A new home for addiction medicine

Florida Recovery Center expands to Orlando

By Lindsey Robertson

The UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center, a nationally recognized academic and clinical research-driven addiction treatment program, will bring new treatment options to patients in Central Florida with a new location at the Orlando Health Behavioral Specialists practice at South Seminole Hospital.

The FRC, based at UF, is rated by the Annenberg Foundation as one of the nation’s top three addiction programs and training sites. The new center, named UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health, opened in April and will serve as a destination for the evaluation and treatment of people facing alcohol and drug addiction. The UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health bridges the gap in outpatient services for people suffering with an addiction who are receiving fragmented inpatient and outpatient services, or those who are leaving the Central Florida area to seek addiction treatment elsewhere.

“It is an ideal scenario to bring a new, expert Florida Recovery Center team with special training and skills to Orlando Health, which is a state leader in so many other areas of medicine and surgery,” said Mark S. Gold, M.D., a professor and chair of the department of psychiatry at UF. “We know from the calls for help that we receive that Orlando is an underserved area.”

Addiction medicine specialist Timothy Huckaby, M.D., has been appointed as the medical director of the UF&Shands Florida Recovery Center at Orlando Health. He will evaluate patients, consult with physicians and health care professionals at South Seminole Hospital and others in the Central Florida community, and oversee an intensive outpatient program, a three- to six-week program that integrates patients back into their communities, families and work lives.