[May 12, 2016]

Recovery Centers of America Appoints Beth Caraccio CEO of RCA at Lighthouse in Mays Landing, New Jersey

In an effort to combat New Jersey's mushrooming addiction crisis, Recovery Centers of America (RCA) has appointed the former Tri-State Regional Executive of one of the nation's largest providers of non-profit human services as its new Chief Executive Officer.

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Recovery Centers of America Appoints Beth Caraccio CEO of RCA at Lighthouse in Mays Landing, New Jersey (Photo: Business Wire)

Beth Caraccio, MS, will lead a team of medical, clinical, wellness, and support professionals at Lighthouse Recovery, which was recently acquired by RCA and serves as the first operating location in a network of neighborhood-based addiction treatment centers the organization is opening throughout the Northeast U.S. The expansion is being financed by a recently announced $231.5 million in funding that RCA secured through New York City based Deerfield Management Company.

This appointment marks a dramatic reinvention of Lighthouse, which for more than 25 years has served as a respected model for the delivery of substance use disorder treatment. Since the acquisition in March 2016, RCA has renovated Lighthouse, enhancing the property and applying a new model o clinical care.

"Lighthouse stands as our flag in the sand in New Jersey, offering new hope to families and individuals struggling with addiction," says Chief Clinical Officer of Recovery Centers of America Dr. Deni Carise. "As the first RCA-branded treatment center, we believed it was urgent to bring our unique neighborhood-based treatment model to a state struggling with devastating drug and alcohol problems. Beth's 20 years of experience working for a national leader in behavioral health provides us the talent needed to lead the extraordinary group of professionals currently working at Lighthouse."

• An estimated 128,000 New Jersey residents are addicted to heroin. If they all lived in one place, it would be the Garden State's fourth-largest city.
• According to the New Jersey Medical Examiner's office, 1,310 families lost loved ones due to heroin, cocaine, and prescription drug overdoses in 2014, per the latest available numbers.
• New Jersey hospitals admitted 64,766 patients for substance abuse treatment in 2014. Nearly half listed opiates as their primary drugs.
• In Atlantic County the heroin death rate in 2014 was 18.9 per 100,000, which is over seven times the national rate.

"The effort RCA put into recent updates to the facility has a direct clinical effect on patient recovery prognosis," says Dr. Michael DeShields, medical director of RCA at Lighthouse. "An organized, top-tier treatment environment like the one RCA has invested in helps patients combat the anxiety that comes with the unknown of checking into treatment. RCA's customer service-focused treatment model assures that patients are assisted by wellness professionals immediately upon arrival; greeted personally many times daily by attending staff. This has resulted in some of the strongest therapeutic relationships in the field. The atmosphere created, thanks in large part to the facility's upgrades, is one where staff and patients share meals together, encouraging patients to become partners in their own recovery every step of the way," continued DeShields.

Caraccio comes to RCA after a stellar career managing and growing the footprint of NHS Human Services where she held a succession of positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in her serving as the Tri-State Regional Executive. While at NHS, she was responsible for managing a $15 million annual budget and managed over 300 direct care and professional staff.

RCA at Lighthouse is JCAHO accredited and licensed by the New Jersey State Department of Human Services, Division of Addiction Services.

About Recovery Centers of America

Based in King of Prussia, PA, Recovery Centers of America is committed to advocating for some 22.7 million Americans suffering from behavioral health and substance use disorders. The company, which is opening treatment centers throughout the Northeast, is transforming the way treatment is delivered in an industry in desperate need of change. Recovery Centers of America's neighborhood-based centers for addiction medicine are designed based on the latest scientific research that indicates sustained recovery is more likely when patients stay connected to and supported by family and friends, while building other, ongoing support networks. By allowing patients to receive treatment in an atmosphere more akin to a college campus with Starbucks-like appeal, Recovery Centers of America helps overcome the stigma of addiction and its treatment, which is essential to meaningful recovery.

For more information visit www.recoverycentersofamerica.com, dial 1-800-recovery or visit www.1800recovery.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160512005936/en/

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