Residential addiction treatment for Fort Lauderdale families.

For Fort Lauderdale clients, RECO offers something specific: a 40-minute drive from Las Olas or Victoria Park to a residential campus close enough for family involvement and far enough to separate from the people and places tied to active use. Continuity of clinician from residential through PHP and IOP, in-house psychiatry, and six small residential houses in Delray Beach rather than a warehoused bed count.

From Las Olas or Victoria Park, the drive north on I-95 to RECO’s Delray Beach campus takes about forty minutes — roughly 26 miles. That distance matters clinically. It is close enough that a family in Coral Ridge or Rio Vista can stay involved through family sessions and weekend visits, and far enough that a client in residential treatment isn’t running into the same bartender, the same dealer, or the same friend group that defined the last several years of use. For people in Fort Lauderdale who have tried outpatient and not been able to hold sobriety in the environment where they were using, residential is often the level of care that finally creates room for change.

RECO Intensive’s residential program is built for the earliest phase of recovery — after acute withdrawal risk has passed but before early-recovery skills are dependable. Most clients spend 30 to 60 days in residential before stepping down to partial hospitalization. The structure is 24-hour: clinical staff on site, a daily schedule of group and individual therapy, psychiatry as indicated, and house managers who have lived the path themselves. We treat alcohol and substance use disorders, including co-occurring depression, anxiety, PTSD, and bipolar presentations.

When residential is the clinical indication

Residential treatment is not the default — it’s a placement decision. The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) criteria evaluate six dimensions: acute intoxication and withdrawal potential, biomedical conditions, emotional and behavioral conditions, readiness to change, relapse potential, and the recovery environment. When the assessment shows that 24-hour structure is needed to keep someone safe and engaged, or when the home environment in Fort Lauderdale isn’t workable — an active-using partner, easy access to substances, ongoing trauma in the household — residential is the appropriate level of care.

It’s also the right call when prior outpatient treatment hasn’t held. A pattern of relapse after IOP discharge, multiple detox admissions in a short window, or a clinical picture complicated by untreated psychiatric symptoms all push the assessment toward residential. The intake call is where we work this out; we are not interested in placing someone at a higher level of care than they need, and we will say so when an intensive outpatient placement would serve them better.

What 30 to 60 days of residential actually covers

The first week is mostly stabilization — sleep, nutrition, hydration, and the medication review. For alcohol use disorder, that often means evaluating whether naltrexone or acamprosate is appropriate. For opioid use disorder, the conversation includes buprenorphine and Vivitrol, and we will be candid about the evidence: medication-assisted treatment substantially reduces relapse and overdose risk, and we treat it as standard of care rather than as something to be ashamed of. Psychiatry is in-house, so a client doesn’t have to wait three weeks for an outside appointment to address a co-occurring mood or anxiety disorder.

From there, the work is therapeutic. Daily process groups, individual therapy two to three times a week, and structured modules in CBT, DBT, motivational interviewing, and trauma-focused work including EMDR and TF-CBT for clients whose use is linked to unresolved trauma. We do family work early — usually starting in week two — because the patterns at home in Fort Lauderdale are part of what someone is going back to. We also rebuild the basics that active addiction had erased: regular meal times, exercise, sleep hygiene, a daily structure that doesn’t revolve around using. For people who came in from alcohol use disorder or opioid use disorder with years of disrupted rhythms, this is not trivial — it’s a meaningful part of why residential works.

The step-down to PHP and IOP

Residential is the first stage, not the whole answer. After 30 to 60 days, most clients step down to PHP for another four to six weeks — full clinical days, evenings free, often living in supervised housing nearby. From PHP, the next step is IOP, typically 8 to 12 weeks of three-hour clinical sessions three times a week. Then aftercare and alumni programming, which continues indefinitely.

The important part: the clinical team doesn’t change at each transition. The primary therapist who worked with a client in residential continues with them through PHP and IOP. The psychiatrist stays the same. The treatment plan is one continuous document, not three separate ones across three providers. We see continuity of clinician as one of the more underrated predictors of whether someone stays in treatment long enough for it to take. Clients who want to stay in structured housing after PHP can move into our sober living network, and our aftercare program stays available for years after discharge.

Real residences, not warehoused beds

RECO operates six residential properties in Delray Beach. They are actual houses — bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, yards — and we hold them to a standard we’d want for our own families. Each house has a manager who is in long-term recovery and trained in residential support. Census is kept small enough that staff know each client; we are not running a 60-bed warehouse.

The residential environment is part of the clinical model, not separate from it. Mealtimes, chores, group living, the unavoidable interpersonal friction of sharing a house with seven other people in early recovery — those are clinical material. We use them. A client who can’t tolerate a roommate making noise at 7am is showing us something useful about emotional regulation, and that becomes a goal in individual therapy that week. By the time someone steps down to PHP, the work of living alongside other people in recovery has already started.

Insurance, intake, and how to start

RECO is in-network with most major commercial carriers — including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Cigna, United Healthcare, and several regional plans — and we are also a Florida Blue residential provider, which matters for a lot of Fort Lauderdale families with employer coverage. Residential is almost always covered at some level when ASAM criteria document the medical necessity, but the specifics of deductibles, copays, and length of authorization vary by plan. Our admissions team will run a benefits check and tell you what a residential admission actually looks like financially before anyone signs anything. The insurance page covers the carriers we work with in detail.

The first step is a phone call to (866) 396-2008. The intake clinician will ask about substance use history, prior treatment, current psychiatric symptoms, and the situation at home in Fort Lauderdale — Las Olas, Victoria Park, Wilton Manors, wherever. From there we make a level-of-care recommendation. If residential is the right placement, we coordinate transport from Fort Lauderdale and admit, usually within 24 to 48 hours. We also work with families directly if the person who needs treatment isn’t yet ready to make the call themselves.

Serving residents of: Las Olas, Victoria Park, Coral Ridge, Rio Vista, Wilton Manors.