Opioid Recovery Program Opens New Clinic In Claremore

A national opioid recovery program is investing and helping for the first time in Oklahoma.

Groups Recover Together opens in Claremore on Monday and already folks are signed up for recovery.

Groups Recover Together has 50 locations in seven other states, eight now, including Oklahoma.

The goal is to have a recovery center within an hour’s drive of everyone who needs help.

Just a few hours ago, the ribbon was cut at Groups Recover Together – a space that hopes to make an impact on the opioid epidemic in Oklahoma.

“It’s really important to us that, if you’re coming in and taking that step to get help, we make the process as easy, as rewarding and safe as possible,” said Cooper Zelnick.

Zelnick oversees operations at locations in New Hampshire, Maine, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, North Carolina, California, and now Oklahoma.  He says Oklahoma is a place that they knew they needed a clinic set up.

“We look for areas of high need,” Zelnick said.  “Unfortunately, Oklahoma is a state with a great need for services, and Claremore is a community with a great need for services.”

“It’s very scary,” therapist Shelly Kantor said.

Kantor is one of the group therapists.  She knows that it’s not easy to make the life-changing decision to get help and break the cycle of addiction.

“We’re going to provide a safe environment to where they’re going to be like-minded people in a room,” she said.  “They’re going to be able to share that experience in a safe, trauma-informed environment.”

Group therapy, a medication-assisted treatment plan, and case management services are all available at the Groups Clinic.

“If they need resources in the community with housing, food, transportation, those kinds of things, that’s where we can step in and give that support,” Kantor said.

Zelnick says they hope to expand operations in Oklahoma and are considering opening a clinic in Tahlequah, Enid, Lawton, and hope to work with the Creek Nation.