26 Apr Horizon Health Opens in Williamsburg
Horizon Health has opened the doors of its Williamsburg facility.
This is the second facility that the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization has opened with the first being in London.
The organization, which started in 2013 to connect health care providers and auxiliary services together through an information network under an accountable care organization model, has steadily grown, so that it now provides a variety of services in house for clients.
Horizon Health is a complete campus of care for addiction treatment. The organization focuses on whole person-centered care and breaking down barriers that individuals may face in the journey to recovery.
In order to break down barriers, the Horizon Health Williamsburg campus includes services, such as transportation, housing, group therapy, medication assisted therapy, primary care, individual therapy, case management services, individualized treatment plans, continuum of care and a learning lab. On-site childcare is also available at the London facility.
While the organization will soon be expanding services for a variety of substance addictions, the primary focus at present is opioid use.
Executive Director Kyle Perkins said although Suboxone has received a bad reputation, its use in conjunction with counseling can be effective.
Chief Operating Officer Monty Sears said Horizon Health uses a team care approach that includes an eight-week period where clients see a counselor once a week. During those eight weeks, compliance with medication is heavily checked through an in-house analyzer.
Sears said that if clients are progressing after the eight weeks, they are then moved into the next phase where they may only have to see the counselor every two weeks for a six-month period. After that, the organization looks at decreasing the dosage and weaning clients off medication.
Jackson explained Suboxone as caps for the pleasure receptors in the brain. She said that when a person starts taking an opioid, the pleasure receptors begin to grow and eventually reach a point where they are not satisfied. Using the analogy of being in a desert and needing water, Jackson explained that the receptors cause the individual to do anything necessary to obtain substances that will fill the pleasure receptors.
“It’s not a moral failure, they are just trying to fix themselves,” said Jackson.
Suboxone works by filling the pleasure receptors, but then it caps them off.
Horizon Health utilizes a team care approach to help individuals achieve recovery.
“We wanted to give a quality of care to this population that they were not used to having in this area,” said Ashley Jackson, the director of risk management, compliance, and human resources.
Jackson said the organization’s quality of care is what has drawn many of its clients to seek care from Horizon Health.
One approach Horizon Health uses is inviting whole families, who use substances, to attend treatment.
“We want to capture the environment because if they go back to that environment then they will go back to those habits, so we wanted to get the whole family basically involved,” said Jackson.
A fifteen-bed housing unit for women is expected to open in the Williamsburg location later this year with plans for an 88-bed facility for men to follow in the London location.
Horizon Health accepts most private insurances in addition to Medicare and Medicaid.
Locations are open Monday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed Saturday and Sunday.
For more information about Horizon Health’s services, visit www.horizonhealthky.org or call (606) 657-2030.
Read the original article at https://www.thenewsjournal.net/horizon-health-opens-in-williamsburg/.