I visited the Parkdale Center in Chesterton, Indiana today. The Parkdale Center offers specialized substance use/abuse treatment for the highly accountable professional. See http://www.parkdale.com.
Who is a highly accountable professional? A professional who is accountable to a regulatory Board or Agency (state or federal) for his/her practice. HAPs are physicians, attorneys, nurses, teachers, pilots, etc. HAP or the highly accountable professional is a term coined by Parkdale.
I really like the Parkdale Aftercare program as well as the Professional Reentry program for highly accountable professionals. As a nurse license defense attorney, these components complement the legal services provided to individual nurses. There can be a disciplinary and/or alternative program to the monitoring of a nurse by the State Nursing Board depending on the state and the interplay between the medical, treatment, mental health, licensing, criminal, employment, unemployment, clinical, return to work, and credentialing/privileging aspects are not addressed well by any one party in this process. This is why I like Parkdale because the facility is leaping ahead of the curve here and grabbing the bull by the horns.
Substance use/abuse and the recovery process is a long-term commitment for nurses and it is refreshing to see first-hand a HAP specialized facility with low patient ratios at a reasonable cost working hand-in-hand professionals and their families.
That type of commitment requires more than a "show me the money" and "we can't bill for this" or "we don't get paid for that service" approach. Its requires blood, sweat, and tears equity to be on the front lines working with licensed healthcare professionals in what is usually one of the most emotional and trying times of their lives. I left Parkdale today feeling invigorated to see licensed nurses and other professionals working hard to treat and help recover licensed nurses and others professionals.
This was the boost I needed as you often get bruised on the front lines working with nurses in license defense cases. I have been bruised, burned, stabbed, and cut in my fifteen years of law practice figuratively. Solo law practice is brutal on attorneys and working with individuals is challenging. Parkdale reminded me again why I do what I do with individual nurses.
I need to pay my water bill and buy my coffee at DD daily, but you don't practice nurse license defense because you want to strike it rich or "ball out" as a lawyer. Nurse license defense work isn't super sexy legal work as it is everyday law, working with everyday professionals. Everyday law isn't corporate law, mergers, and high dollar defense cases; it is the daily dance with individuals who do not have a "legal budget" for attorney fees and costs and it can be high stress, high emotions and high stakes on a high wire. Life, Liberty, and a License, is how this is viewed and feels for us as state-licensed professionals: teachers, nurses, physicians, therapists, RTs, LMTs, pharmacists, lawyers, etc. Give me my license or give me....
Congratulations to Rodrigo Garcia, MBA, MSN, RN-BC, CRNA and his wife Claudia Garcia, MBA, BSN, RN as Parkdale approaches its one year mark for operation and working with everyday professionals.
If you are a registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, APRN, nursing student, or graduate nursing student and you have a substance use/abuse disorder, you are diverting drugs, or you need help with recovery, I would highly recommend you contact the Parkdale Center in Chesterton, Indiana at 888-883-8433.
Most HAPs who have legal and license issues decide to proceed "pro se" and represent themselves before a licensing or regulatory Board. You do not have to retain an attorney to represent, counsel, or advise you as you have a right to represent yourself (self-represent) in this country however I do not recommend that any nurse any where "self-treat" a substance use/abuse disorder.
If you need help and it makes sense to get this help at a facility which works intensely and primarily with licensed professionals. This is why I recommend the Parkdale Center for the scope of services offered to nurses regardless of your state of residence. The facility treats HAPs and nurses from around the country.
I do not typically give recommendations on this blog but I am not typically invited to visit a substance/use treatment facility which works primarily with nurses and licensed professionals. This was the first invite for me in 15 years of private law practice and this is my first recommendation of a substance use/abuse treatment facility.
I am not being paid to provide this recommendation and I was not asked to write this recommendation. Anyone reading this blog should know by now, I don't say it unless I mean it and it is the ethical and right thing for me to say or do as a RN and lawyer.
Onward and forward to the Parkdale Treatment Center and its staff!
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