Photo by Eric Taunton
Officials break ground for a mental health and substance abuse recovery center called Longleaf Recovery Center at International Park in Hoover, Alabama on Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022. From left are Alabama Department of Mental Health Commissioner Kimberly Boswell, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato, Birmingham Recovery Center Managing Director Colin Harris, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, Birmingham Recovery Center Director of Business Development John Giannetto, Birmingham Recovery Center Executive Director Ian Henyon and Hoover City Council President John Lyda.
A new partnership between the Birmingham Recovery Center in Hoover and LIV Ventures on Wednesday announced three new drug and alcohol abuse and mental health facilities in Hoover, Madison and Baldwin County.
The new Longleaf Wellness Center in Hoover will be located in front of the Birmingham Recovery Center in International Park off Acton Road, officials said during a groundbreaking ceremony there.
The Longleaf Wellness Center will be a partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient program with a capacity of 60 patients that will provide substance abuse treatment as well as serve as a recovery resource for the community, said Colin Harris, managing director of the Birmingham Recovery Center.
When the Birmingham Recovery Center first opened at the end of June 2021, the center’s staff quickly identified a need for an outpatient facility that provided mental services.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said he is excited to see the need for more mental health and addiction recovery facilities being filled.
“I don’t know if you know this, but I was a firefighter and a paramedic for the city of Hoover for 42 years, and I can’t tell you how many calls I went on that involved people suffering from drug abuse and drug overdose, and we didn’t know where to take them and get them hospitalization,” Brocato said. “It was just as difficult to find somewhere to take people that were suffering from some sort of mental illness episode.”
Longleaf aims to strategically expand in order to make intensive substance use disorder treatment more accessible to residents of Alabama, starting with its Madison County location.
The new facilities will host support groups and retreats and provide meeting spaces for people with an “invested interest in recovery support,” Harris said.
Ian Henyon, executive director of Birmingham Recovery Center, said the center has two overarching principles since it saw its first patient last summer: to be the gold standard for outpatient treatment throughout the mental health and addiction recovery industries and to improve the treatment experience for residents in Alabama.
“With the formation of this partnership and the announcement of these three new facilities, Longleaf is setting a higher standard for behavioral health services here in Alabama,” Henyon said. “Our evidence treatment is trauma-informed and centered around attachment theory (a theory concerning relationships between people).
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said mental health and recovery facilities such as Longleaf are vital to the community because not enough resources have been put into mental health and recovery services.
“This conversation about mental health has to be had,” Woodfin said. “Our Birmingham police and fire and rescue units respond to thousands of calls on a monthly basis every year. You can’t imagine the amount of calls where mental health services are needed.”
Henyon said he challenges their competitors and organizations to “do better” when treating patients struggling with addiction and mental health.
“The race to the bottom to provide the lowest cost and highest volume services does not lead the way to lasting healing and change,” Henyon said. “If we all do better, the standard of care gets raised for everyone.”
