Chats with Charles – Early Treatment and Rehab in Dilworth Charlotte to Present Day

This Chats with Charles is a quick history of early treatment in Dilworth Charlotte, NC, and our CEO and President’s involvement.

Transcript: Hey I want to welcome everybody here. You know, this is, everybody’s calling it Chats with Charles, which I guess is fine. I’m Charles, I am the Chief Executive Officer and President of Dilworth Center. It’s always my pleasure to sit here and talk about things that I believe may be relevant to people in their recovery journeys. You know, I’ve worked in treatment for a good long time now. It’s about 40 years. That’s a long time, I guess, for anything. But my journey began when I first went to rehab back in 1982. In those days, everybody went to an inpatient program, and then they got out and did aftercare and, typically, participated in mutual help groups. That procedure kind of mimicked what I did as well. When I got out of treatment, there wasn’t a whole lot of support in the community in which I lived here in Charlotte. The resources were not as plentiful as we find them to be today.

I think that caused me to reflect a little bit on that, because having worked now at Dilworth Center for over 30 years, I began to feel that it is important for people to understand that not only do we have treatment available in Charlotte, but we have excellent treatment available in Charlotte. What Dilworth Center has managed to do, I believe, over the last 35 years we’ve been in existence, is to provide opportunities for all kinds of people to get well. We work with adults, adolescents, young adults, and families. With all those populations, we work with the Federal Aviation Administration to provide treatment for their pilots. We work with the North Carolina Board of Nursing to provide extended care services for nurses.

We’ve got a lot going on over here. You know, it didn’t start out that way. It started out just as a program for adults, but as the demand began to expand and increase, we knew we had to do more. I think that’s one of the things I really like about working here at Dilworth Center—the opportunity to continue to expand and adapt our treatment services for the residents of our county and the surrounding areas. Having been in recovery myself, as I said before, for quite some time now, the litmus test that I always used for treatment centers is: is that program good enough where I would refer my own family members there without reservation? I feel that way about Dilworth Center. I really think that the staff here is second to none, our services are broad and inclusive, and we provide opportunities for recovery for just about anyone.

We also have developed a partnership with local sober living facilities, so we can mimic an inpatient experience by collaborating with them. We also provide detoxification services by partnering with local area detox programs. There’s really not a whole lot we can’t do. I think if you’re going to remain relevant in the treatment business, that’s the type of attitude we have to take. It’s all about reducing barriers to care, and that includes providing generous scholarships for people who could not otherwise afford the cost of care. We do major fundraising events every year just for that single purpose, to make sure we can reach those who can’t afford it, so that money is never a barrier to care. We appreciate you tuning in today, and I look forward to speaking with you all in the future.