Click here to listen to the audio.

By Dennis Miller, BHC Senior Writer

The Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery (IIAR) at Proctor Hospital recently announced a partnership with The Abbey in the Quad Cities region of Iowa. The Abbey, located in Bettendorf, was a monastery for over 80 years, and was converted into a luxury hotel about 16 years ago. It became a high-end treatment facility about two years ago.

With the new partnership with IIAR, The Abbey will now offer comprehensive adult residential treatment for a full range of addictive behaviors to patients in the Quad Cities area. “It’ll be very similar to our other programs in the state of Illinois,” says Colleen Moore, IIAR’s Marketing and Admissions Manager. “Not only will we be treating chemical dependency, but we will again be treating those individuals suffering from gambling, food, sex, internet, video game addiction, compulsive shopping/spending and chronic pain with addiction.” The facility will also offer residential, intensive addiction day treatment, aftercare and individual and family treatment.

Joseph Lemon, Jr., whose family owned and operated The Abbey Hotel before deciding a few years ago to give back to the community by converting it into a treatment facility, said in a statement that the partnership with IIAR will help advance its new mission enormously. “The Abbey is thrilled to enter its partnership with the venerable Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery at Proctor Hospital. Each institution is steeped in history — Proctor Hospital has been serving the community for over 125 years, and The Abbey was originally founded as a monastery at the turn of the century. How glorious that we are able to combine these rich backgrounds in a common mission of helping people suffering from addiction!”

Many of the amenities that earned The Abbey Hotel a four-diamond rating remain in place, enabling it to offer a high-end, luxurious, discreet and serene treatment environment. All of its 22 rooms are private suites, and the building itself is a richly adorned Romanesque structure of gold-mottled brick, with cream-white Bedford stone trimmings room. As such, it offers a premier treatment environment for successful professionals seeking privacy, comfort and state-of-the-art addiction treatment.

Since it was originally built as a monastery, the facility also offers patients an unusually peaceful, isolated and contemplative environment for recovery. “It is very serene and very peaceful,” says Moore. “If you’re looking for confidentiality and a serene place, this is the place to go. There’s kind of a huge wall surrounding it. There’s (not that you could use it right now) a pool because it was a hotel. There are several gardens — as we call them, ‘serenity gardens’ — with benches where individuals would be able to contemplate there and really kind of sit and take a few moments of just being with themselves. They have done yoga in the past out in the common area of the yard. Again, just very serene and peaceful.”

The facility will offer the full range of services IIAR’s Proctor Hospital and other Chicago-area facilities offer, with one exception. Since it is not based in or attached to a hospital, patients needing detox services will have to receive that elsewhere prior to entering The Abbey. The partnership with IIAR helps fill that treatment gap, by giving patients who need it the option of receiving that care at one of IIAR’s other facilities. “The Abbey is a residential program, therefore, we will not be able to do any type of detoxification of individuals,” explains Moore. “Our other programs are hospital-based programs, so we would obviously be able to continue to provide services there to individuals who need to be detoxed from opioid medication, alcohol and things such as that, and then, if we feel it’s appropriate, maybe transfer to The Abbey for ongoing care.”

In spite of the facility’s rather gothic-sounding name and the numerous crosses that dot the building’s decor both inside and out, it remains a non-denominational, secular treatment environment as IIAR’s other facilities are, welcoming people of all faiths — or none. As part of the building’s historic past, by law the crosses cannot be removed. “One of the things about the Abbey is that it is in the National Register for Historic Places,” explains Moore. “So those things would not be able to be removed. So the crosses will remain there. The thing is that our program is a spiritual program, but we do not sway one way or another to any type of religious belief. It’s all about spirituality.”

For more information about The Abbey, visit its website at www.theabbeycenter.com or the IIAR’s website at www.addictionrecov.org. To listen to our interview with Colleen Moore, click the audio icon above. The following is a full written transcript, edited for clarity.

BHC: Tell us more about this expansion.

CM: Well, one of the things that I pride myself on with the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery is that we’re a very progressive treatment program. We’ve been first at treating many, many things, and as we continue to branch out we’ve been kind of in an expansion mode these last couple of years. And we felt that moving in this direction of going to The Abbey providing residential or upscale care is more of that next future wave for the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery.

BHC: What types of addiction will be treated at the new facility?

