Residents of Cibola County have a new resource available: Full Circle Recovery has opened a walk-in full-service counselling center for individuals seeking to regain control of their lives from substance dependency. Full Circle Recovery opened a local office at 753 E. Roosevelt Avenue in September of 2023.
The program has a counselor on staff who holds a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor (LADAC) license. The office administration is handled by Ciera, who is cheery, outgoing and welcoming to visitors. The program, Ciera explains, is set up to assist individuals with whatever level of counselling support they need to maintain the path to sobriety: from an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) which involves three hours of group counselling five days each week for 12 weeks, to weekly aftercare counselling for graduates of a residential program elsewhere in the state, or graduates of their IOP program. At the time of our interview the counselor position was open, but a new counselor is in the process of being brought on board.
For individuals wishing to discontinue a substance with a physical withdrawal, such as alcohol, opiates, Fentanyl, or Benzodiazepine (Valium), the program can refer for medication assisted therapy consisting of medications such as Suboxone, Medical Cannabis, or others. For psychological craving, Vivitrol is recommended to assist with ceasing Alcohol or Opioid use. As the program brochure indicates though: Abstinence is the ultimate goal for clients. As an aside, hopefully, our legislature will, at some point, recreate the resources such as more regional detoxification centers, which used to exist throughout the state at locations such as Memorial Hospital in Albuquerque and Four Winds in Farmington. There are a few available in adjacent counties at programs such as Hoy in Espanola and Turquoise Lodge in Albuquerque. In order to get ahead of the awful epidemic of Fentanyl and our ongoing alcohol epidemic we should enhance available services.
Individuals may refer themselves to the program. Some referrals may come from the local court system: the IOP approach is a proven way to find success in maintaining recovery, and one group of clients are involved in the local Drug Court Program. If someone’s life path involves jail, Ciera can take a referral from there so counselling support is available upon a return to the community.
The local program is one of four centers operated by the same owner. It accepts both Medicaid and private insurance. If affordability is an issue, Ciera encourages anyone to call and see what may be worked out to enable participation in the program.
Full Circle Recovery has invested to create an open, cheerful, and welcoming set of rooms for accessing services. Long time residents may recall the large independent bookstore which previously occupied the building for about 20 years past.
The program also provides services to children and has a social worker who rotates out from the main office.
If you or someone you care about is experiencing issues due to substance abuse, the program has the level of care which research has shown to be just as successful as entering an inpatient residential program.
Our state recently invested 50 million in a venture capital fund in California’s Silicon Valley to increase the return on its investment fund. It seems that a legislature confident in the potential of New Mexico citizens to contribute to society after recovering from substance dependency, and regaining control of their lives, might also choose to invest in providing more desperately needed resources, such as more full-service counselling centers to help counties deal with our substance use epidemic. As we know, almost without being told, Cibola County experiences more emergency room visits by people with Methamphetamine Overdoses, than any county in the state. (Latest State of New Mexico DOH report).
Unfortunately, bills proposed by legislators in San Miguel County and Bernalillo County over the last two years to create more programs to help people with additional counselling support and help deal with our Fentanyl, Methamphetamine and related homelessness issues, have failed due to a lack of support. In the meantime, Full Circle Recovery is a valuable addition to counseling services available in our county and will certainly assist many folks to have the quality of life they deserve.
As we are in an election cycle, it might be prudent to ask politicians asking for your vote, if they support more counselling resources for New Mexicans, and if so, how they have demonstrated that commitment while serving in the legislature.