Four people at Bowen Center with different skill sets came together to create a program that enhances addiction recovery programs through physical fitness.
Therapist Katie McMillen, Accreditation and Licensure Manager Kayla Rogers, Skills Coach Corinne Adams and Paul Dausman, an IT systems administrator, went through Bowen’s Leadership Development program, and developed “Reps for Recovery.” It provides people in a recovery with a chance to earn a gift certificate for a month’s membership to the Parkview YMCA. The certificates can be re-earned by meeting certain criteria for up to 12 months.
“The program the four of us developed was created for a project in a new leadership program designed to increase promoting from within,” said Dausman. “The criteria was to be something that would improve the Bowen Center or the communities we serve.
“So the four of us put our heads together and tried to think of something that would enhance an existing program and be sustainable. Right now, both locally and nationally, we’re in an opioid epidemic. We were thinking really hard abut how we could boost our addiction recovery services. We have a really good addictions program, but we were thinking of ways we could help boost that.”
The solution came not in spite of, but because of the different backgrounds of the four in the group.
“Kayla actually came up with the idea for a program she’d seen done by some people she’d met on social media through bodybuilding programs,” Dausman said. “One of those people operates a gym that gave memberships to people in addiction recovery. And it made sense.
“It’s this idea of integrated health where we don’t just treat the issue. We work to make the individual not only mentally healthy, but cover all the other aspects that include physical health as well.”
In a nutshell, addicts demonstrate a level of commitment to their recovery by working the different aspects of their program. Dausman said those are verifiable, and at a certain point they can ask for the gift certificates. In the first six weeks, 12 people have been awarded certificates.
The Y helps by offering professional instruction, and maintaining the confidence of the addicts; very few people are aware of who’s in the Reps to Recovery program, which was primarily funded through a grant.