CM: It’ll be very similar to our other programs in the state of Illinois. Not only will we be treating chemical dependency, but we will again be treating those individuals suffering from gambling, food, sex, internet, video game addiction, compulsive shopping/spending and chronic pain with addiction.

Now, one of the differences with The Abbey versus our other programs: The Abbey is a residential program, therefore, we will not be able to do any type of detoxification of individuals. Our other programs are hospital-based programs, so we would obviously be able to continue to provide services there to individuals who need to be detoxed from opioid medication, alcohol and things such as that. And if we feel it’s appropriate, maybe transfer to The Abbey for ongoing care.

BHC: Tell us how this partnership with The Abbey came together.

CM: We’d been talking to Joe Lemon, Jr. — he and his family actually own The Abbey. The Abbey had been a hotel for a number of years, and a couple of years ago Joe and his family had decided that they wanted to give back to the community and felt that providing treatment and care to those individuals suffering was the best route for them to give back to the community.

As they began their treatment programs they began to realize that they could be doing much more than what they’re doing now. So about a year ago we actually began having conversations with Joe and his family about taking over the treatment aspect of The Abbey.

Joe really valued our mission and what we’d be able to offer for The Abbey with bringing [treatment for] process addictions to The Abbey. And so, he just felt we were a really good fit for them, and we agree. We’re definitely progressive and we’re one of the leading programs in the nation, and I think it’s a great fit for the both of us.

BHC: For those who aren’t familiar with the Illinois Institute of Addiction Recovery at Proctor Hospital, can you give us a little bit of history there?

CM: We have been in existence since 1979. We just celebrated our 30th anniversary this past year, we’re very excited about that. Just to give you some history, when we first opened, we began treating just alcohol and drugs and we continued to treat that until about 1993. Around that time, we began to see more and more individuals coming in with other issues besides alcohol and drugs, particularly to gambling.

And so our administrative director at the time, Randy McGraw, began researching and developing specific programs for treating individuals who suffer from compulsive gambling. So we began treating not only alcohol and drugs, but also compulsive gambling at that time along with other co-morbidity issues, such as depression and anxiety and things such as that — really beginning to take a look at the whole person when it comes to treatment.

We continued to progress as we got to know our clients, their needs and what they were coming to the table with for treatment. In 1996 we began treating eating disorders, shopping spending and internet addiction as well, because we were seeing more and more individuals coming to the table with those issues. And so, again, we developed programs specifically around that to help individuals become healthier as they begin their recovery.

Then, in 2003, we began treating chronic pain with addiction, specifically in the Peoria area. Doctors were coming to us and talking about a need for a treatment program to send individuals to that have chronic pain issues but also suffer from the disease of addiction. So, in working with a consortium within the Peoria, Illinois area of physicians, nurses, neurologists and us, we came together and developed a chronic pain program and have been very successful in treating those individuals.

And then, most recently, in about 2006, we began treating those suffering from video game addiction and gaming addiction — gaming on line. We were seeing more and more clients coming in with those issues. So again, we grabbed a hold of that and have developed programs.

Now, what’s unique about our program is that we do not have, let’s say, a specific track for individuals who are suffering from sexual addiction or suffering from internet or video game addiction. We might have specific individualized treatments for those individuals — however, we treat everyone together. Our philosophy is an addiction is an addiction, and each of our clients can learn something from one another, be it whether you have someone who’s suffering from alcoholism within the group and then a person suffering from gambling. Those two individuals can relate to one another. So we really find it valuable for the milieu to be mixed with those other addictions.

Then, just kind of with our growth, in 1998 we expanded to the Bloomington, Illinois area an we’ve been with Advocate BroMenn Medical Center since 1998. In 2003, we expanded to our Springfield, Illinois location. In 2008, we expanded to Ingalls Memorial Hospital, a south suburb of Chicago. And now in 2010, we’ve expanded to The Abbey in Bettendorf.

BHC: Are you unusual in the treatment industries in covering really almost the full spectrum of addictive disorders as you do?

CM: We definitely believe that is what separates us from other treatment programs in the industry. It’s, again, really taking a look at the person as a whole and providing comprehensive care for that individual. When you have the programs in Peoria, Bloomington and up in Chicago, again, those are hospital-based programs. So we are able to utilize the services that the hospital offers; we are really able to take a look at the whole person.

