Mission

To provide unmatched clinical care and support to patients suffering from substance abuse and mental health disorder, and to be their advocate during each stage of their treatment and recovery.

Core Values

• Treating the whole patient so they can achieve balanced mental health
• A compassionate, nurturing and expert approach to detox and rehab
• Advocacy and support of patients as they transition back into their lives and rejoin society
• Providing each patient with a guide for healthy post-treatment living

Blending Tradition and Innovation for the Best Possible Treatment Outcomes

The real difference between treatment centers can best be seen in the quality of care that they provide to their patients. Eleven employees from our medical staff are psychiatric providers. We have over 17 people in our medical group. These numbers indicate where we emphasize our treatment. While we embrace the Hazelden 12 step model, we equally embrace the original psychoanalytic model of the Institute of Pennsylvania and the Strecker Program.

Our clinical treatment roots date all the way back to 1913 when Dr. Edward A. Strecker joined Pennsylvania hospital as an assistant physician. Over his 46 years of service, he became a preeminent author and teacher of psychiatry. In 1920, Dr. Strecker established one of the first psychiatric outpatient community clinics in the world at Pennsylvania Hospital’s 8th and Spruce Street campus. A pioneer in the treatment of alcoholism, Dr. Strecker was one of the first to insist that alcoholism be treated as a disease, not a moral failing.

In 1935, Pennsylvania Hospital’s West Philadelphia department was the first psychiatric institution to hire a recovering person as an addiction counselor. Dr. Strecker and his former alcoholic patient, Francis Chambers, Jr., developed the “dual therapy” approach for alcoholics, combining abstinence and psychological counseling. The Institute’s substance abuse unit was named “The Strecker Program” in his honor. In 1989 it was named Treatment Center of the Year by the American Council on Alcoholism. Throughout its history, Pennsylvania Hospital has both shaped and been influenced by our society’s constantly changing attitudes about illnesses of the mind.

One of the Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches owners had the privilege to work and intern at Horsham Clinic in Pennsylvania, which was established over 60 years ago. It is also where several doctors who trained at the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital chose to work to help patients through some of the earliest examples of dual diagnosis treatment. These practitioners brought the new treatment model of examining the root cause of a patient’s behavior that led them to attempt self-medication and eventually substance abuse. Many people mask their psychiatric disorders with various drugs and alcohol, and there is a need to use a more clinical psychiatric approach to the presenting illness as a person emerges from detox than the widely known and accepted 12 step model. While vitally important in maintaining sobriety and good mental health, the 12 step model works best when simultaneously combined with psychiatry and therapy to help achieve successful recovery.

“Psychiatrists are continually discovering that what seems to be abnormal behavior is really a normal reaction to abnormal surroundings.“ — Earl Bond, MD, Staff Psychiatrist, Physician-in-Chief and Administrator, Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, 1914 -1968.

At Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches also known as the Center for Alcohol & Drug Studies, we always look for the root of most trauma-based symptoms, results of abandonment, neglect, and loss as suggested by Dr. Earl Bond. More than ever before, we are seeing more and more people with learning disabilities or with some special education history including Asperger’s Syndrome and the autism spectrum. Again, there is more to abnormal behavior than just moral character.

This intensive inpatient experience that our dual diagnosis patients receive is evidence-based and internally researched. We constantly monitor outcome studies to further refine our approaches and interventions. This is all conducted in primary substance abuse inpatient treatment centers. Our patients bond with their therapists from day one and continue with the same person until discharge. We believe our unique model of combining the best of what the 12 step model has to offer with a truly integrated psychiatric treatment model gives our patients their best chance of achieving a successful recovery.

Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches continually acts as an advocate for patients with their insurance companies to improve patient engagement and time in actual treatment. We strive to maximize the time period that each patient is allocated by their insurance companies for their treatment. We understand many insurance companies can impose limitations on those they insure, so we always assume the responsibility to make the best use of the time we have with our patients. 

Our well-earned reputation is a product of our treatment approach and of our patients’ embrace and acceptance of our therapeutic process. We believe our unique treatment approach continues to be most effective in minimizing relapse. Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches exists to help our patients and their families become whole again, where their recovery restores happiness and allows for the possibility of living a life of meaning and purpose.