“There is nothing else like this in the country,” President and CEO of Life Learning Center Alecia Webb Edgington said during the grand opening of Journey Recovery Center Tuesday.
The new St. Elizabeth Healthcare Journey Recovery Center in Life Learning Center based in Covington will provide addiction services and support to individuals in their journey toward recovery. The Life Learning Center helps the at-risk population, whether it is someone struggling with addiction, poverty, mental health issues, or a combination, with an education and care continuum.
St. Elizabeth Physicians opened the Journey Recovery Center in 2015, and after success in 2017, they expanded into a larger location. With the center’s opening in Covington, President and CEO of St. Elizabeth Physicians, Heidi Murley, MD, said the new site will double the size they had available.
“St. Elizabeth Physicians recognizes the value of evidence-based treatment in the care for substance use disorder,” Murley said. “We served as the first treatment provider in Northern Kentucky to provide medication for opioid use disorder.”
Medical Director of Journey Recovery Center, Dr. Teresa Koeller, said through the collaboration with Life Learning Center, they are focusing on the essence of “whole person care.” She said that patients don’t do well without assistance and managing physical, financial, emotional, relational, and spiritual barriers. Koeller said this also includes reaching people where they are, whether through the Life Learning Center, the emergency department, hospitals, jails, etc.
Gov. Andy Beshear was in attendance at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and said that for every person who can get into recovery, their kids are less likely to abuse substances, their grandchildren are less likely to use, and their grandchildren’s kids are less likely to use.
Beshear said this is the first year the state can say that all of Kentucky’s combined programs meet anyone ready for treatment whether they can pay for it or not.
“There is a bed and likely an open bed for everyone who needs it,” Beshear said. “Working together—making sure we make treatment Medicaid eligible, making sure we have expanded Medicaid to cover everybody who might need it. Finding other sources of funding—over the last four years, we’ve increased treatment beds in the Commonwealth by 50%.”
He said the state is close to seeing a decline for the second year in overdose deaths and said last year, the state posted the lowest recidivism rate in the history of the Commonwealth. Beshear attributed that success to more treatment beds inside jails and prisons than ever before and working harder to get people second chances at employment the moment they leave incarceration—like the work done at Life Learning Center.
“Every time we can reduce that recidivism rate, we not only help repair and bring back a family and help somebody be productive in our commonwealth once again, but we’ve reduced future crime by making sure that people don’t re-offend,” he said.
Through Journey Recovery Center’s collaboration with Life Learning Center since 2015, Koeller said they have already noticed an 181% increase in employment and an 8% recidivism rate.
“This is while we were in Edgewood, and Life Learning Center was here in Covington,” Koeller said. “Just imagine what we will do when we’re here together.”