Say someone who’s suffering from the DTs of alcoholism was injured at work at some time and never took care of the shoulder that they injured because their disease was more powerful than them, and they just weren’t taking care of themselves. We would be able to get them involved in physical therapy, aqua therapy — whatever the physician feels is most appropriate for the individual. So that, again, when they leave our facility, they’re on the path to recovery, and we would encourage them and recommend that they continue on a continuing care program either in our facility or a facility elsewhere.

BHC: Do you plan immediately at this new facility at The Abbey to offer pretty much the same full range of addiction treatment? Or is it limited for the time being to only certain areas?

CM: Yes, we do plan on being able to offer the full range of care that we offer at our other facilities, except, as I said, individuals who need detox. We will have to detox them elsewhere prior to them coming to The Abbey, because we will not have the capabilities for that up there. Now the staff that are there currently need to be trained and educated on working with individuals suffering from process addictions, so there’s going to be that training period, but our staff from our Proctor facility that are up there currently will remain up there until we feel the staff is competent to be able to address and treat appropriately those suffering from process addictions.

So if there is somebody that is suffering from a process addiction and feels maybe that The Abbey might be an appropriate place for them, we would be able to take them at this moment, again, because we have our staff from our other location there providing care and training staff. And it would be a good opportunity for staff to see that.

BHC: You’ve told us a little bit about The Abbey, the fact that it was previously a hotel. I’m curious about the name. What’s the origin of that very gothic-sounding name? And does it imply at all that the treatment is based on a particular religious approach?

CM: No, it is not. It was a former monastery back — oh my goodness, I’m not sure how many years ago. But it was a monastery. There were nuns that resided there for several years and so there are crosses within and on top of The Abbey, and there is a cathedral there.

One of the things is that it is in the National Register for Historic Places so because it’s on the National Registry, those things would not be able to be removed, so the crosses will remain there. The thing is that our program is a spiritual program, but we do not sway one way or another to any type of religious belief. It’s all about spirituality.

BHC: And so, does the facility then retain some of the characteristics of the monastery? Are the patients going to find there the quiet, contemplative environment that you might find in a monastery?

CM: Definitely. It is very serene, very peaceful. If you’re looking for confidentiality and a serene place, this is the place to go. There’s kind of a huge wall surrounding it. There’s (not that you could use it right now) a pool there now because it was a hotel. But the grounds are quite large where individuals are able to walk. There are several gardens —as we call them, “serenity gardens” — with benches where individuals would be able to contemplate there and really kind of sit and take a few moments of just being with themselves. They have done yoga in the past out in the common area of the yard. Again, just very serene and peaceful.

And then inside of The Abbey — because it was renovated into a hotel obviously it looks a lot like a hotel — but there are places that are reminiscent of The Abbey. There is still currently, as they had called it at the time when the nuns were living there, “cells,” and Mr. Joe Lemon did in fact keep one of those cells, just to keep the historic value of The Abbey. So we know what it was like for the individuals at the monastery years ago as they were living there. So there are definitely still some aspects of what it was like years ago.

BHC: How many beds does it have, Colleen?

CM: Currently there are around 22 beds. All of them are private rooms. Some things that we are taking a look at as we continue to grow in The Abbey — and this is something that would definitely be down the road — the rooms are very large there and we would be able to accommodate, in some of the rooms, having two individuals in that room. So as we continue to grow, we may want to look at putting in a couple of clients in the same room. But right now, we’re keeping as is private rooms. But as we grow we may need to expand it and add some beds for more individuals.

BHC: Colleen, at a time where many treatment centers are being forced by the economic circumstances to kind of circle their wagons and tighten their belts, this move would seem to fly against that trend. Why have you decided to make this move at this time?

CM: Well, we continue to see a need for individuals seeking services. At each of our facilities, we are bursting at the seams, so to speak, with individuals coming in the doors. And we believe, obviously, that we need to be here to help those who are suffering and provide them with treatment so that they can become healthy and have a productive life. And with that mission and what we are experiencing within our treatment programs, we felt that it was a good move for us to continue to expand so that we could meet the need not only of the surrounding communities, but nationally.

BHC: So the Institute hasn’t really felt the ill effects of the economy too badly in terms of physical pressures?

CM: We have not.

BHC: For those who would like more information, is there a website or someplace they could go to learn some more about this?

CM: Definitely. Our website is www.addictionrecov.org.

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed