Tag: addiction treatment

Drug Court Helped Man Turn Life Around

After struggling with drug addiction, a Missouri man was able to change his life with the help of a drug court program.

A year ago, Casey Barbero was using drugs and getting into fights, a pattern that had defined more than half his life. When an argument with his father turned physical and the police were called, Barbero was ready to surrender.

“I just sat there and waited for the police with the drugs on me. I knew it was the right thing to do. It was the right time,” he told The Missourian. Instead of being sent to jail, Barbero agreed to attend drug court, a program that connects people with treatment and jobs in an attempt to help them stay sober and out of jail.

Nine months later, Barbero is the type of success story that the more than 3,000 drug courts around the country strive toward.

“He made up his mind from the get-go, ‘This is what I want, I want a different path in life.’ And he’s done that,” said Felecia Jackson-Qualls, a recruiter for Job Point, an organization that works with the Missouri drug courts to help people find employment.

Jackson-Qualls said that Barbero’s progress is inspirational and shows what can happen when the justice system opens doors rather than closing them for people who have struggled with substance use disorder.

“It brings tears to my eyes because I’m seeing where he’s coming from. And I see where he’s got to. When you see someone go through those different steps and those hurdles and you see them advancing, then we know we’re doing a good job. That makes all the difference in the world to me,” she said.

Barbero said that he’s eager to not even think about drugs, but for now he has to confront his substance use disorder each week when he reports on his progress in front of the court.

He said, “I pretty much am there now. I am reminded of it because I have to be for drug court. It’s good to remember, but I definitely don’t need to dwell on it.”

Barbero now works in construction, and has dreams of owning a home and starting a family, things that seemed far away when he was in active addiction.

“I want to be in a place where I firmly know what I am, what are my goals for the future and my future plans. Right now, I have a good idea,” he said.

Although some people balk at the strict drug court program, Barbero said that the guidance and work requirements have been helpful.

“It’s better to be doing that than the stuff I was doing. I’m taking all that time I did waste and learning about things I’m interested in doing.”

View the original article at thefix.com

20 February 2019
How Addiction Stigma Prevents People from Getting Help

The doctor believed that people with addictions are sneaky and dishonest, and maybe this is why. My treatment has repeatedly been delayed or denied because I’ve been honest. Do other people have to lie to get medical care?

My name is Sara and I am 28 years old. I grew up in a two-parent household with a loving family, had excellent grades in high school, and graduated from college. I currently work full time. I love children, nature, animals, family, and my many friends.

Self-Medicating with Opioids

I have also struggled with depression, anxiety, and OCD since I was in my early teens. At age 18, my life was changed forever when I was prescribed an opiate painkiller after the removal of my wisdom teeth. I discovered, with that one prescription, that opioids made me feel normal. And yet, opioids are what put me through a roller coaster of hell for the next eight years. They also introduced me to my good friend “Heroin.”

From early on in my addiction, I wanted help but was too ashamed to ask for it. I also figured I could beat this thing myself, but I couldn’t. I needed help. My parents encouraged me to contact a rehab facility, which I did immediately. The nurse who did the intake was very kind and said I could come the next day to be admitted for detox, but she first needed to get approval from the insurance company.

I, and my family, were so relieved that I would begin a journey of recovery. This is when I experienced the stigma of addiction for the first time. The nurse from the rehab center called me back and said that my insurance company would not approve me to go to detox and rehab because I had not yet been incarcerated.

Several months later, I was finally approved for rehab, but only after I possessed a misdemeanor charge.

“Sneaky Drug Addicts”: Doctors Perpetuate Stigma

After detox, rehab, and a six-month stay at a sober living facility, I came home and began looking for work. I found a job quickly, but I needed paperwork completed for a physical. Although the job did not require a drug test and there was nothing on the form requesting drug testing, my primary care provider refused to give me a physical or sign the form unless I agreed to a drug test. It didn’t matter that I was in recovery and was also attending outpatient rehab which routinely drug-tested me.

