Riverside County continues its efforts in rehabilitation but sees need for more

Last Wednesday, Feb. 15, officials from the Hemet Global Medical Center and Menifee Global Medical Center met with Congressman Raul Ruiz to discuss the current state of the substance use disorder services.

Hemet Valley Recovery Center (HVRC) and Sage Retreat is located at 371, N. Weston Pl., in Hemet. The facility opened in April 2001.

Currently, the recovery center has 21 medical detox beds, 16 residential beds and 20 recovery residence beds, totaling 57 beds.

The center primarily provides care to older adults and those that struggle with pain medication addiction.

HVCR takes various approaches to its treatment, with some of the modalities being; cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational intervention, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, gender-specific process groups, individual counseling sessions, art therapy, educational groups, 12-step support groups and a family program.

In recent years, the county expanded its reach of rehabilitation services, especially with the opening of The Global Medical Detox at Menifee Global Medical Center in 2018.

“The facility opened in 2018 in response to the substance use disorder epidemic,” said the Director of the Medical Detox Program, Steve Collier.

The Center is located at 28400 McCall Blvd., in Menifee, and offers 30 beds.

All patients admitted to the facility are then followed by internal medicine physicians with detox services managed by addiction medicine credentialed nurse practitioners.

In addition, all patients are followed by chemical dependency counselors that provide psychosocial evaluations, motivational interventions and discharge planning.

“We don’t have the capacity to meet the needs in Riverside County and its surrounding area,” said Collier. “Not being able to treat those that need it in this area is significant, and we’re trying to expand.”

The County of Riverside is taking action to expand its rehabilitation centers as it was announced in June of 2022, that the county received $76 million in state funding to build a behavioral health campus in the city of Coachella, which will offer assistance to individuals that struggle with substance abuse and mental health issues.

“The medical center and its rehabilitation services are a great and right solution to a terrible problem,” said Congressman Ruiz. “I support the expansion of the rehab centers to serve our local needs.”