Florida Recovery Center marks Tampa addiction recovery program opening
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (Sept. 26, 2011) — The nationally known Florida Recovery Center, a Gainesville-based program of UF&Shands, the University of Florida Academic Health Center, opened a Tampa center Saturday to provide intensive addiction recovery outpatient services. Addiction specialists and recovery supporters including Scott Teitelbaum, M.D., F.A.A.P., FRC medical director, and John Harden, L.C.S.W., C.A.P., M.P.H., FRC executive director, hosted a public open house and tours of the new space, located at 324 South Hyde Park Avenue, Suite 375.
“The Tampa center comes in response to a large community need,” Harden said. “The growth of the Florida Recovery Center represents an evolution in treatment and recovery.”
The FRC Tampa team of addiction specialists and licensed clinicians offers a full continuum of outpatient services for addiction and related disorders, including treatment for addictions, depression, anxiety and eating disorders. Substance abuse evaluations, support groups and referral services are also available through this location. Meanwhile, inpatient services are available through the main campus in Gainesville.
FRC leaders expanded to Tampa to help meet the growing need for addiction medicine. Prescription drug abuse has snowballed into a national epidemic in less than a decade, and Florida is the epicenter of the problem. The state has 49 of the nation’s top 50 prescribers of oxycodone, the active ingredient in opioid pain killers such as OxyContin. People are traveling hundreds of miles to pain clinics to obtain prescription medicines that are later sold on the streets for high profits. Substances like Soma, Xanax and Roxicodone are highly addictive, and addicts are desperate to get them.
“Addiction issues are not going away,” Harden said. “There is a great opportunity in Tampa to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Florida Recovery Center’s expert clinicians.”
Teitelbaum said at a time of shrinking state and federal resources and health care access challenges, UF and Shands can fill a gap in Tampa.
“This is great news for anyone concerned about the epidemic of addiction and the lack of resources for people who need them,” he said. “UF and Shands and the Florida Recovery Center have been offering hope and help for alcoholics and addicts for decades. Now, outpatient evaluation, treatment and recovery will be available in Tampa.”
September is national alcohol and drug addiction recovery month.
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For more information:
http://floridarecoverycenter.ufhealth.org