Even now, with two years in recovery from addiction, I still experience prejudice and stigma in health care settings. Recently a bout of severe food poisoning and dehydration sent me to the emergency room. There, I was accused of going through withdrawal. I provided the nurse with the list of my medications, which included Vivitrol—an opioid blocker. I was also honest and told her that I used marijuana occasionally to help with anxiety. After I was sent for testing in Radiology, the doctor told my mother that he was quite sure that I was going through withdrawal and that he wanted a urine screen. My mother told him that she was sure I wasn’t going through withdrawal because I had always been upfront and honest with her when I relapsed in the past.

“Well, you know how sneaky drug addicts can be,” the doctor said.

When I returned and the doctor told me his suspicions, I agreed to the urine test but told him that I expected an apology after he got the results and I only tested positive for marijuana. I watched as two nurses outside the room laughed and looked toward my room. I knew they were laughing at me—the drug addict.

Half an hour later, the doctor walked in and said, “Well, I guess you were right, you aren’t going through withdrawal. We only found a small trace of marijuana in your system. But, you understand why I had to test you, don’t you?”

He never did apologize to me.

In Recovery and Denied Therapy

Part of my recovery is getting a monthly injection of Vivitrol which is an opioid blocker that also helps reduce my cravings. The provider that gives me the Vivitrol requires that I also go to a counselor, which I was more than willing to do. But at my intake interview at the local mental health agency, I was honest about my occasional marijuana use for anxiety and as a result I was denied counseling services. I even appealed it to the medical director, but that didn’t help. It didn’t matter to them that the anxiety, depression, and OCD—which is relieved by the marijuana—may have been partly responsible for my addiction to opioids in the first place.

That ER doctor held the belief that people with addictions are sneaky and dishonest, and maybe this is why. My treatment has repeatedly been delayed or denied because I’ve been honest. Do other people have to lie to get medical care? If someone is sent to a counselor for emotional eating, are they refused counseling if they have given up everything but potato chips? And even if the providers believe smoking marijuana is a condition of addiction, wouldn’t that be all the more reason to offer me care and a provider? To this day, I have been unable to find a counselor who will take me.

My wish is that every person who has substance use disorder is treated with respect and compassion. When you are addicted, you already beat yourself up every day. Every time you look in the mirror, you see an addict. We certainly don’t need to be reminded by the people that chose a sacred profession and took an oath to help people that we aren’t worth it. That only puts us deeper in the depths of destruction rather than building us up for a path to recovery.

Healing: Compassionate Health Care Providers

My experience isn’t unusual, but I have also encountered many health care workers who were compassionate. Those were the people who gave me a reason to keep fighting for my life. There was a nurse in the emergency department (the one time I was there to get help for withdrawal after I had relapsed) who gave me a big hug when I was leaving and said, “Don’t give up. Keep trying. You are worth it.” And then I watched as she hugged my mother as she sobbed on her shoulder.

“I know it’s scary, Mom, but she will get through this. The good thing is, she wants to get help,” she said.

Another nurse told me how proud she was at how far I’ve come and not to take other people’s biases to heart. And then there was my Health Home Nurse — she just works her magic and does whatever’s needed to help you stay in recovery. She is nothing short of amazing and I owe my life to her. Those are the people who make me want to continue my recovery and the ones I will be thankful to for the rest of my life.

I am Sara. I am a survivor who is recovering from substance use disorder. I could be your daughter, your niece, your granddaughter, your next door neighbor, or your co-workers daughter. I am worthy of being treated with respect and compassion just as much as every human being struggling with this disease is worth it. With the right kind of support, people can and do recover.

Note: My mother, who has worked in the healthcare industry for over 30 years, has been frustrated witnessing firsthand the stigma I’ve faced when trying to obtain care and services. She’s often had to advocate on my behalf. She currently volunteers with an organization called Truth Pharm, which works with local providers to reduce stigma in healthcare settings. She asked if I would be willing to share my story, and that’s why I wrote this.

