Two addiction recovery and substance abuse services at the hospital have merged.

Mayo Clinic Health System – Albert Lea and Austin’s Addiction Recovery Services and Fountain Centers — a Mayo Clinic Health System program for substance abuse and addiction — have merged. The services are now called Fountain Centers.

“With the integration of [these services], employees have been collaborating for months to create an Austin connection to Fountain Centers’ treatment programming,” said Jack Wittkopp, a Fountain Centers clinical supervisor, in a press release. “As a result of this merger there will now be seamless patient services not only between Albert Lea and Austin, but among all Fountain Centers locations.”

Addiction Recovery Services and Fountain Centers each have 40 years’ experience in the chemical dependency treatment field. The hospital hopes the merger will give the Austin community, and Mower County, more integrated addiction services while ensuring the connections Addiction Recovery Services staff have built over the years will not be lost.

Fountain Centers has additional outpatient facilities in Albert Lea, Fairmont, Faribault, Jackson, Mankato, Owatonna, Rochester and Waseca, Minn. For more information, go to fountaincenters.org.