We have no site in Lakewood itself. The closest one is Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village, an outpatient office on Plaza Drive in Highlands Ranch, about 11 miles southeast of Lakewood in a straight line and farther by road. It runs outpatient care, an intensive outpatient program and dual diagnosis care.
One thing matters more than the drive. If withdrawal has to be managed under supervision, that is arranged at The Recovery Village Palmer Lake, further south down I-25, and the two sites hand off deliberately rather than improvising. This page explains which situation is which, how the programs work, what Colorado coverage looks like, and what admission involves. Our Colorado drug rehab guide covers the wider state.
The Lakewood treatment picture in plain terms
Lakewood sits in Jefferson County, on the western edge of the Denver metro, where US-6 and C-470 meet the foothills. It is close enough to the rest of the metro that almost everything is a drive rather than a relocation.
What that means practically is that a Lakewood resident usually has two realistic shapes of treatment. One is outpatient work, done while living at home and keeping a job. The other is a residential stay elsewhere in Colorado, followed by outpatient care back in the metro.
Which of those applies is a clinical decision rather than a preference. It turns on withdrawal risk, on whether home is a workable place to recover, and on what else is going on medically.
We are not going to list other providers in Lakewood. You can also search the federal locator at FindTreatment.gov, and SAMHSA runs a National Helpline for treatment referrals.
Lakewood, CO is about 11 miles northwest of the Highlands Ranch office
The office is on Plaza Drive in Highlands Ranch, in Douglas County, about 11 miles southeast of Lakewood in a straight line and farther by road. Most people take C-470 east and drop south, or run down Santa Fe Drive.
That is a commute rather than a relocation, which is the whole point of an outpatient placement. A program you can reach after work three times a week is a different proposition from one that needs a day off, and the difference usually decides whether someone finishes it.
Traffic is the variable worth planning around, and it is the reason this page gives you a distance rather than a travel time. The C-470 corridor is slow at peak times, so a group that starts at six means leaving Lakewood earlier than the map suggests, and the same eleven miles can take twice as long on a Thursday evening as on a Sunday morning. Say what your realistic travel window is at assessment so the schedule is built around it rather than around an average.
The west-metro geography cuts one more way worth naming. Lakewood sits on the far side of the metro from Highlands Ranch, so the trip crosses the southern suburbs rather than running along them, and there is no useful transit line between the two. If you do not drive, raise that on the first call: it changes which schedule is realistic, and sometimes which tier is.
If you are weighing this against a residential stay, our page on inpatient rehab sets out what living on site involves and how the two compare.
Denver Mental Health & Counseling programs: outpatient, IOP and dual diagnosis
Three things run at this office, and it is worth being precise about each.
Standard outpatient care is the lightest tier. You attend scheduled sessions and otherwise carry on with normal life. It suits people who are medically stable and have a workable home situation.
An intensive outpatient program sits above that. It is a structured group-based program with several sessions a week, designed to be attended around work. Our page on outpatient rehab covers how the tiers differ, and our page on levels of care puts them in order against residential treatment.
Dual diagnosis care means a co-occurring mental health condition is treated alongside the substance use disorder rather than referred elsewhere. If you are calling about a veteran or a first responder, say so on the first call and let admissions confirm what this office runs for them.
Medical detox and residential care are arranged at The Recovery Village Palmer Lake, and the next section explains how that hand-off works.
If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
Outpatient care within reach of Lakewood
Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village is in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, and runs outpatient care, an intensive outpatient program and dual diagnosis care. Say on the first call if you are asking about a veteran or a first responder, and admissions will confirm what this office runs. Medical detox and residential care are arranged at The Recovery Village Palmer Lake.
Check your coverage and admissions
Verify your insurance
Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village is part of our family of treatment centers. See the Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village campus.
Alcohol detox and opioid detox: two different medical problems
Detox is not one thing, and treating it as one leads people to the wrong setting. Both versions are arranged at The Recovery Village Palmer Lake, which runs medical detox, residential and inpatient care, a partial hospitalization program, an intensive outpatient program and outpatient care.
