A charity golf tournament in Columbia County has raised funds and awareness for addiction recovery for locals in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Proceeds go to a walk-in center for residents.
To be sure, The Keystone State features a wide range of programs to battle addictions. But many vulnerable communities remain at risk. The charity aims to fill a gap by generating support for these folks.
Recovery Cup Brings Golfers Out in Columbia County
The Recovery Cup Charity Golf Tournament drew golfers to the course in August to support the New Possibilities Drop-In Center.
Events like this one can do wonders in a county with only 66,000 people. In small towns and rural areas, treatment options are spread thin and word of mouth does the work.
Recovery in Bloomsburg
New Possibilities operates out of Trinity Reformed United Church of Christ in the Columbia County seat. It’s set up as a low-barrier space so adults can walk in without an appointment, a referral or insurance paperwork.
The center’s open Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons with certified recovery specialists on site. There’s also a medication-assisted treatment van on Mondays for residents who can’t get there otherwise.
The program was started up by Columbia-Montour Counties Companions of Hope. When they opened, it was one of only a handful of drop-in centers operating anywhere in Pennsylvania.
Signs of Addiction
New Possibilities battles any type of substance use. Common warning signs include needing more of a substance to get the same effect, using more or longer than intended and repeated failed attempts to cut back.
Withdrawal symptoms when the substance wears off point toward physical dependence. Watch for pulling away from family and friends, dropping hobbies, missing work or school or money trouble with no clear explanation, secrecy about whereabouts. Many people continue to use despite health or legal problems.
Walk-In Access Changes the Odds
The gap between deciding to get help and actually starting treatment is where a lot of people fall out of the process. Intake appointments, insurance verification and waitlists take days that someone in crisis may not have.
A drop-in model compresses that. Staff at New Possibilities have described placing a person into recovery care within about two hours during the center’s earliest days of operation. Peer specialists have gone through recovery themselves and do the leg work to lower the stigma barriers that keep people from calling a clinic.
Addiction Treatment in Pennsylvania
Those looking for help in Columbia County or elsewhere in the state might want to compare options.
Addiction treatment centers differ by level of care from medically supervised detox through outpatient counseling. Staying in recovery usually means connecting with a licensed program too.[/pullquoteOur browsable directory lists treatment centers across Pennsylvania and can be filtered by city, level of care, insurance accepted, and the substances a program treats. Comparing a few options by location and payment type before you call tends to make that first phone call much shorter.
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