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Insight Northwest Recovery, an outpatient mental health and co-occurring drug and alcohol treatment services center, is set to open in April.
The center, which differs from Insight Northwest Counseling, will offer mental health and addiction treatment for young adults and teenagers from ages 13 to 25. The center will offer outpatient treatment services for those who are in the early stages of recovery and those who would like to achieve long-term sobriety.
There are many different services available in Lane County for those seeking help with mental health or substance abuse, including Willamette Family Inc and NAMI Lane County.
Josh Gotlib, the founder of Insight Northwest Recovery and a licensed professional counselor, said the main reason for opening Insight Northwest Recovery was to have a center where people can seek help for mental health and substance abuse issues.
“We’re just starting to turn the page on bringing these things together,” Gotlib said. “You’ll have the landscape of addiction, mental health and psychiatry, these three things are very separate, and what we’re trying to do is bring them together.”
The opportunity with the outpatient treatment program gives patients the ability to not reside at the center, with no mandates or requirements to seek treatment set into rules.
Insight Northwest Recovery will accept most major insurance providers, including Medicaid, and is currently scheduling services for its April opening.
University of Oregon third-year student Sarah Golding, who has visited Insight Northwest Counseling for support, said it’s crucial to get help for one’s mental health.
“Getting that help has let me be able to embrace anything that comes my way,” Golding said.
Mariko Lin is the assistant director of the University of Oregon’s counseling services. Lin, who has been with the university for 13 years, said that there is still a stigma around getting help for one’s mental health, but feels that students at UO are more comfortable talking about their struggleswith one another.
“I feel like when I’m talking to students even outside of this center, that they’re more freely talking about their anxiety and depression in a way where I’m like that’s great, because [students] are showing their vulnerability,” Lin said.
UO Counseling Services provides therapy groups, anxiety workshops and an informal one-on-one drop-in consultation service, Let’s Talk, that does not require any paperwork or scheduling.
Gotlib says that in recent years, the a
pproach to recovery has largely been a harm-reduction method. Rather than pushing clients to fully abstain from substance use to enter recovery, harm reduction is a very individualized approach to treatment.
“We’re supporting people at Insight Northwest Recovery in the beginning of their recovery,” Gotlib said. “The hope is that we refer them to either Insight Northwest Counseling or another counselor in the community that understands addiction.”
UO’s campus treatment center is the Collegiate Recovery Center, which offers peer support for students and the opportunity to connect with the recovery community.
The main difference between Insight Northwest Recovery and the Collegiate Recovery Center is that the CRC is not a treatment facility. Insight NorthwestRecovery is facilitated by a licensed therapist.
Insight Northwest Recovery will offer individual counseling sessions, family counseling and psychiatry.
“We have a wrap-around approach that’s most intensive,” Gotlib said.
