October 8, 2019—It felt as if he had woken up from a long, painful dream.

After a decade of worsening consequences and suffering in active addiction, Corey Richardson, P.A. ’92, M.P.A.S., D.H.Sc., became willing to make a change.

“With addiction, the brain becomes high-jacked. Over ten years of active addiction, this disease destroyed my life, hurt those I cared about and brought shame to the PA profession,” Richardson says, today 21 years into continuous sobriety.

By devoting himself to a 12-step recovery program, Richardson was able to rid himself of his former life in active addiction and the addict thinking that plagued him throughout his training as a PA and into his career. The experience motivated him to use his occupation to help others who are ready to begin the same long journey to recovery.

“It was only after years in recovery that I could get a sense of who I was and where I needed to take my life to make amends to those I had harmed,” he says. “Through my own recovery journey, I began to see that I could help others struggling from addiction.”

Today, Richardson is the CEO and clinical director of Integrated Care of Greater Hickory, which offers comprehensive medical, behavioral, pharmacy, transitional housing, transportation and toxicology services throughout North Carolina to patients struggling with addiction. At Integrated Care, Richardson and his team aim to “help people gain insight into their disorder while acquiring critical lifesaving skills to keep them from returning to a life of addiction and destruction.”

“There is an interconnectedness in recovery between personal responsibility, honesty, personal development, integrity and forming healthy, interdependent relationships with others on this journey,” he says.

This holistic approach to healing encompasses a large multidisciplinary team at Integrated Care. Licensed social workers and therapists, addictions specialists, counselors, peer support specialists, physicians and PAs, pharmacists, transitional housing managers in recovery and other providers form treatment teams and create individualized plans for immediate and lasting outcomes.

“Our programs identify needs and offer interventions that engender health and wellness in the individual seeking care,” Richardson says.  “For us, health means renewal, stability and resiliency in every way.”

Richardson also combats addiction in the world of research. His quantitative study of substance use disorders among the PA population has garnered national attention. In 2018, he presented his findings to the Federation of State Physician Health Programs’ annual conference, and he will present it again at the 2020 International Doctors in Alcoholics Anonymous annual medical education conference. Richardson says addiction among PAs is an increasing public health issue as the number of PAs joining the workforce continues to rise.

“PA addiction has become a very serious issue,” Richardson says, “but almost no research is available on PAs to better understand addiction within the profession and how to best plan treatment. We spend millions on education and training but very little on health and wellness of these professionals.”

Looking back on his recovery, which helped lead him to his current career, Richardson feels blessed and committed to continue helping as many people as he can.

“I became an expert in the very disease that nearly killed me and took many of my closest friends. I think that is what drives me,” he says. “This journey was never planned.”

For those battling substance use disorders or other addictions, Richardson’s advice is crystal clear: “get help now.”

“Just like with cancer or diabetes, do you want to seek help at Stage 1 or Stage 4?” he says. “Stage 1 naturally. Get help and stick around. And incorporate recovery community participation, like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, alongside formal, professional treatment. This engenders a smooth transition to lifelong recovery via a powerful, positive social influence. It saved my life.”