View the original article at thefix.com

19 February 2019
Jersey Shore's Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Breaks Silence On Rehab Stay

Ortiz-Magro said he decided to get help because to be a “better person, a better father for my daughter.”

One of the original stars of Jersey Shore, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, revealed his battles with depression and alcohol addiction in an interview with Us Weekly on Tuesday. The 33-year-old reality TV celebrity spoke on his recent decision to enter rehab, motivated by his desire to be a good role model for his daughter.

“I decided to go to treatment because I wanted to be a better person, a better father for my daughter,” Otiz-Magro said. “Eventually, all the bad decisions I was making were going to lead me to places that I didn’t want to be. I wanted to be led to the place that I am now – that’s happy, healthy and the best role model for my daughter.”

Ortiz-Magro has a little girl, Ariana Sky Magro, with his on-again-off-again girlfriend Jen Harley. Around the new year entering 2019, the couple had a violent fight that ended in a bloody face for Ortiz-Magro. Us Weekly reported that a source described their relationship as volatile.

In the interview, the reality star admitted to not being proud of many of the things he’s done over the years, that he was making the wrong decisions, and was “very depressed.” Going into addiction treatment, he described himself as depressed, angry, and “resentful to myself about a lot of things I’ve done over the last year, or even years.”

Like many individuals involved in the fast-paced life of stardom, Ortiz-Magro developed problems with drinking over a period of years and found himself feeling increasingly out of control.

“I think it’s a chronic disease. It’s a progressive disease. I’m still struggling,” he explained. “You stop and you start up again, and it’s worse than when you stopped. You’re just like, ‘Wow, I thought I had this under control,’ but at the end of the day, it has full control over you.”

Ortiz-Magro is not the only person involved in the Jersey Shore franchise to face addiction. Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino spoke in 2018 about the drug use that led to some of his reckless behavior. In season four, Sorrentino landed himself in the hospital after intentionally slamming his head into a concrete wall that he thought was drywall.

“For a couple of years, from season two on to five, I was really pushing the envelope on my behavior,” Sorrentino told The Asbury Park Press of New Jersey. “I was very wild, very careless, reckless.”

He checked himself into rehab in 2012 in order to get treatment for his addiction to oxycodone. He has since married his college sweetheart and appears to be doing well.

View the original article at thefix.com

14 February 2019
Are Rehab Centers Equipped With Meds To Treat Opioid Use Disorder?

In spite of the availability of opioid addiction medications, many treatment centers have continued to rely only on abstinence programs and talk therapy.

A study published in the January issue of Health Affairs found that only 36% of addiction treatment centers in the U.S. carry any of the medications approved for the treatment of opioid addiction. Not only that, but only 6% carry all three: buprenorphine, naltrexone, and methadone.

As the opioid crisis has exploded in the U.S. and abroad, cities are scrambling to combat spiking overdose deaths and the massive costs associated with the epidemic. In addition to law enforcement and education campaigns, increasing funds have been allocated to the development of medication that can treat opioid addiction.

For many years, methadone was the only option for those who needed more than abstinence, therapy, and rehabilitation programs to combat their powerful and relentless disease. Buprenorphine and naltrexone arrived on the scene in 1981 and 1984, respectively, and have shown promising results.

In spite of the availability of these drugs for decades, many addiction treatment centers have continued to rely only on abstinence programs and talk therapy. The study, led by Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Professor Ramin Mojtabai, looked at 10,000 outpatient facilities in the U.S. via surveys collected between 2007 and 2016.

In 2007, only 20% of the centers offered even one of the medications, so at least some progress is being made in this respect.

“Medication treatment (MT) is one of the few evidence-based strategies proposed to combat the current opioid epidemic,” reads the study abstract. “The findings highlight the persistent unmet need for MT nationally and the role of expansion of health insurance in the dissemination of these treatments.”

Image Source: NIDA

Lindsey Vuolo, associate director of health law and policy at the Center on Addiction, assured U.S. News & World Report that these medications work.

