Drug rehab serving Wellington — the specialist, 38 minutes away.

For Wellington families, RECO's 38-minute distance is a clinical feature rather than a logistical problem. Daily commuting from Olympia or Palm Beach Polo through PHP-level programming rarely holds up, so most clients pair Delray-based treatment with RECO's sober-living network in eastern Palm Beach County. That gives substantive separation from the home use environment while keeping the same primary therapist and psychiatrist across every level of care, from detox through aftercare.

Wellington sits roughly 28 miles west of RECO’s Delray Beach campus — about a 38-minute drive on a quiet morning, longer when the Lake Worth Road corridor backs up near Forest Hill. That distance matters clinically. Families in Olympia, Versailles, Aero Club, Palm Beach Polo, and Wellington View who are weighing outpatient care often discover that a daily round trip to a Delray PHP or IOP becomes unsustainable inside the first two weeks. For most Wellington clients, the workable structure is a stay inside RECO’s sober-living network in eastern Palm Beach County, paired with structured daytime programming. That arrangement delivers the clinical depth of an established Delray program and the physical separation from neighborhoods, social circles, and use patterns that early recovery usually requires.

Drug rehab at RECO is not a single track applied to every person who walks in. The substances driving admissions in South Florida — opioids (including fentanyl-contaminated supply), cocaine, methamphetamine, benzodiazepines, and the increasingly common polysubstance combinations — each require their own medical management, their own relapse-prevention work, and often their own psychiatric considerations. Treatment is organized around that reality.

Substance-specific clinical protocols

Opioid use disorder, stimulant use disorder, and sedative use disorder are clinically distinct conditions. Withdrawal from opioids is medically uncomfortable but rarely life-threatening; withdrawal from benzodiazepines or alcohol can be. Stimulant withdrawal involves anhedonia, cognitive blunting, and a protracted dysphoria that drives early relapse if not anticipated. RECO’s clinical staff treat these as separate problems with overlapping tools rather than collapsing them into a single curriculum.

That means the assessment at intake — built on the six ASAM criteria dimensions covering acute intoxication, biomedical conditions, emotional and cognitive status, readiness to change, relapse potential, and recovery environment — actually drives the plan. A Wellington client arriving with a methamphetamine and alcohol history will not sit in the same group sequence as someone tapering off prescribed benzodiazepines after a decade of use. Both may share modalities, but the pacing, the medical involvement, and the relapse-prevention emphasis differ.

Medication-assisted treatment where indicated

MAT is offered and managed in-house. Buprenorphine and extended-release naltrexone (Vivitrol) are the primary tools for opioid use disorder; acamprosate and naltrexone are used for alcohol use disorder; specific psychiatric medications address the depression, anxiety, and sleep disruption that almost always accompany early sobriety. Decisions about whether to start, continue, or eventually taper any of these medications are made by RECO’s addiction psychiatrists in coordination with the primary therapist — not handed off to an outside prescriber the client has to find on their own.

For families in Wellington who have watched a relative cycle through programs where the medical and behavioral sides never quite communicated, the integration tends to be one of the more noticeable differences. A medication adjustment can be discussed in the morning psychiatric session and reflected in the afternoon group plan the same day.

Behavioral therapy across the continuum

The therapeutic backbone is evidence-based and unsurprising in the best sense: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for thought patterns and cravings, Dialectical Behavior Therapy for emotional regulation and distress tolerance, Motivational Interviewing throughout, and Trauma-Focused CBT or EMDR when trauma is driving the substance use. Group work, individual sessions, family sessions, and experiential modalities are sequenced so that each piece reinforces the others.

The structural decision that matters most clinically is the primary therapist model. One clinician follows the client from detox through residential, into PHP, then IOP, and through aftercare. The therapeutic alliance that takes weeks to build is not reset every time the level of care steps down. Fragmented systems — where each phase is staffed by different people and information is transferred through chart notes — lose that continuity at exactly the points where relapse risk is highest.

Co-occurring mental health treatment

Roughly half to two-thirds of clients with a substance use disorder also meet criteria for a co-occurring psychiatric condition. In RECO’s caseload the most common are major depression, generalized anxiety, PTSD (often combat-related, sexual-trauma related, or stemming from years of active addiction itself), and bipolar II. Treating substance use without treating these conditions tends to fail; treating these conditions without addressing active use tends to fail. The dual-diagnosis program runs both lines of work concurrently.

That looks like a psychiatric evaluation within the first days of admission, medication management that accounts for the substance history, and individual therapy that builds skills for the underlying condition rather than treating it as something to address later. For clients whose primary substance is alcohol, the alcohol-specific track integrates this. For opioid-primary clients, the opioid track does the same.

How treatment is sequenced for Wellington clients

A typical pathway for someone from Wellington starts with medical detox if indicated, moves into residential or PHP depending on stability and home environment, then steps down through IOP and into aftercare with continuing alumni support. The sober-living arrangement during PHP and IOP is what makes the 38-minute distance to Wellington workable — clients live in structured housing near the clinical campus during the high-intensity phase, and the family in Palm Beach Polo or Aero Club becomes part of treatment through weekly family sessions and a structured visitation schedule rather than a daily commute.

That sequencing is not rigid. Some clients with strong support at home and lower-acuity substance histories step directly into PHP without residential. Others need a longer residential phase. The ASAM dimensions guide the decision, and the level of care can adjust as the clinical picture changes — including stepping back up if the original placement turns out to be too lean.

Insurance, getting started, and what to expect on the first call

RECO works with most major commercial insurers — Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, United Healthcare, Magellan, Beacon, and several regional plans. Verification is handled by RECO’s admissions team; the family submits insurance information and receives back a written summary of what is covered at each level of care before any commitment is made. Self-pay arrangements are available for clients without in-network coverage. The insurance verification page explains the process in more detail.

The first call is a clinical conversation, not a sales pitch. An admissions counselor asks about substances used, recent use patterns, prior treatment history, medical conditions, current psychiatric medications, and the home environment. From that, a recommended starting level of care is discussed. If RECO is not the right fit — for instance, a client needing inpatient psychiatric stabilization before any substance work — the team will say so and help identify appropriate alternatives. Families calling from Wellington can reach admissions directly at (866) 396-2008.

Serving residents of: Olympia, Versailles, Aero Club, Palm Beach Polo, Wellington View.