As a family, we did not choose to work in the field of addiction treatment, it chose us. The road to get to JADE Wellness Center was long and hard filled with sorrow and pain. We lost one of our own to this brutal disease of substance use disorder. Together, we are committed to working every day with our staff of leading experts to provide the very best science based solutions to treating addiction. Our commitment to saving lives is filled with determination and our desire to prevent what happened to our family from happening to others.
For Lucy Garrighan, CEO, Founder and Matriarch of JADE Wellness Center and the Garrighan Family, the journey with addiction treatment began long before the birth of JADE Wellness Center in 2010. As the mother of two young adult sons struggling with addiction, Lucy searched near and far for the answer to how to help her children and how they could get well and stay well. Painstakingly, after seven years, of relentlessly seeking treatment at not only local but more than a dozen treatment centers across the United States and then the devastating loss of her first born son, John, Lucy arrived at some bitter truths. Better treatment was needed. Better prevention was needed. People need to be more educated about the disease of addiction. The stigmas must be dismissed and the disease must be treated, like just that, a disease. The loss of John almost broke her but instead she took her grief and funneled it into energy. Energy to make the needed changes in the world of addiction treatment if not only for our generation, for future generations.
Lucy’s goal was to provide multiple services all under one roof and develop a new treatment model that incorporated the family, that identified the individual suffering as a person in need and focused on the prevalence of mental illness in the disease of addiction. Lucy believed in Medication Assisted Treatment (*MAT) to curb cravings, combined with levels of counseling, psychiatric care and a full range of support services in an outpatient setting. JADE Wellness Center was one of the first outpatient Center’s in PA to provide this Continuum of Care all under one roof.
JADE; derived from the first letters of each of Lucy’s children’s names, John, Jamie, Abbie, Dan and Emma, who is John’s daughter (flash forward 8 years and we have London, Kellan, Michael and Adaline!) . This is Lucy’s way of keeping the memory of John alive. Through JADE Wellness Center, John’s good will and friendly spirit are able to not only live on but give back to others just as he did when he was here. Each day we work as if he were beside us, his mother, his sister, his brother. Each day we carry him with us.
While some may consider the formation of JADE Wellness Center a selfless act, they will never know the hope, gratitude and joy that the people we serve have given to use over the years. We have been so very fortunate to watch countless individuals get well and families be kept intact. We thank these individuals and all clients for allowing us to have a purpose. We will keep providing the best evidence based services. Never give up hope. People do get well!
*Medicated Assisted Treatment includes but is not limited to Vivtrol, Suboxone, Sublocade.
Abbie Garrighan Scanio, Vice President, JADE Wellness Center