Experience in Battling Addictions:
Mercy Chemical Dependency Services Offers Recovery, Hope
Mary Ann credits Mercy Chemical Dependency and Addiction Services with giving her back her college age daughter.
“My daughter was a heavy user of drugs and alcohol who said she would swallow any pill anyone gave her,” recalls Mary Ann (not her real name). “As a result of drug use, she had several traffic accidents. While she was at school, she only got worse. I felt there was nothing I could really do.”
“I told her she had two choices: Come home and we would get her help, or realize that she was an adult on her own,” Mary Ann continued. “I wanted the decision to be hers.”
Mary Ann’s daughter came home, and a therapist soon recommended that she see Chuck Blomberg, ACADC, the experienced counselor who oversees Mercy’s successful Chemical Dependency and Addiction program.
“I had heard that he was a tough, no nonsense counselor,” Mary Ann explained. “Yet he was also extremely sensitive to the anxiety families feel and was very patient with us.”
Using great expertise and a proven approach, Mercy Chemical Dependency and Addiction Services, a service of Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City, has made a profound difference in the lives of thousands of Siouxland residents caught in the grips of addiction.
Experience is a hallmark of Mercy’s program, which was founded in 1974. Blomberg himself has 27 years of experience as a counselor, 22 at Mercy.
“Our approach is to help all family members understand addiction as a disease,” Blomberg explained. “They are powerless to control it. Often, we focus on getting them to stop blaming themselves – even if the patient continues to use alcohol or drugs.”
“This disease of addiction dictates how addicts act and think.”
“Our role is to provide them an opportunity to replace their unhealthy solutions with healthy ones.”
“Using a proven 12-step program, we need to reach a point when the patient lets us be part of his or her recovery. Until they incorporate us, patients remain alone and powerless.”
“Our goal is to move them out of their powerlessness,” Blomberg added.
Mercy’s comprehensive program for adults, adolescents and their families
combines assessment/evaluation, individual counseling, education about addiction, and group therapy. Mercy makes outpatient and intensive outpatient treatment groups available not only for alcohol and drug addiction but also for compulsive gambling. The program also provides for extended or continuing care and relapse prevention.
It is also an intensive program. Patients are in it on an outpatient basis for six weeks, four hours a day Monday through Thursday. The program is headquartered on the third floor of Mercy’s Central Medical Building at 5th and Jackson Streets in downtown Sioux City.
Services are individualized and are provided in complete confidentiality.
Patients are referred to Mercy’s Chemical Dependency and Addiction program by area courts, their physicians, employers or family members. They can also refer themselves to the program.
“Our goal is to provide each person with the skills and knowledge that will lead to a healthier, fulfilling and productive life, free of any harmful substance use,” Blomberg states. “We offer hope and recovery.”
Mary Ann reports that her daughter is now working, and is staying drug-free and sober.
“I just don’t think she would have turned her life around if it hadn’t been for Mercy’s program.”
For more information about Mercy’s experienced, comprehensive program in Chemical Dependency and Addiction Services, call (712) 279-2438.
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