Business has been booming in the substance abuse industry due to the opioid epidemic. Unfortunately, this has also led to unethical practices such as patient brokering, paying people to go to programs, mass urine testing and overbilling. This has caused many states to have a crackdown on such facilities and call centers. This gave birth to United Recovery Project’s mission to create a place that would allow people to trust in rehab. URP is about having caring, highly trained and experienced staff, who help deliver an individualized approach to treating addiction in Florida.
Bryan Alzate’s inspiration comes from his youth where he was admitted into rehab at the age of 17 for the use of drugs and alcohol. At this point he was introduced to Narcotics Anonymous and the 12 steps, which helped him to become clean. He attributes his healing to God, his mother’s faith in him and the family he found in the meetings. Knowing that he no longer has to use is what keeps Bryan going. From the moment Bryan met URP’s Clinical Director, Alexis Ecoff, he knew URP would be a great success. URP has had a great success rate and many clients have remained clean since leaving the facility. The knowledge that you are not immune to relapse makes URP encourage it’s clients to participate in a recovery program.
A typical day for a client of URP is waking up at 7am to bein their morning routine, which includes getting ready for the day and making breakfast before their treatment schedule. The clients are then transported from their housing to the clinical building in order to attend therapeutic groups, which include individual sessions with their assigned therapist. Clients are treated to lunch and at 3pm are transported back to their housing where they are offered the chance to go to the gym, read, watch tv and play games. At night they attend meetings at various recovery groups where they are introduced to other recovering addicts. In order to show the clients that life can be fun without drugs the weekends may include going to the movies and other fun activities.
It can be difficult for clients to find insurance willing to pay for treatment with them constantly changing their rates and benefit options. In order to protect themselves insurance companies by instilling regulations and requirements for facilities that make the situation even more difficult. This can make things even harder on URP as an out-of-network provider, but that won’t stop them from helping people to become clean. URP has a dedication to help others even if it means a reduction in profit.
In the thought process of creating United Recovery Project, Bryan knew he wanted to do something meaningful. He believed in creating a program that cared about the individual and helped them through traditional means such as group therapy and relapse prevention. No two addicts are the same. Some have dual-diagnosis with co-occurring mental disorders and others have eating disorders along with substance abuse. This is why Bryan believes people should have therapy that treats their individual needs. His favorite quote is, “Addicts are extraordinary people who have a hard time being ordinary.” This is because addicts are extraordinary people, who believe they are dealing with the chaos in their life alone.
Because overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, URP launched the #EndOverdose campaign last year. Their plan is to focus it’s efforts on expanding in 2018. The URP Detox is expected to open in West Palm Beach, Florida in the middle of the year. Their goal is to have facilities in at least 3 different states with all levels of care and access to different insurance carriers and plans. There are also plans to expand their Alumni program, while introducing educational materials to spread awareness to family and friends of loved ones who are addicted. Recently URP published a guide for college students who are addicted and intends to expand to campuses in order to educate others on the signs and symptoms of addiction.