Florida facility`s rebranding reflects continuum-of-care mindset

A geographic relocation and rebranding in which the Delray Recovery Center has evolved into the Mandala Healing Center reflects a move toward a full-continuum approach to care, both clinically and administratively.

A Florida organization that started as a halfway house operation now has the capacity to offer every level of care except for detox, and those services also could become available by late 2016. For clinical director Jennifer Nelson, the most important aspect of these developments involves having the environment and the clinical resources to be able to probe what healing can look like for every individual in treatment.

“This is not the presenting issue. This is not something that can be taught—it's what someone discovers,” says Nelson.

On the organization's new eight-acre campus in West Palm Beach for intensive services, one feature will be an on-site garden where residents will be able to practice what they like to harvest, says Nelson. “A huge part of healing is being able to give back as you go through the process,” she says. “With the garden, they'll be giving back to others, because they won't be here long enough to see the fruit of their labor in the moment.”

The organization officially announces its name change and relocation within Palm Beach County today. Its campus near the Boca Raton-Delray Beach border will continue to house intensive outpatient, outpatient and transitional-living services. “The expansion will allow us to be able to treat the person throughout,” says Nelson. “That's where you build rapport.”

Co-owner Peter Walstrom said in a news release, “Clinical and operational standards should never remain stagnant; innovation is how we continually address the ever-changing needs of our clients.”

The West Palm Beach campus is adjacent to a hospital and proximate to other healthcare facilities in the region, offering convenient opportunities for collaboration with the medical community, company leaders say.

Impactful trends

These are some of the clinical topics that Nelson says she is seeing as areas of emphasis in everyday treatment and as priority areas for Mandala in the coming months:

• The high prevalence of co-occurrence of sexual addiction issues in the substance addiction population, a topic that she discussed at length in a workshop at last month's Moments of Change conference presented by Foundations Recovery Network. “People are now recognizing it as an issue,” she says.

• The need to look beyond some patients' pronouncements about exercise and healthy nutrition, which sometimes are used to mask an underlying eating disorder.

• Gender-specific issues around trauma and shame. “Brene Brown has really brought this to the forefront,” says Nelson.

• A deeper dive into the spiritual aspect of healing. “Recovery and lifestyle are about finding purpose and meaning in life,” she says.

Nelson says she will encourage clinicians to take advantage of the scenic and secluded West Palm Beach campus, featuring a lake and other outdoor amenities, by considering out-of-the-box (and out-of-the-office) therapy sessions that avoid the onset of a clinical “rut.”