“Overall, approximately 50 percent of patients who receive medications for opioid addiction are successfully treated, while less than 10 percent of patients are successfully treated without these medications,” she said. At the same time, only 10 to 20% of people with substance use disorders seek any treatment at all.

Though Dr. Mojtabai feels that increased attention to the opioid crisis may continue the trend toward more treatment centers offering addiction-combating medications, Vuolo notes that most of the facilities offering these drugs are concentrated in wealthy urban and suburban areas, and is generally more pessimistic.

“The number of people receiving treatment has not changed significantly, even in light of the unrelenting opioid epidemic,” said Vuolo. “I don’t think research will show significant changes between 2016 and 2019 on a national scale.”

View the original article at thefix.com

30 January 2019
Addiction or Mental Illness: Which Should You Treat First?

Substance use can alter behaviors, moods, and personalities so severely for people with addiction that without specialized knowledge and experience, it’s difficult to determine underlying causes such as mental illness or trauma.

I credit psychological intervention for pushing me into recovery from alcoholism.

Addiction is a mental illness, but is it one that needs to be treated before anything else? Or should we be stopping people from hitting their addiction bottom and helping them recover from their comorbid conditions concurrently?

What Is Addiction?

Before we can discuss treatment, we need to understand what addiction is and how it is defined. The two major guidelines for diagnosing mental health conditions around the world are the DSM and the ICD. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is the standard diagnostic tool for mental health conditions in the United States and often used in North America. The ICD (International Classification of Diseases) is endorsed by the World Health Organization and often used in Europe.

In the DSM-5, substance abuse and substance dependence are combined under the same name of substance use disorder, which is diagnosed on a continuum. Each substance has its own sub-category, but behavioral addiction is also in the DSM-5, with gambling disorder listed as a diagnosable condition. Other similar entries, such as internet gaming disorder, are listed as needing further research before being formally added as a diagnosis. In the ICD-11 there is a subset of mood disorders called “substance-induced mood disorders,” which are conditions caused by substance use. To qualify for this category, one must not have experienced the mood disorder symptoms prior to substance use.

Hypothetically, a person who has alcohol-induced mood disorder might find health with abstinence alone, but substance use disorders do not occur in a vacuum and no one can go through the experience of addiction without it altering their mind and body, sometimes irreversibly. With enough time, substance-induced disorders change the function of the brain and alter emotion regulation. That doesn’t mean that addiction will cause another mental disorder; addiction is a mental disorder.

Not everyone with an addiction is concurrently experiencing another mental disorder. Substance use can alter behaviors, moods, and personalities so severely for people who are addicted that without specialized knowledge and experience, it’s difficult to determine what, if any, underlying cause is responsible for the changes. Drugs, even those that are prescribed and used as directed, can have side effects that seem to mimic the symptoms of other diagnosable conditions. These effects can also appear if a person is in withdrawal. Because of this inability to isolate co-occurring conditions, there was a time when it was popular for doctors and clinicians to first treat substance use disorders before exploring the possibility of other mental illnesses. That is no longer considered the best approach to care.

My Story: Therapy Helped Me Recognize My Alcoholism

I started therapy before I could realize my excessive drinking was actually alcoholism. I was riddled with anxiety and constantly on edge. I lied compulsively about the most unnecessary and mundane things. My partner helped me start therapy, calling the first point of contact for me and taking me to my first two appointments, and then patiently waiting outside for me. He wasn’t enabling me by keeping me from hitting bottom, he was supporting me and protecting me in a loving way; in a way that worked.

In the early days of therapy, my psychologist gently guided me towards recognizing my alcohol use as problematic. My therapist convinced me to go to a psychiatrist who started me on antidepressants and gave me anti-anxiety medication to use when needed. My treatment was moving forward, but I was still drinking. I spent most therapy sessions crying, but my ability to live day to day was slowly changing.

