Published: August 04, 2008 08:11 am      

Recovery is in progress

Facility thrives in first month

“Addicts change their goals to meet their behavior. Non-addicts change their behavior to meet their goals.”

This is an inspirational phrase written on one of the dry erase boards inside a room at Liberty Place Recovery Center for Women LLC, which has been in operation in Richmond for 31 days.

Changing behavior is one of the main focuses of the two-phase program, but the immediate enemy is inside the mind, according to peer mentor Lynn Starks, 42, of Elizabethtown.

“That’s what gets us into trouble is our thinking,” said Starks, who completed a 15-month substance abuse recovery program in Louisville.

“We don’t have to be an alcoholic or an addict for our thinking to get us in trouble,” she said.

The recovery center, located at 218 Lake St., offers classes focused on teaching the women new ways to think in order to continue on their road to recovery.

“I didn’t know any other way of living until I came into the program and was taught,” Starks said. “I had to be trained to think all over again. I was criminal-minded.”

When women first arrive at the recovery center, they are “scared to death,” Starks said. “Some of them have doubt that it will work for them.”

She reflected on her own attitude when first entering a recovery program.

“I’m grown and these people ain’t going to tell me what to do,” she recalled thinking. “They don’t know what they’re talking about. I thought they were just trying to brainwash me. Until I really got into it, I had doubts.”

Part of recovery is understanding the disease, Starks said.

“I’ve been to treatment before,” she said. “I’ve been to psychiatrists, counseling, and they didn’t tell me what was really wrong with me. It wasn’t until I went to jail and got Recovery Dynamics.”

Recovery Dynamics is a comprehensive program of instructional and self-help materials for counselors and individuals. The program is based on the original 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Recovery Dynamics is used at Liberty Place.

Starks said her disease was “two-fold.”

“It centers in my mind and my body,” she said.

Addicts can sometimes take a physical issue and make it a moral issue, said Debbie Daniel, recovery services director.

“It makes them feel like there’s something wrong with them,” Daniel said. “If they don’t get the help, that guilt and shame will continue to get worse and leave them in that cycle and it will never go away.”

Clients are screened by a telephone interview. Screenings can help identify medical, physical, and mental health issues, said Karen Bailey, program developer for Foothills Community Action Partnership.

“Screenings determine appropriateness, and clients must be medically cleared to enter the program,” she said.

Aside from attending classes and learning to accept more responsibilities, clients also are given a comfortable place to live.

Virtually all the rooms in the facility, including classrooms and utility rooms, have been sponsored by individuals or organizations in the community.

All of the women’s rooms were decorated by a room sponsor.

“Although a person’s surroundings cannot assure recovery from addiction, living in a pleasant home can certainly help instill dignity and pride in the residents,” said Vicki Jozefowicz, Foothills Executive Director. “As the residents have seen the beautiful apartments that were decorated for them by community members, businesses, and organizations, they have been overwhelmed with the understanding that total strangers cared enough about people they had never met to go to such effort to provide rooms that are as comfortable and pretty as would be found in any private home.” 

Moving into a two-bed room is a privilege for those who have moved on in the program, said Jerri Allison, director.

Clients stay in a 12-bed room when they first enter the program, and gradually work their way into a more quaint, apartment-like setting.

“To watch the women’s faces when they move into the rooms is a wonderful opportunity,” Allison said.

There are now 21 women recovering at Liberty Place.

“Although Liberty Place will eventually house 100 women at a time, we are admitting a few women at a time and don’t expect to reach full capacity until around the end of 2008 or the first of 2009,” Jozefowicz said. “The reason for this is so that we have residents who are at various stages in their recovery versus them all being at the same point. As the program is based on women helping women, we need some to be further along in their recovery so they can help the newer ones.”

The women accept more responsibility as they progress to phase two, and will eventually begin looking for jobs within the community, Allison said.

There is more to recovery than getting rid of an addiction, Daniel said.

“You literally are reborn in there,” she said. “Not only do you get clean and sober, but you grow up and you learn to take responsibility and have accountability.”

Starks admitted it is a very long, hard road to recovery, but said it is a road that she is privileged to have traveled.

“Everything that I’ve been through has been bought and paid for and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said. “I would go right back and do it again to get to where I’m at today.”

Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 623-1669, Ext. 234.