WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Feb. 28, 2020 - Tanya Young Williams and Dr. Jacob Elefant – both of Delray Beach – opened Pivot Treatment and Wellness Centers (http://www.pivotcenters.com/) (Pivot) in Lake Park, Florida just under two years ago.
Young Williams is the CEO of Pivot Treatment and Wellness Centers and is intimately involved in the vision, marketing and day-to-day operations. Her mission to positively impact the addiction treatment industry came after watching her ex-husband (NBA player Jayson Williams) and father of her children deal with substance abuse. As an outlier in the addiction recovery world – she is an African American, female CEO – one of her personal goals is to help more people of color get the recovery and treatment help they need.
Young Williams says: "There is disparity in this industry when it comes to color from the top down. Very few executives or treatment owners that look like me, or of color. Same with the sober and detox environments. Once I started visiting detox centers, I realized there is little representation of people of color. It's alarming but not surprising. Substance abuse disorder doesn't discriminate and people of color are just not getting the help they need."
Dr. Elefant is a long-time Delray Beach resident, who has operated a successful dental practice locally for nearly two decades. For many years, he had seen the residual effects of drug and substance abuse or "meth mouth" as many refer to the deteriorating effects of the teeth and mouth due to drugs. After years of treating the mouths of these young people in the area, he wanted to do something more to help them fight the disease of addiction earlier on.
"Dr. Elefant and I birthed Pivot because we couldn't stand on the sidelines while the drug epidemic continued to escalate and destroy families on a daily basis. Our first priority is to help the addict stop abusing alcohol and/or drugs," said Young Williams. "More than 70,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2017, setting a new record amid an ongoing public health crisis and contributing to the decline in average life expectancy nationwide. Deaths from drug overdose climbed nearly 10 percent from 63,632 in 2016 to 70,237 in the U.S. in 2017," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Further, despite relatively uniform rates of substance abuse among racial and ethnic populations, members of racial and ethnic minority groups are most likely to experience barriers that impede their ability to access substance abuse treatment, andopioid addiction drugs are primarily going to whites, even as the black death rate rises.
Learn more at www.pivotcenters.com (http://www.pivotcenters.com/).
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