Firm that has 30 addiction-treatment centers in Kentucky has its largest one on a former college campus near Springfield

Joseph Bentley got his GED degree at Crown Recovery and 
now helps others do it. (Photo by Jonathon Gregg, Spectrum News)

Addiction Recovery Care has been serving patients since on the former campus of the now-defunct Saint Catharine College just west of Springfield, now named Crown Recovery Center, since September.

But that didn't stop it from having a ribbon-cutting Monday, touted by a press release from the Gov. Andy Beshear's office saying "Gov. Beshear to Open New Recovery Center in Springfield."

Beshear said at the event, "What we see here is a chance for people to get better, a chance for them to recover, a chance for them to pull their families together, for kids to get their dads and moms back."

The company operates 30 treatment centers for substance-abuse disorder in 17 Kentucky counties and says Crown is the largest, with a capacity of 750.

Part of Crown's program helps people who haven't completed high school get their General Educational Development degree, in a partnership with Elizabethtown Community College, reports Jonathan Gregg of Spectrum News.

It started with 10 participants, including Joseph Bentley, who is now eight months into recovery and is in the program's fourth and final phase, Gregg reports. “I started to see I could really make difference in my life when I came to this facility here," Bentley told Gregg.