MURRELLS INLET, SC (WBTW) – An addiction recovery program which pairs patients with a recovery coach is expanding to the entire Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital, following the program’s success in its emergency department.
As the opioid crisis continues to take its toll on South Carolina, doctors and recovery specialists say changing the way addiction is being treated has made a difference in the number of local, opioid-related deaths.
“If a doctor comes in and says, ‘You have to stop doing this,’ it doesn’t really compute with that person. But when someone comes in who says, ‘I’ve been where you are, I know what you’re going through, here’s how I got through it,’ that brings a whole different dynamic,” Dr. Victor Archambeau, Chairman of Faces and Voices of Recovery, or FAVOR, said.
Archambeau says the recovery coach program, which is a collaborative effort between Shoreline Behavioral Health, Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital, and FAVOR, has been successful in treating patients in the emergency department because it pairs struggling addicts with a person who has previously walked in their shoes.
“It’s because of that efficacy of somebody with a drug abuse problem because able to identify with someone who’s been through it,” Archambeau said.
After six months, Tidelands Health says the program has helped over 300 patients enter long-term recovery, and they hope that its expansion from the emergency department to the entire hospital will continue to help lead people onto a path to recovery.
According to Archambeau, FAVOR has trained over 30 recovery coaches who are actively working in the program at Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital.
He says, however, that the opioid crisis is still widespread in Horry and Georgetown counties.
“Certainly, we still have a tremendous drug problem here, and it’s going to take a continued effort. At this point we need to keep moving forward,” Archambeau said.
To learn more about FAVOR, click here.