I was Googling local 12-step meetings while hungover and then deleting my search history while drinking. I was taking my medications but still getting drunk on the regular. I had to do some work on my crippling anxiety and debilitating depression to get to the point that I could even fathom walking into a new space with new people. I drank because alcohol made it easier to have fun and to talk to people. I was living with undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol worked to calm symptoms like hyperarousal and insomnia. I was using alcohol to cope with issues that my shame wanted to keep buried and my therapy wanted to draw forth. It took nearly nine months of therapy before I quit drinking.

Once I was able to cross that threshold, things really began to change for me. My medication was able to work as intended because I wasn’t combining it with other mood-altering substances, and my therapeutic work could go deeper because I wasn’t self-medicating with alcohol. I gained tools to manage my mental health challenges. My alcoholism treatment has gone so well because I have concurrently received care for my comorbid conditions.

Integrated Treatment

That’s just one personal story of recovery and successful treatment of co-occurring mental illnesses. But it turns out that’s actually the best treatment: individualized integrated care. In the book The Anatomy of Addiction, Dr. Akikur Mohammad writes that the “best approach to treating a dual diagnosis…is…integrating mental health and addiction treatment in a single, comprehensive program designed to meet the individual needs of the specific patient.” How do we determine a patient’s needs? According to Dr. Mohammad, “the best diagnostic instrument is the clinician’s experience in treating addiction.”

How many times have you heard the adage: “You have to let an addict hit bottom”? If you take a seat in any 12-step recovery meeting, you’ll likely hear someone speaking about their own experience hitting bottom. The idea is that one must reach a point of complete and utter desperation before being able to start recovery. Being desperate enough to change because your life is wretchedly entwined with addiction makes for a good story, but waiting to fall into such desperation doesn’t make for a solid treatment plan. The evidence base supports this view, but people don’t necessarily believe it.

Generally, public views about drug addiction are incongruent with current medical knowledge on the disease. A 2014 study that surveyed over 700 adults across the country found that the majority of Americans hold stigmatized views. Forty-three percent of those surveyed said they oppose giving people with drug addiction equivalent insurance benefits compared to 21 percent who believe the same about those with mental illness. Half of all respondents were against increased government spending for treatment of drug addiction, compared to 33 percent for mental illness. About a third of folks don’t believe recovery is even possible for someone with either a drug addiction or a mental illness. And the number of people who believe that treatment options are not effective? Fifty-nine percent for drug addiction and 41 percent for mental illness.

Consequences of Discrimination Against People with SUD

These public opinions have real world consequences. They translate into low support for policies that could provide equal insurance coverage and policies that could allocate government funds into public health programs to improve the success rate of (and access to) evidence-based treatment. Drug addiction or substance use disorder (SUD) is a mental illness, but in the United States it’s treated as distinct from mental illness as a whole.

Did I hit bottom? In retrospect, I find solace in the narrative that I hit “my” bottom. That’s the problem with the notion of rock bottom, it is a storytelling plot point that can only be defined in hindsight. Not even the precepts of Alcoholics Anonymous (the original peer support program that all 12-step groups are derived from) says that a person needs to hit rock bottom. According to the 12 Traditions, which are the general guidelines for 12-step groups, “The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop [fill in behavior or addiction here].”

One thing is undeniable: people with real or perceived substance use and/or mental disorders face discrimination and an uphill battle to a healthier life. Everyone is different, and different treatment plans will have different outcomes for different people. Relying on one method of recovery for all people is irresponsible, illogical, and ineffective.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 January 2019
Their First Day of School Was My Last Day of Drinking

That day was the last time I bought into the lies that one drink will somehow not send me on that downward spiral to insanity and destruction of everything I love and care about.

The kids were still sleeping when I woke up early just to start drinking. The wine was hidden in its usual spot, my closet, and I stood in there at 6 a.m. to choke down whatever I had left. Not because I wanted to, but at that point in my alcoholism my poor body depended on those swigs simply to function normally. I downed enough to stop the shakes, the sick feeling creeping all over my body, the ringing in my ears. Today was the first day of school and a big one at that. My youngest was starting kindergarten.

