Beacon Point to offer 30-day residential treatment program

PHOTO SHOOT CALL SHEET DATE: Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021 TIME: Any time LOCATION: Beacon Point 717 S.W. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SUBJECT: Beacon Point drone shot. EDITORIAL: News PHOTOGRAPHER: Alan Youngblood WRITER: Matthew Cretul SHOOT COORDINATOR: Bruce Ackerman SHOOT BRIEF: Please take drone shots of Beacon Point in Ocala. The Marion County Hospital district’s Beacon Point is getting reorganized to welcome new programs and hopefully make things run more smoothly. There is a new pharmacy coming on board for both medication-assisted treatment of addiction through mental health providers and overall discounted medication from the Heart of Florida Health Clinic. [Alan Youngblood/Special to Ocala Gazette]

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Posted September 24, 2021 | By Matthew Cretul, matthew@ocalagazette.com

Beacon Point, a comprehensive substance abuse treatment campus in Ocala, will begin offering a 30-day residential drug treatment program on Oct. 1.

It’s the latest in a growing list of programs available for those in the county struggling with opioid addiction. The campus is a project of the Marion County Hospital District and opened in 2019. Services are provided at no cost to the patient.

“The vision here is there is a place where you can go to receive a full system of care. If you need anything from inpatient to outpatient, to medication management, to medication-assisted treatment, to peers, case management, you name it, there is one place you can go to receive those services,” said Michael Harris, vice president of substance abuse and behavioral services for the Hospital District.

The seven-bed, 30-day program will offer a place where patients who need more time to detoxify can prepare for treatment, including medication-assisted treatment. The new program is run by Park Place Behavioral Healthcare.

Ana Maria Pabon, the site director for Park Place, said there is a need for the 30-day program.

“Sometimes six days is not enough,” she said. “The program gives us more time to give tools to the patient.”

Harris thinks the new 30-day program will benefit the whole community.

“It will bring healthier practices to the community. It will reduce revolving doors that you see at the hospitals for this type of services,” he said. “It will help alleviate some stress on police and fire rescue as we start to implement these services and assist people with their needs.”

Park Place is one of several providers that offer services at the campus.

Jessica Webster is the program manager for SMA Healthcare, another Beacon Point provider.

“The Hospital District wants us to be a one-stop-shop,” she said. “Everyone on this campus has demonstrated they just want to help.”

Some of the more popular services on campus include the peer support programs.

“The peers help…because they lived it, they understand it,” said Robin Lanier, of SMA Healthcare.

Maryann Simpson, of LifeStream Behavioral Center, which offers mental health services at Beacon Point, agrees.

“That’s where peers are so invaluable for us,” she said.

Pabon also praised the peer support programs.

 “The peer support department here is the one that really should get a good deal of credit,” she said. “They travel to the hospital, meet the patients in the neighborhoods, works with the Ocala Police Department and Ocala Fire Rescue.”

Making it all work takes coordination, and it’s why providers meet once a week to ensure they aren’t offering the same services.

“Services are so hard to come by. We definitely don’t want to duplicate them,” said Lanier. “We try to work very closely with all the providers here and transition [patients] into whatever it is that they need.”

Harris said the cooperation has ultimately helped those that need the services.

“Having a campus like Beacon Point was the perfect opportunity to try to bridge those gaps and provide all those different services in one location,” he said.

Beacon Point is also looking to add a pharmacy to the facility, Harris said.

“When [patients] have their medication in hand before they leave, it’s one of those very simple things that can make a very big difference,” he said.

Lanier said the more people the facility can help, the better for the community.

“I’m excited for it to grow and people to learn what it’s about,” she said. “I see Beacon Point as a hidden gem…you’re almost like family. You’ll get what you need through all the agencies. We just want to make sure you’re taken care of.”

The campus was established with money from the hospital district, which also subsidizes some of the services along with state and federal funding and insurance. The hospital district funds health initiatives in the county using proceeds from investments of $212 million in cash it received in 2014 after leasing the former Munroe Regional Medical Center to an outside operator.