Tiffiney Lutz – JourneyPure Knoxville Quality Assurance & Compliance Officer

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. How did you first become involved with MDC? I first became involved with MDC in 2019. I have several friends who have been members of the coalition for multiple years. I was invited to attend a coalition membership drive in 2018 and then started regularly attending meetings in 2019.

 

  1. What have you enjoyed about being a member of the coalition? I enjoy being able to network with other community members who have a passion for substance misuse prevention. “Drug Take-Back” medication collection events are my favorite activity with MDC. Being able to see the volume of unused medication we directly remove from our neighborhoods is rewarding!

 

  1. Tell me about JourneyPure and the services you provide? JourneyPure is a network of inpatient and outpatient drug and mental health rehabilitation centers. Locally, JourneyPure provides quality, affordable and effective treatment for patients struggling with substance abuse dependency and co-occurring disorders. We accept all TennCare Medicaid insurance, many commercial policies including BlueCross & BlueShield and United Healthcare. We also offer an option of affordable self-pay treatment for those individuals without insurance. JourneyPure Women’s Center provides focused treatment for women of childbearing age who are either pregnant or are raising children. The Women’s Center has a focus on trauma therapy and also employs specialized case managers to help coordinate community services and housing needs. The Knoxville Outpatient Center offers a partial hospitalization program, intensive outpatient classes and medication-assisted recovery. The partial hospitalization program (known as PHP) is for women and is the highest level of non-residential, non-inpatient care that is available. PHP is a unique combination of medication management, group therapy, individual therapy and in some cases family therapy.

 

  1. Why are prevention efforts so important to you? I come from a family that has been directly impacted by addiction. I have close friends and family members who have struggled for years to stop using drugs and I have close family and friends who have been sober for many years. I left a 20-year career in traditional healthcare to begin working in the recovery field because I wanted to help people seek a better life and get the services they deserve. I know recovery is possible, but I feel passionate about prevention because it is so much easier to prevent a problem than to stop it once it has started. I have a son in middle school so it is very important to me to contribute to a community focused on preventing further generations of substance misuse. I want my son and all other child impacted by substance misuse the opportunity to live happy, healthy and safe.