During a meeting of the Highland County Drug Abuse Prevention Coalition, Monique Bellamy of The Recovery Council spoke Wednesday about the services offered by the agency.

The agency provides services for behavioral and mental health as well as substance use disorder with locations in Highland, Ross and Pike counties.

“We recently merged,” said Bellamy. “We were FRS [Family Recovery Services], and we became The Recovery Council.”

The agency offers a program called Connections that provides students with group and individual therapy. “They are kids who have problems coping in the school system so their grades are being impacted, and their behaviors are causing their grades to drop,” said Bellamy.

She said The Recovery Council provides outpatient and intensive outpatient substance abuse services. “For all the groups with individuals, anything that they would need, we can help them with a case manager,” said Bellamy.

The agency also provides MAT (medicated assisted treatment) services. “We offer Vivitrol and Saboxone. “For all of our clients, we do require that they seek a therapist as well, or a case manager, so they don’t just get to come in and get Saboxone,” said Bellamy.

The Recovery Council has a partial hospitalization program at a 16-bed facility for men called Massie House. “Right now, they have treatment in the building, and they are transported back and forth, and they live in a sober living house,” said Bellamy.

She said within the next two weeks all of the treatment will be moved to the house. “I’m hoping that’s going to help with the team and the collaborative approach,” said Bellamy. “They are also working on certifying it to be residential, so clients will be able to come in and have residential services and step down into a partial-level care.”

The Recovery Council employs a nurse practitioner who works under a psychiatrist. “She provides a one-stop shop for any of the services you need,” said Bellamy.

The agency offers groups for adolescents with substance use and mental health issues. “We have a case management group and we’re working on getting a parenting group together,” said Bellamy.

She said that the merger of FRS to The Recovery Council has opened up a number of additional services. “We also have a couple of transitional housing units,” she said. “They fill up pretty quickly, but if you are a person who is getting ready to step down they will put you on the list to try to make sure that you will get a spot to move into transitional housing.”

The Recovery Council has employees that provide drug prevention information to local school systems. “We’re getting into Lynchburg-Clay,” said Bellamy. “We don’t want to lose the opportunity to be able to help those kids in that school.”

Most of the services provided by The Recovery Council are paid for through Medicaid. “We do on occasion have some clients who don’t have Medicaid – maybe they have Medicare – and we have worked with the board a couple of times to find solutions to get them in,” said Bellamy.

Bellamy said The Recovery Council does not want to turn away anyone in need of services. “If we can find a way to get them in, we are going to do that,” she said.

Reach John Hackley at 937-402-2571.