Spenser

He and I had quite a history. I was standing at a nurse’s station in a detox center when I found out I was pregnant with him. I had no idea. And now here we were, my baby with his little backpack, the youngest of four kids, heading to his first day of school. What the hell have I been doing all this time? The grip of addiction was still strangling me and all I could hope was that I’d get better sometime soon. I was so tired.

The Secret

I took a quick shower, skipping out on washing my hair. I didn’t have the time or the energy to fix it today. After I got dressed, my husband was already in the kitchen. Coffee was brewing, and silence filled the room. He knew about the closet, knew what I had done. I had looked into those broken eyes countless times, and this morning’s overwhelming feelings of self disgust were the same as all the times before. Graciously he hugged me without saying a word. And we stood there holding each other, like soldiers witnessing a gruesome battle, carrying on a conversation without uttering a single word until I finally let go to wake up the other kids.

“I’ll start putting your bags in the car,” he said.

“Okay.”

And the sad secret being kept from the kids remained intact.

Shelby

It was her senior year of high school. My first-born baby girl had seen it all, from happy times in sobriety to life with a mom in rehab for the sixth time. Shelby was done with hearing apologies, but old enough by now to know I didn’t want to drink. She knew I tried, but she wanted her mother. I had one more year before she was gone and I felt every tick of the clock counting down as I wasted yet another day stuck in the fear and shame of it all. How many times had I failed her, and what if I did it again? She’d get her own ride to school, she’d hear the news, but would she forgive me one more time?

Rebecca

She had woken herself up for her first day of fifth grade, her last year in elementary school. I couldn’t help but think back to preschool days, her bright blonde hair and toothy grin. But like many memories, flashes of alcoholic moments clouded over the good times and I forced myself to think about something else. She was only four years old when she watched me get handcuffed out of the car and led away for my first DUI. I desperately needed to make new memories, not just for her but for me, too. All of my thoughts were killing me.

Stella

Since Spenser had snuck into our bed the night before, I only had one child left to wake up. Stella was still sleeping. She’d been waiting for this day — the beginning of third grade — for two weeks, excited to get back and see her friends again. I sat on the edge of her bottom bunk, reaching for her wavy brown hair. She rolled over and stretched, asking if it was morning. I realized this was it. I wouldn’t be back here for a while, wouldn’t be tucking her in tonight. Desperately wishing I could push rewind for the hundredth time, I just stood up and headed downstairs, feeling sad and scared and awful.

Eventually the backpacks we ready and the lunches packed. I took one last look around my house, swallowing the waves of tears ready to spill out of my eyes and ruin the picture of normalcy I was trying to paint for my kids. We got in the car, my husband driving, and headed to the school a couple blocks away.

A Long Good-bye

“Focus on the kids,” is what I kept telling myself. “God, just get me through this without crying.”

Hallway after hallway, at every turn was a flood of smiling parents with their best-dressed kids. The excitement was bubbling around me like Christmas morning. I, however, was in a private hell. Physically already feeling the effects of my maintenance wine consumption wearing off, I was dizzy, fluctuating between hot and cold. I thought I looked different than every other mom, so I kept my head down with a fake smile plastered on my face. I was an outsider, uncomfortable and out of place. We went room by room, starting at fifth grade, then third, and finally kindergarten. Each time I walked my precious child in and hugged and kissed them, holding back everything I wanted to say but couldn’t. I left parts of my heart, then grabbed my husband’s hand as we forced our way through crowds and out the door so I could breathe again.

At 3 o’clock, school would get out, but I’d be gone. My kids wouldn’t see me again until weeks later during visitation day at my seventh treatment center for drug and alcohol addiction. My bed had been reserved since the previous Friday. I’d begged both my husband and the rehab facility to let me wait so that I could do what I just described: take my kids to school for their first day of school, walk Spenser to his first day of kindergarten.

