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Four hundred women and families per year are served by the Newark and Secaucus, NJ-based Integrity House substance abuse and mental health treatment center, which recently added the 30-bed Joan Riddick House residential facility. Named after a beloved staffer who passed away in 2009, Joan Riddick House provides therapy, addiction education, domestic violence and anger management groups, GED test preparation and voluntary spiritual counseling, among other services. Women spend an average of six months in residential treatment
Previously, inpatient women were crammed into a small space above the dining hall in a men’s halfway house, but now the 30 of them have four floors of bunk beds, closets, shared bathrooms and a brightly painted basement converted into room for family visits.
Former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey, who has spent two years working at Integrity House, which serves 2000 people each year, says:
I assist former inmates in helping them on the road to recovery, and in some cases I also help members fill out college applications, so they are able to have promising futures. Hudson County is blessed to have such an extraordinary hard-working team to help others reclaim their lives and realize how important rehabilitation is.
When he’s not leading discussions or counseling former prison inmates, McGreevey tries to empower individuals to make right decisions by helping them identify harmful behaviors and overcome addictive urges.
Founded in 1968, Integrity House is the largest treatment facility funded and licensed by the State of New Jersey. It offers a multitude of state licensed programs, including Adult Residential, Adolescent Residential, Partial Care, Intensive Outpatient, Corrections, Reentry, Aftercare and Post-treatment Housing. It also offers addicts prevention, intervention and educational services. It has three residential campuses and 16 buildings in Essex and Hudson Counties, manned by 220 staff. Forty women (and 40 men) are currently involved in its Hudson County Correctional Center pre-release program.
Integrity House’s support programs include psychiatric evaluation, individual and group counseling, methadone maintenance, education, job readiness and depression screening and treatment. In 2012, 72% of residents were criminal justice referrals, 30% were homeless, 25% had health insurance, 81% had legal problems and 52% had heroin as their drug of choice. Integrity House received $8.6 million last year in government, foundation, donations and special event revenues—up more than 21% over 2011’s level.
Integrity House founder and president Dave Kerr explains:
This is a therapeutic community, which differs from most treatment modalities where a professional counselor treats and advises patients. Here members supervise other members, with more responsibility meted out as it is earned. Advice and pressure from their peers help members get well.
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