New Alabama Addictions Center To Open in Hospital Conversion

Addiction Treatment Industry Newswire

01/26/2014 -ATIN – A new addiction treatment drug rehab alcohol rehab will soon be opening in Alabama, a state whose addiction care has been dominated by Bradford Health, which over the last three decades has emerged as one of the best managed and mission-focused for-profits in the nation. In the deep south part of the state, in the tiny town of Florala whose name suggests its location straddling the border with Florida not far from Tallahassee, a new residential addiction treatment center will be opening soon in what is a hospital conversion play combined with a sober living transitional care operation.

New 45-Bed Center

The driver behind the new Serendipity Healthy Living, as the addiction treatment facility will be called, is local healthcare consultant Gabriela Engels who previously was employed by Hospital Holdings, which closed the Florala Memorial Hospital in late December. According to local reports, Ms. Engels expects to have a clinic open by March and the residential/Inpatient center open for business by mid-spring, once renovations to part of the old hospital are completed. In addition to outpatient care and residential, Serendipity will have a Florida Model PHP program as well as full detox capability.

Sober Living

Prior to the recent deal making surrounding the closure of the hospital and the creation of Serendipity Healthy Living, Engels had already purchased the locally iconic home of Dr. Seymour Gitenstein, whose family owned what is for the tiny community a major shirt and underwear manufacturer. She has already renovated the local mansion and will run it as a men’s transitional living home, soon to be complemented by a women’s sober living home the location of which has yet to be determined.