Mitch Tanis
Amanda Uphoff, executive assistant at RehabPath
Amanda Uphoff of RehabPath says the company's website helps people find the treatment center that is best for them, even if it's out of state.
Amanda Uphoff has learned that working in the recovery community is challenging. But it has also improved her chances of staying sober.
“It's easy when you get healthy to say, ‘I can't even remember when I was sick,’ says Uphoff. “But I'm confronted with recovery all the time and that makes me remember when I couldn't stay sober for 24 hours.”
Uphoff is the executive administrator for RehabPath, a website for people seeking professional help for mental health or substance abuse disorders. She joined the Madison-based company in October 2022, a few years after returning from an inpatient program for alcohol abuse in California.
“At first, I couldn't believe this business was in Madison because I know the recovery community really well here in Madison and I hadn't heard of RehabPath,” Uphoff says. “It was super exciting for me to find them.”
RehabPath, a late stage tech start-up, hosts a website that connects users with treatment facilities. The site allows them to specify what they need in their recovery — users can choose preferences for location, price, language, clientele and approach. The facilities offer help for eating disorders, substance abuse, depression and more.
RehabPath does not work directly with patients or providers — instead, it serves as a “recovery ally,” as the website puts it.
Gabi Koren, a therapist at Lake City Counseling who specializes in substance use disorder and behavioral addictions, says a tool that helps people find resources is invaluable. “It's common that people who are struggling don't know where to look,” Koren says. “[It’s confusing] if you call your insurance company or if you call clinics. Having a resource to navigate that is incredible because the whole process of getting help, regardless of the issue, is so chaotic and frustrating.”
The RehabPath website lists 36 treatment centers in the Madison area and another 548 around the state. In just looking at the results for Madison, it’s clear that there are many more outpatient options than there are inpatient ones; outpatient centers do not require an overnight stay while inpatient centers do.
Inpatient treatment was the best option for Uphoff, who tried outpatient treatment in Madison in 2016 but found herself drinking on the way home from the facility each night.
“If you need residential treatment, you need residential treatment,” Uphoff says. “You can't keep yourself sober when they let you go home at eight o'clock at night.”
Eventually, she left Madison for a 35-day treatment in California at a facility that specializes in drug and alcohol addiction and trauma. It worked well for Uphoff because it was women-only and had a spiritual component she had never experienced before.
“Sometimes you have to go far away and completely focus on yourself and your recovery,” she says. “That was what worked for me.” Uphoff, who had tried other outpatient facilities in Madison before going to California, says being able to find a suitable treatment center was instrumental in her recovery. This is why she is so inspired by RehabPath’s mission to connect users with facilities that suit them.
“I think, in some ways, we are a great resource for places where there aren't very many local options for treatment because we can help people find a center that's the best fit for them even if that is just over the border in Illinois or maybe in California,” Uphoff says.
RehabPath was co-founded in 2017 by CEO Ben Camp and CPO Jeremiah Calvino. The two met in college and partnered to start RehabPath. The company, which has grown to a 50-person team, recently relocated to State Street from StartingBlock on East Washington Avenue.
Since joining RehabPath, Uphoff has watched the company grow in size and become more well known among those in the recovery community. But it is less well known locally.
That’s why RehabPath signed up to sponsor the Rally for Recovery in September — an annual rally at the state Capitol to support people in recovery. Uphoff says the rally is an important event for her and other members of the recovery community in Madison: “We're just trying to help people know that we're here because we can be a great resource.”
[Editor's note: This article was updated to correct the number of employees currently employed by RehabPath. It's 50.]
