Florida Center for Addictions and Dual Disorders
The Florida Center for Addictions and Dual Disorders is a fifty-bed
residential treatment facility for individuals with co-existing substance use
and psychiatric disorders. The Florida Center is licensed and monitored by
Florida Department of Children and Families and the Commission for the
Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). The Florida Center provides
nine weeks of comprehensive treatment for any resident of the State of Florida
who meets the criteria for a DSM-IV Axis I Substance-Related Disorder, and as
well has a documented history of an Axis I Anxiety, Mood, or Thought Disorder.
The primary focus of the program is to treat substance dependence and mental
disorders simultaneously. Clients in residence are taught about their dual
disorders and are helped to understand that though these two classes of diseases
interact with one another when they exist in the same individual, they are
independent disorders. That is to say, they do not depend on one another for
their existence. Both disorders therefore must be regarded as primary and
equally important, neither being de-emphasized during any phase of treatment or
aftercare. In the dually diagnosed, if the mental illness alone is treated, the
substance use disorder will progress and worsen; conversely, if the mental
illness is overlooked in favor of a singular focus on substance abuse,
psychiatric symptoms will quickly become unmanageable.
At the Florida Center, treatment for substance dependence relies heavily on the
Twelve Step tradition of the Disease and Recovery model and includes daily
Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and a fundamental
completion of the first three steps of the program while in treatment. For the
stabilization of the symptoms of mental disorders, the psychiatric model of
illness and rehabilitation is utilized, incorporating a variety of therapeutic
group strategies, psycho-educational learning modules, and individual,
supportive psychotherapy.
The treatment program also provides a Specialty Track for clients whose
psychiatric symptoms and/or intellectual functioning inhibit them from profiting
from the regular, largely verbal and insight based modes of therapy. Such
clients are predominately those with Thought and other Psychotic Disorders and
also those with mild Mental Retardation or Borderline Intellectual Functioning.
The Specialty Track is highly structured with emphasis on those areas most often
noted to be lacking in such a population, such as basic daily living skills,
communication skills, and simple stress management. The interventions offered
through the Specialty Track are experiential and supportive and seek to
cultivate awareness of the symptoms of the identified psychiatric disorder, and
the impact of substance abuse on the ability to function day to day. Though
specific treatment modalities have been designed with attention to the unique
needs of clients with thought disorders, these clients reside and interact with
the general community throughout their stay in treatment. (The specialty tract
is available based on applicant's district funding.)
Please click here for more information regarding the Florida Center
and to request an application packet be sent to you via the U.S. Mail.
Or if you need more information please contact the Florida Center at the information below:
Tri-County Human Services, Inc.
Florida Center for Addictions and Dual Disorder
100 W. College Drive
Avon Park, FL 33825
(863) 452-3858
| 
