Beach House in 2016 and in the Year to Come

January 2017 marks the start of another memorable year in the life of our drug and alcohol treatment programs. The New Year is also a rare opportunity to stop for a moment and reflect on where we are, where we started, and where we are going. This article will thus give a brief overview of key achievements in 2016 and will highlight some core objectives for the coming year, as we continue to pursue only the highest clinical excellence in our mission of providing freedom from drugs and alcohol to those who most need it. First, we will survey the 2016 milestones that defined our first year of operation as a South Florida treatment center committed to providing state-of-the-art substance abuse care to our clients. Next we will turn our focus to 2017 and the objectives that we most want to accomplish this coming year as a young but now nationally recognized recovery center.

Key Milestones in 2016

Beach House Center for Recovery began with the simple but profound conviction of founder and CEO Glenn Cohen that love and connection are essential to recovery from drugs and alcohol. That same conviction is at the center of everything we do. It laid the groundwork for our distinctive formula for freedom from drugs and alcohol, “People, Purpose, and Passion,” and has paved the way for a number of key accomplishments in 2016 that deserve celebration as significant first-year milestones:

• The opening of South Florida’s first, all-levels-of-care campus – Our completion of a brand-new, all-inclusive, detox and treatment facility achieved what advances in addiction treatment now link to better recovery outcomes — namely, a full continuum of integrated substance abuse care that is conveniently housed within the same campus setting.
• 629 clients received much-needed drug and alcohol treatment – In late March 2016 we welcomed our very first clients, starting with 50 open beds. By August, we had added an additional 180 beds, thus expanding access to much-needed addiction treatment to another 180 clients. During our first (roughly) eight months of operation, we helped to close the existing addiction treatment gap, by providing 629 clients with high-quality addiction treatment.
• Our unique treatment formula yielded high rates of client retention and recovery – A growing number of Beach House alumni now attribute their successful recovery to our formula for freedom from drugs and alcohol (loving connection with “People, Purpose and Passion”). Our extraordinarily high rates of client retention — another strong predictor of successful recovery outcomes — led the industry. Moreover, a great majority of the alumni with whom we are in contact report they are still sober. The rave reviews we have received from clients during the last year are another indication that our formula for recovery is working.
• A rigorous commitment to only evidence-based interventions for addiction – We strengthened and refined our application of solely evidence-based methods for treating addiction, so that our programs reflected this multi-modal approach, combining the latest medical and behavioral advances from addiction science with an emphasis on the spiritual components of positive core change.
• The gathering of a caring team of the most highly qualified professionals in addiction treatment – We also assembled a staff whose accumulated expertise in the field is unprecedented, and we were able to maintain an exceptionally high quality of care and low client-staff ratio even in the midst of rapid personnel growth.
• Accreditation by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) – As the most rigorous standard available in substance abuse care, JCAHO accreditation is the gold seal of drug and alcohol treatment. In the fall we successfully completed an intense, four-day audit by JCAHO of all of our medical and clinical levels of care — and we passed with flying colors.

Beach House Objectives in 2017

Looking ahead to 2017, we hope to continue to provide exceptionally high-quality substance abuse care to our clients, by building on the above accomplishments. In addition, the following core objectives will take our drug and alcohol programs to the next level in achieving world-class treatment excellence:

• Supporting advances in addiction treatment research – We look forward to spearheading research that will deepen our knowledge of client recovery outcomes and the efficacy of our treatment interventions.
• Developing our connections within the community – We hope to deepen and expand our clients’ connections within the community, by investing in post-care mentorships and other job and life skill opportunities, such as internships, resume writing classes and other means of giving back to our South Florida community. We also will be contributing clinical expertise and thought leadership to various local and national conferences where our clinical director has been invited to speak.
• Launching an on-campus family program – In response to the high levels of family involvement that our treatment programs encourage, we intend to launch a three-day program for families that will equip them with practical tools for their recovery.