Addiction recovery center to take over former St. Catharine College campus

SPRINGFIELD, Ky. (WAVE) - A Kentucky addiction recovery group announced its plans to take over the former St. Catharine College campus which has sat empty since the school shut down in 2016.

Addiction Recovery Care (ARC) made plans to expand its recovery and vocational training program ‘Crisis to Career’ to the former college campus in May. ARC received the zoning permit needed to move forward.

During the year-long program on the campus, patients will learn skills to overcome addiction through medical, counseling, and faith components and receive occupational training for a new career.

Senior Vice President of Administration at Addiction Recovery Care Matt Brown said the new facility will help hundreds of new patients.

“Somebody can come into our program in crisis on day one, and literally at the end of their year residential program, they can be fully ready for a career in addiction treatment services,” Brown said. “Or we also offer auto mechanic training and several other vocational opportunities for our clients.”

Brown explains the new facility couldn’t have come at a better time because overdose deaths continue to rise in Kentucky. In 2019, 1,316 people died from overdoses in the state, which was 5% higher than the previous year, according to Kentucky’s Office of Drug Control Policy.

Brown said the coronavirus pandemic made the problem even worse.

“I personally believe that we’re getting ready to, as a state and as a nation, be facing a decades-long ripple effect of this pandemic,” Brown said.

Before Brown started working for the group, he went through the program himself.

“I battled addiction for 18 years,” Brown said. “I was a physical therapist and really lived a double life the entire time.”

Brown said ARC gave him the tools he needed to overcome his addiction, build a support system to hold him accountable, and taught him skills to begin a new career.

ARC expects to begin treating patients at the new Springfield location by the end of the year.

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