PROVIDENCE — The addiction-recovery center known for the past 30 years as Kent House celebrated its anniversary Monday morning by announcing a new name officials said better fits the group’s statewide mission: Bridgemark Addiction Recovery Services.

The Warwick-based nonprofit social-service agency provides residential treatment at six locations and counseling and outpatient programs for people struggling with drug and alcohol addictions as well as counseling for their families.

Christine T. Harkins, chief executive officer of Bridgemark, said the renaming project had been going on for about a year. She said the $1-million-a-year agency decided that its 30th anniversary was an opportunity to make a statement about the reach of its efforts; Kent House implied it was limited to Kent County, which she said it is not.

She said Kent was also a name frequently used by other medical service businesses in the state, and it sometimes created confusion.

Craig S. Stenning, director of the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, praised the organizations like Bridgemark, saying they can help turn people’s lives around. He said drug-treatment programs not only have to compete for resources in an increasingly difficult economy, they have to work against unfair stereotypes of substance-abuse sufferers: that they are weak, that they make bad choices, or that they are simply different from other people.

Nearly all of the money that governments spend on substance abuse is in health agency or criminal-justice budgets, Stenning said, adding that only about 3 percent of that is directed toward treatment.

“The money goes to the downside,” he said. “Not prevention and treatment.”

Neil A. Corkery, executive director of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Association and a former state representative who supported drug-treatment programs during his legislative career, said government support for treatment was crucial because few private insurance companies cover it. And even if some do, substance abusers often lose their jobs — and their health insurance — before seeking the treatment they need.

Besides unveiling its new name, Bridgemark used the event to honor supporters and employees for their work. U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed and former legislators Russell Bramley and Corkery were cited; as were the James and Victoria Quinn family and longtime agency volunteer Charles Cicero.

jhill@projo.com