A Grateful Last Day

That was August 22, 2016 and I haven’t picked up a drink since that morning. There was no hard bottom circumstance like other times I tried to quit, just sick and tired of being sick and tired. I couldn’t do it anymore. I knew what was left for me: death. I’d been carrying it around with me for months like a dark cloud, convinced the impending death wouldn’t be easy enough to be mine. More than likely it would be one of these precious kids because I always found a reason to drive after I drank.

But that was the last time my body needed alcohol pumping through my bloodstream just to operate normally. It was the last time I needed to sneak away and find my liquid problem solver and stress reliever, my life-buffer that told me I needed a drink to cope. And it was the last time I bought into the lies that one drink will somehow not send me on that downward spiral to insanity and destruction of everything I love and care about.

First day, last day, same day. Sometimes a thousand failures lead up to that one success, but that one is all you ever needed. True freedom is accepting it happened the way it was supposed to; taking what you have and making a purpose out of it. I was tired of being sick, and sick of being beaten down by this disease. Sick of always having shame take me out, sick of drinking to escape the self-hatred of not being able to stop drinking.

In sobriety, our last day is our first. Sometimes we show up in hallways of institutions and sometimes in closed rooms, feeling uncomfortable and out of place. But once we lift our heads and open our minds, hope comes sneaking in. It’s that moment where recovery is possible — for anyone, even a mother like me.

View the original article at thefix.com

25 January 2019
Prison Drug Treatment Program Pairs Inmates with "Hero Pups"

Advocates say dog training provides inmates with a variety of emotional skills that can be utilized while undergoing drug treatment.

A quartet of inmates in a New Hampshire county jail is helping to raise and train puppies that will eventually become service dogs for veterans and first responders with post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues.

The Merrimack County Department of Corrections has partnered with Hero Pups, a New Hampshire-based non-profit, to make the care and training of dogs part of the inmates’ drug treatment program; some 300 prisons across the country currently have some form of dog training for inmates, which has shown promise in reducing anxiety and depression among participants.

According to Merrimack County Department of Corrections superintendents, the dogs have boosted morale for inmates and prison staff alike.

The program at Merrimack County involves four minimum security inmates – two male and two female – who will raise the 10-week-old puppies for two months before they move on to permanent companionship with veterans or first responders.

Though the Hero Pups program is the first of its kind in the Granite State, similar dog- and animal-training programs have been implemented in neighboring states like Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where inmates work with service dogs.

Program advocates have stated that dog training provides inmates with a variety of emotional skills, including compassion and self-sufficiency, that can be utilized while undergoing drug treatment. “It’s teaching them some responsibility. It’s teaching them some structure,” said Merrimack County Department of Corrections Superintendent Ross Cunningham.

Laura Barker, board president of Hero Pups, expressed hope that the benefits of the dog training program will spread beyond the inmates to those who will eventually benefit from their companionship. “These dogs go on to help people,” she said. “Being able to contribute something positive to the inmate participants just adds another layer of awesomeness.”

The inmates participating in the Merrimack County program have been effusive about the impact of the dogs on their lives.

“It feels like a second chance,” said Caitlin Hyland, who is serving time for a drug conviction, about the chocolate Labrador mix puppy under her care. “I am learning so much about finding the balance. You have to love yourself before you can appreciate the love something else is giving you.”

According to corrections staff, the puppies’ presence has buoyed the mood of all 30 inmates in the jail, who are allowed to interact with them during the day, and staff alike. “When I look on security cameras, I see puppies running around,” said Assistant Merrimack County Department of Corrections Superintendent Kara Wyman. “That lifts the staff.”

View the original article at thefix.com

22 January 2019
Meth Resurgence Highlights The Limits Of Addiction Meds

As the rates of use for methamphetamine and other street drugs rise, providers are realizing the limitations of medication-assisted treatment.

Medication-assisted treatment has been heralded as the most effective way to treat opioid use disorder, and the opioid-overdose reversal drug naloxone has been credited with helping to control the rate of fatal overdoses in the country.

