FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A newly finished inpatient treatment center aimed at expanding addiction care in northern Colorado is now open in Fort Collins, offering 45-day individualized programs and accepting commercial insurance and Medicaid to broaden access.
Avenues Recovery Center, part of an 18-facility network operating in seven states, is currently treating 19 clients with room to accommodate as many as 140. The business model emphasizes a longer residential stay than many programs’ 30 day approach, Ryan Plourde, clinical director for the treatment center, said.
“We shoot for 45 days because we've learned that our outcomes tend to beat the national averages, and it's those extra couple weeks in treatment that really helps them be successful when they go to the lower levels of care,” Plourde said. “What we've learned is, the longer a client can stay inpatient, the more successful they will be upon discharge.”
Plourde said Avenues provides integrated addiction and mental health treatment, starting patients’ recovery from the day they arrive and working to transition them to long-term providers after discharge. The center also works with insurers and community partners to keep stays covered and to offer scholarships if patients need longer stays than 45 days.
Staff members include clinicians and people in recovery, some of whom work in admissions and interact with clients.
“I am in recovery myself,” Kristen Pogline, a client engagement specialist, said. “It just became a passion… it's easier for us to welcome them, to support them, and to empathize with them and get on their level, and they appreciate that.”
Plourde said the program keeps counselor caseloads small — less than 10 clients to a counselor — to deliver individualized care and so clients and counselors make a real connection with each other.
“Watching them come in on their first day and then seeing them leave at their 45th day at graduation,” Plourde said. “It’s the reason we do the work that we do.”