Alcohol withdrawal is the version with the sharpest physical danger. SAMHSA’s consensus panel names delirium and seizures as the two most pathologic responses seen in alcohol withdrawal [1]. The signs and symptoms of acute alcohol withdrawal generally start 6 to 24 hours after the last drink [1]. The majority of alcohol withdrawal seizures occur within the first 48 hours after cessation or reduction of alcohol, with peak incidence around 24 hours [1]. Seizures can occur several days out, though the panel says a higher index of suspicion for other causes is prudent then [1]. Delirium tremens does not develop suddenly; it progresses from earlier withdrawal symptoms [1].
If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
Opioid withdrawal is a different problem. The panel puts it directly: unlike alcohol and sedative withdrawal, uncomplicated opioid withdrawal is not life-threatening [1]. That word “uncomplicated” is carrying weight, because severe vomiting and diarrhea can cause dehydration and disturbances in the body’s chemicals and minerals [5]. And the danger does not end when the symptoms do. MedlinePlus states that withdrawal reduces a person’s tolerance to the medicine, so those who have just gone through withdrawal can overdose on a much smaller dose than they used to take [5]. Most opioid overdose deaths occur in people who have just detoxed [5]. That is the single most important sentence on this page, and it is the argument for having the next step booked before the current one ends.
What both share is the setting guidance. For alcohol, sedative-hypnotic and opioid withdrawal, the panel treats a hospital or another form of 24-hour medical care as generally the preferred setting [1]. Our pages on medical detox and on The Recovery Village at Palmer Lake cover the admission and the campus.
How Colorado insurance works here: commercial plans, Medicaid and employer coverage
Three routes, and each turns on your own policy rather than on a rule of thumb.
Commercial insurance is the most common route. What any plan pays depends on network status, prior authorization and medical necessity. We do not publish coverage figures for a named insurer, because the accurate answer is the one your plan gives for your policy, and the name on the card is the start of that check rather than the end of it.
Medicaid is the second. Medicaid.gov notes that many states have included behavioral health services for individuals with substance use disorders in their Medicaid State Plans, managed care waivers and Section 1115 demonstrations [4], so the mechanics differ by state and by plan and are a question for your own state agency. One part does not vary: Medicaid.gov’s guidance list carries a State Medicaid Director letter titled “Permanent Extension of Mandatory Medicaid State Plan Coverage of MAT/Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD)”, dated November 2024 [4].
Employer plans are the third route, and they are where parity questions usually arise. Our pages on insurance coverage for rehab and how much rehab costs go through deductibles, copayments and prior authorization.
For state-level context, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics puts Colorado’s 2024 drug overdose death rate at 25.7 per 100,000, age-adjusted, in its Stats of the States release [2]. An age-adjusted rate is built for comparing states, not for describing Jefferson County.
Time off work, FMLA and telling your employer
Outpatient programs are built around work, but some people still need leave, and the federal rules are worth knowing before you negotiate anything.
The Family and Medical Leave Act allows eligible employees of a covered employer to take job-protected, unpaid leave, or to substitute paid leave they have earned, for up to a total of 12 workweeks in any 12 months [6]. Employees are eligible if they have worked for a covered employer for at least 12 months, have at least 1,250 hours of service in the 12 months before the leave starts, and work at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles [3].
Two details matter in practice. FMLA leave is generally unpaid, though an eligible employee may choose, or an employer may require, that accrued paid leave run at the same time as it [8]. And on return from FMLA leave an employee is entitled to be returned to the same position they held when leave commenced, or to an equivalent position with equivalent benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment [7].
None of that is legal advice for your situation, and a lawyer or your HR department is the right place for that conversation. What it does tell you is that leave is a defined process rather than a favor you have to ask for.
You are not required to tell an employer why you are in treatment in order to enroll. If a workplace assistance program is already involved, ask at intake exactly what is shared and with whom.
Admissions, assessment and same-week availability
Outpatient admission usually moves faster than residential admission, because it does not depend on a bed.
