BrightView celebrates one year
Jul. 23—PORTSMOUTH — Celebrating their one-year anniversary Friday, BrightView Portsmouth's Addiction Treatment center, welcomed folks with snacks and small gifts for all who visited them to join in the celebration.
Since opening one year ago, BrightView's Portsmouth Addiction Treatment Center has helped hundreds of area residents work toward recovery from substance use disorder. Located at 1405 11th Street in Portsmouth, the BrightView team has provided nearly 2,000 hours of medical treatment and more than 2,000 hours of counseling and therapy.
BrightView provides addiction treatment, including medication-assisted treatment (MAT), individual counseling, group therapy, and social support services to help patients achieve recovery.
"Patients at BrightView's Portsmouth center have made excellent progress toward recovery," said Susan Fish, Outreach Director. "They have decreased the use of illicit substances by an average of nearly 70% within the first 90 days, with many patients achieving complete abstinence."
Walking into their center guests can see that these people are dedicated to the community. For the celebration, they had the folks that they treated write how they felt about BrightView and posted them as a representation of this. they listed things like: The staff is friendly and make you feel like family, they are able to make one person want to do better in life and the staff here are helpful, best place to come, love the support of the workers, they care about you.
Fish said that they invited the community to celebrate with them, but it was more of a thank you for their patients and staff.
"We wouldn't be here if we didn't have patients." She added, "BrightView is a little bit different than other places as we meet patients where they are, we treat addiction like a disease, everything is very clinical and it makes it very comfortable for them and helps relieve the stigma for patients. Patients can walk in any day from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m and they will see a provider and start treatment that day. We always have medical providers, clinical and case management on staff, with our own pharmacy and lab, so we can do everything right here."
BrightView is its own company and has somewhere around 50 centers all in Ohio and other close states. Fish said that they were founded in 2015 by an ER physician Shawn Ryan and he was not satisfied with the way addiction was being treated. He wanted to have sites where you met people when they were in their addiction.
"We realize that most times addiction is a one step forward and two steps back problem so we don't make anyone leave the program we just rework it where they are and start there," Fish said.
There were some men waiting at the center on Friday and both said that they like the facility better than any they have ever been in. One of them said that the staff calls and checks on how they are doing and if ask if they need anything and that no other place had done that before.
The Portsmouth Addiction Treatment Center has also reduced local medical and criminal justice costs, much of which are paid by the City of Portsmouth and Scioto County. As a result of treatment, BrightView patients experienced a 60% decrease in arrests, a combined reduction of over 2,400 days in jail time, and a 50% reduction in emergency room visits.
"Portsmouth is our home, and we are here to make a difference," said Fish. "Providing accessible quality substance use disorder treatment is not a luxury — it is a right at BrightView. We meet our patients where they are in their recovery journey and work hard to dissolve any barriers to success."
This means accepting all forms of insurance, including Medicaid, Medicare, and military health insurance. BrightView helps uninsured patients get insurance coverage for addiction treatment and also works with a nonprofit foundation to pay for treatment for patients who are not eligible for public insurance.
"The entire BrightView team is excited to continue providing affordable, high-quality substance use disorder treatment to Scioto County for many years to come," said Fish. "What could be more important than saving lives and helping improve the community?"
Reach Kimberly Jenkins (740)353-3101 ext. 1928
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