questions — by giving men the gift of time necessary to truly own their recovery community membership.
Republished from www.whenweloveanaddict.com. Copyright 2016.