By Cheryl Splain, KnoxPages.com Reporter
MOUNT VERNON — The opening of Riverside Recovery Services is one more step in Amy Smart’s journey to be part of the solution in helping individuals affected by substance abuse.
RRS provides substance abuse treatment to adults for whom drugs and alcohol are a problem. Now 11 years in sobriety, Smart knows first-hand what the path to recovery is like.
An East Knox graduate, Smart said that she started out drinking. “That eventually led to opiates and heroin,” she said. “Because of my addiction, I spent five years in Marysville’s Ohio Reformatory for Women.”
She was released six years ago from Marysville.
“I made a commitment that I was going to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.,” she said. “While I was in Marysville, I dreamed that one day I would open a center that would help others who need our services.”
The Mount Vernon location is the eighth center Smart has started; the first is in Lawrence County. Attending a KSAAT (Knox Substance Abuse Action Team) meeting at Kenyon College, Smart said that she heard about the struggle for treatment recovery programs in the area and decided to open a center in Mount Vernon. “This is an exciting expansion from Lawrence County because I am from Mount Vernon…and I started using here,” she said. “It brings my recovery full circle.”
Later this month, Smart plans to open a women’s residential center on Wooster Road, the first residential facility in the county. “It will house between eight and 10 women. That will be a six-month residential treatment program,” she said.
The center served its first client on Oct. 19 and is already working with the courts and probation officers to help offenders get started on their path to substance abuse recovery.
“We’re getting a good communication system with [Common Pleas Court] Judge Wetzel,” said Bobbie Moore, one of four licensed chemical dependency counselors at the center. “He seems very motivated to help the recovery treatment process. Word seems to be spreading really fast.”
In addition to working with the court system, the center accepts walk-ins and self-referred clients. Services include individual and group counseling, peer support, anger management, personal ethics, drug and alcohol assessments and relapse prevention skills.
The center is located at 213 E. Chestnut St. For more information call 740-326-9255.
Co-workers watch as Amy Smart, co-owner and executive director of Riverside Recovery Services, prepares to cut the ribbon celebrating the center’s grand opening on Tuesday. Also pictured are co-owner Travis Owens, left front, and Carol Grubaugh, executive director of the Knox County Chamber of Commerce, front right. KP photo by Cheryl Splain
