AdventHealth opens addiction center
Facility part of county effort to combat the opioid epidemic
Across the street from Seminole County’s jail, an old office building has been transformed into a new, intensive addiction recovery facility, the latest of the county’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic in innovative ways.
The new AdventHealth Hope and Healing Center, formed through a private-public partnership between the hospital system and Seminole County, recently started outpatient addiction recovery services and therapy. As of Monday, it will begin taking people for its 30-day in-patient recovery program.
“This center, strategically placed where there’s a vulnerable population, … is just one more step in our overall partnership and process to get people the help they need,” said Sheriff Dennis Lemma, who helped spearhead the project. “We are not only saving them, but saving generations of their loved ones to follow.”
Lemma joined AdventHealth and county leaders Monday morning for the official opening of the new facility, the culmination of almost two years of planning.
“We are transforming how we view and treat people with substance-use disorders,” Tim Cook, CEO of AdventHealth Altamonte Springs, said in a statement. “By providing a comprehensive network of services and support, our goal is to break the cycle of addiction and set our patients on the path to recovery and long-term success.”
The voluntary in-patient program can currently support up to 13 men, though it will have the capacity for about 30 people without COVID-restrictions, and will soon have a women’s dorm, said Clinical Director Scott Tucker.
The residential program will offer clinical therapy; daily Alcoholics/Narcotics Anonymous meetings; support from peer recovery specialists and access to medication assisted treatment, for a monitored detox from drug use; as well as recreation, spiritual and career-building opportunities, he said.
Tucker said seven people are already participating in the outpatient group and individual therapy at the Hope and Heal
ing Center, which is able to provide services to those who do not have health insurance.
Though the facility is entirely run by AdventHealth, it is also financially supported by Seminole County and Walmart and will continue partnering with the Seminole County Sheriff ’s Office.
However, Lemma made clear his agency’s law enforcement work would remain separate from the healthcare facility, and SCSO’s role would be referring people who recently overdosed or were struggling with substance abuse to the program, either after emergency calls or to those at the jail.
“I think this organization, this partnership, this facility, will serve as a model to save lives,” Lemma said.
Lemma said before he and his team started focusing on this issue — about three years ago when the opioid epidemic spiked Seminole’s mortality rate — there were few options for deputies and healthcare workers to support someone after an overdose.
“It was almost a catch an release,” Lemma said.
Without a support system, chances were high that someone would return to the same environment in which they were abusing drugs, he said.
While Seminole County has worked to improve education and services for addiction and substance use disorders, he said the COVID-19 pandemic has again led to a rise in cases, with overdoses in the county up 62% from the prior year and overdose deaths up 31%. Lemma said he’s hopeful the new facility will add to the support in the community to more-comprehensively address the issue.