Call Renee Jones-Fyfe at The Wellness Plan for freedom from addiction
While she waded into the dark, deep waters of her crack cocaine addiction and the lifestyle that accompanied it, Renee Jones-Fyfe remembers being willing to do anything to feed her habit.
Shoplifter, bank robber, sex worker, or sex trafficker—it didn’t matter. She was homeless twice, in and out of county jails, and made an eight-year bid in state prison.
“I was addicted to crack for 35 years,” said Jones-Fyfe, now 66. “I was going to do whatever I had to do to get the money to get high. I bought and sold pills, bought and sold girls, bought and sold boys. There was no limitation; the sicker I was, the more chances I took.”
Clean and in recovery for 11 years, Jones-Fyfe, a certified peer recovery support coach and peer support specialist for the Wellness Plan Medical Centers, is just as passionate about helping others free themselves from addiction.
If someone calls for help, she will go to any measure to find the person—even if it means venturing into dope houses to bring them out. She wants to give her clients the compassion, empathy, and sympathy they need before getting help.
“If you call me and can’t get here on your own, I will come to get you,” she said. “I don’t care where you are.”
September is National Alcohol and Addiction Recovery Month, and lately, Jones-Fyfe has been concerned about people who are opiate addicts or addicted to prescription pain pills. But she said the ever-increasing numbers of pre-teens, teens, and young adults unknowingly becoming addicted to cocaine and fentanyl because they don’t know that marijuana isn’t the only thing in their blunts is frightening.
“It’s sad,” she said, “because they don’t even know they are addicted.”
So, she and a team in The Wellness Plan’s behavioral health department get them enrolled in treatment, counseling, other therapy, and resources they need, including medication to help with recovery.
She advises young people to avoid getting high, but if they can’t resist smoking marijuana, she said it’s simply too dangerous to buy it on the street.
“Go get a weed card and go to a dispensary,” she said. “We know it’s controlled now, and they can’t put fentanyl in their weed. You will know what you’re getting. You may get psychologically addicted to marijuana but won’t be physically addicted.”
Jones-Fyfe, who works in multiple medical center locations, urges anyone who needs help to give her a call, and she promises to help with an alcohol or substance abuse issue.
“Call me at (313) 875-5021, (313) 970-0992 or (313) 875-5017,” she said. “We’ll take anybody with any addiction, and we will work and do our best to help. We will protect you at all costs.”
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