Blake Recovery Center “springs ahead”
into a new era of expanded service.
August 1, 2015
As the calendar counted down the coming of Spring 2015 and clocks were set to daylight-savings mode, the Carrier family celebrated a “spring-ahead” moment all its own: the opening of an all new addition to the Blake Recovery Center (BRC) facility. Years in the planning, the 8,000 square foot expansion marks one of the most significant changes to the Belle Mead, NJ campus in Carrier’s 100 year history. It also represents the first major upgrade to the existing BRC facility since its founding in 1981 as a state-licensed residential treatment and rehab program for alcohol, drug and substance abuse.
When staff and patients move into the new BRC addition this past April, however, it was merely Phase One of the plan. Renovations soon commenced on the older existing portion of the Blake facility, with a completion date of Summer 2015 for occupancy later this year.
The Blake expansion is not the only major project underway on the Carrier campus. A brand-new, 5,781 square foot Admissions Center, designed to streamline the patient access process, is progressing toward completion in 2015, as is the addition of two all-new Acute Care Unit wings for men and women.
With a capacity of 20 beds each (the current ACU has all of its beds in one wing) and the ability to effectively maximize a total of 12,000 square feet of available space, the twin facilities will provide a quieter, more therapeutic setting for patients in acute crisis. Together these projects represent the realization of a visionary strategy; one that promises a more compassionate environment to heal those who walk through our doors.
According to BRC director Patricia Jefferson, MS, RN, CASAC, LCADC, ICRC, the Blake expansion finds the “under one roof, state of the art center” growing in a way that meets new needs in the community. Along with the physical expansion comes an expanded range of new treatments to address those needs; programs that include group sessions organized around the themes of Spirituality, Pain Management, Medication Education, and Counseling Relapse Prevention. Blake Recovery Center “springs ahead” into a new era of expanded service.