With an increase in people seeking help for substance abuse, Alliance Health Center in Meridian is expanding its outpatient recovery center.

The New Leaf Recovery Center, which is located a short walk from the hospital, has been a year in the making. The center was previously located in a small space at the hospital. 

The new center, which will be unveiled with a ribbon cutting at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24, has three large group therapy rooms, offices and a cafeteria.

Alliance Health Center, located at 5000 Highway 39, is an acute psychiatric and chemical dependency facility that provides treatment for adolescents, adults and the elderly. 

The New Leaf Recovery Center helps patients diagnosed with chemical dependency or a dual diagnosis of addiction with a mental illness, such as depression or anxiety. It serves medically stable patients on an outpatient basis.

The new building offers patients a break from the hospital, said Aurthur Goodwin, New Leaf’s program director. 

“It gets them away from the actual hospital,” he said. “They can get some exercise from walking over here to the new building.” 

The new space can hold a group of 25 people, with each group working on different aspects of recovery. The center will also offer a yoga instructor to help people in the recovery process. 

Goodwin said patients have three recovery options: partial hospitalization, and  intensive outpatient program and 30 to a 90-day recovery program.

Partial hospitalization is a 21 to 45-day program that runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. five days a week. After a patient completes that program, they enter a 10-week intensive outpatient program (IOP), which is three days a week. 

“After they finish IOP, we want them to adjust to going back to work or getting back to society, or around family members,” Goodwin said.

Overcoming addiction can be a difficult process, and the staff at Alliance wants to insure that resources are available to those in need, he said.  

“There are a lot of different treatment centers out there,” Goodwin said. “We want to be working as hard as they are to make sure they are getting the treatment they need.” 

“We want to make sure that when they’re in recovery, they have all their safety nets,” he added.

New Leaf will also offer Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in the evening, he said. 

Cindy Dyess, the director of business development at Alliance, said that in the future,  she’d like New Leaf to offer an evening program. She’d also like to see different programs for men and women, because some patients are more comfortable discussing trauma with people of the same gender. 

Goodwin said he wants the center to be a place of hope for those battling addiction.

“We want it to be that facility where they can find hope,” Goodwin said. “We want people leaving to say ‘Man, they really helped me’,” he said.