The first call covers two things at once: a clinical assessment and a benefits check. The assessment is a structured conversation about what you have been using, for how long, your medical and mental health history, and your current medications. It asks about past withdrawal, because a history of seizures or delirium changes the setting you need [1].
If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988.
The benefits check runs alongside. That is where network status and any prior authorization requirement get settled, and it is what turns an estimate into a real figure.
Same-week starts are common for outpatient programs, though nobody can promise a specific date. Have photo identification, your insurance card and a list of current medications ready. Our page on how to get into rehab covers the full sequence.
After treatment: step-down care within reach of Lakewood
Treatment does not end at the last group, and the step-down is where most plans fail if nobody owns them.
For someone starting at Palmer Lake, the usual path steps down through the partial hospitalization program and then to outpatient care. Continuing that outpatient phase at the Highlands Ranch office keeps it within a normal commute of Lakewood.
For someone who started in outpatient care, stepping down means fewer sessions rather than a different building. That is easier logistically and harder psychologically, because the structure that was holding the week together thins out.
Ask the case manager for the plan in writing, with named appointments rather than intentions. Our directory of rehab facilities groups the campuses we operate by state, and our list of our treatment centers sets out the levels each campus runs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a drug rehab in Lakewood? Not one of ours. The closest is Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village, an outpatient office in Highlands Ranch, about 11 miles southeast of Lakewood in a straight line and farther by road. It runs outpatient care, an intensive outpatient program and dual diagnosis care. Medical detox and residential treatment are arranged at The Recovery Village Palmer Lake.
How far is the nearest Denver Mental Health & Counseling campus from Lakewood? About 11 miles southeast in a straight line, and farther by road. The office is on Plaza Drive in Highlands Ranch, in Douglas County, and most people reach it via C-470 or Santa Fe Drive. Peak-time traffic on the C-470 corridor is the main variable, so build the commute into the schedule you agree at assessment rather than discovering it in week one.
Does Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Colorado cover rehab for Lakewood residents? That has to be verified against your specific policy, and we do not publish coverage claims for any named insurer. Network status, prior authorization and medical necessity drive the answer. The admissions team runs a benefits check during the assessment and tells you what your plan covers and what your share looks like before anything starts.
Can I detox in Lakewood or do I have to travel? Supervised withdrawal is arranged at The Recovery Village Palmer Lake, so it means a drive south rather than a local admission. Whether you need that at all is a clinical decision. For alcohol, sedative-hypnotic and opioid withdrawal, SAMHSA’s panel treats a hospital or another form of 24-hour medical care as the generally preferred setting.
How soon can a Lakewood resident be admitted? Outpatient starts are often available the same week, because they do not depend on a bed opening. The pace is set by the clinical assessment and the benefits check, both of which can usually run on the first call. A residential admission at Palmer Lake depends on availability as well, so no date can be promised in advance.
Sources
- Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2006). Chapter 4: Physical Detoxification Services for Withdrawal From Specific Substances. Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment, TIP Series No. 45. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64116/
- National Center for Health Statistics. Colorado: Stats of the States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/state-stats/states/co.html
- Legal Information Institute. 29 CFR § 825.110 — Eligible Employee. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/825.110
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Substance Use Disorders Resources. Medicaid.gov. https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/benefits/behavioral-health-services/substance-use-disorders
- National Library of Medicine. Opiate and Opioid Withdrawal. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, National Institutes of Health. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000949.htm
- Legal Information Institute. 29 CFR § 825.100 — The Family and Medical Leave Act. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/825.100
- Legal Information Institute. 29 CFR § 825.214 — Employee Right to Reinstatement. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/825.214
- Legal Information Institute. 29 CFR § 825.207 — Substitution of Paid Leave. Cornell Law School. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/825.207
This page is for general information and is not medical advice. Only a licensed clinician who knows your history can tell you what is right for you. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911. For free, confidential support 24/7, call or text 988.
Author
Chief Medical Officer,
The Recovery Village