However, while public health officials praise the importance of the pharmaceutical response to the opioid crisis, they are also calling attention to the lack of medical options for treating other types of addiction.

Psychiatrist Margaret Jarvis, a distinguished fellow for the American Society of Addiction Medicine, told ABC News that as the rates of use for methamphetamine and other street drugs rise, providers are realizing the limitations of medication-assisted treatment.

“We’re realizing that we don’t have everything we might wish we had to address these different kinds of drugs,” she said.

Dr. David Persse, who directs emergency medical services in Houston, said that while opioid overdose reversal drugs are an important life-saving tool, actually using them on the scene of an overdose can be complicated, since people often have more than one type of drug in their systems, all of which act differently.

For example, an opioid overdose is characterized by slowed breathing, whereas during a meth overdose the cardiovascular system speeds up, putting people at risk for heart attack and seizures.

Even if there were a similar drug to naloxone that could be used to reverse meth use, emergency medical responders would struggle to know which to use, Persse said.

“If we had five or six miracle drugs, it’s still gonna be difficult to know which one that patient needs,” he said.

Researchers are working on developing medications to treat the use and abuse of drugs other than opioids.

Last May, the National Institute on Drug Abuse noted that researchers at the Universities of Kentucky and Arkansas developed a molecule that blocks the effects of meth, in a similar fashion to how medications like Vivitrol block the brain’s opioid receptors.

However, without addressing the root causes of addiction, these medications can have unintended consequences. Last year, a recovery counselor in Ohio told NPR that she believes the Vivitrol program in her community was contributing to meth addiction. People who were treated with Vivitrol could no longer get high with opioids, so they turned to other means of self-medication, she said.

“The Vivitrol injection does not cover receptors in the brain for methamphetamines, so they can still get high on meth,” she said. “So they are using methamphetamines on top of the Vivitrol injection.”

View the original article at thefix.com

17 January 2019
Federal Program To Help Addiction Treatment Providers With Student Loans

The goal of the new federal program is to strengthen the workforce in the field of addiction treatment.

If you work in the substance use treatment field in an underserved area, you may be eligible for student loan aid, thanks to a new federal program.

The program, according to MassLive, was launched Dec. 27 and will help health care clinicians repay up to $75,000 in student loans. For the first year, it has been funded with $75 million and officials hope to help repay loans for 1,100 clinicians.

Israil Ali is the director of the Division of National Health Service Corps, which is an entity of the US Department of Health and Human Services agency that is overseeing the loan payment program. He says the overall idea of the program is to strengthen the workforce in the field of treatment.

“The goal is to ensure that sites that provide evidence-based care have the workforce to deliver care,” Ali said, according to MassLive.

For those working in the substance use treatment field in areas considered underserved, the agency will pay up to $75,000 as long as the individual commits to working for three years in an underserved area.

Boston Health Care for the Homeless doctor Gabriel Wishik began working at his facility through the repayment program and tells MassLive that such a program helps to bring in qualified candidates and increases the overall number of professionals in the field.

According to MassLive, it’s difficult for those with substance use disorder to find available treatment. This program will not aid in the issue of low treatment reimbursement rates, which can make it difficult for facilities to stay profitable. And, according to Wishik, “there is a shortage at every single level in the treatment continuum.”

However, Wishik adds that programs such as this could prove helpful in leading people into the career field.

“There are lots of competing career paths,” he adds. “It’s one way to get people into this career.”

The new program is similar to that of another offered by the agency, in which doctors in underserved areas can also have loan repayment. There is also a program for part-time workers, and in addition to doctors it is also open to nurses, pharmacists and substance use disorder counselors.

In Massachusetts specifically, there are 89 substance use treatment facilities where employees could potentially benefit from the program. According to MassLive, these include Spectrum Health Systems’ treatment centers in Worcester and North Adams, the opioid treatment center at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital in Holyoke, and additional programs run by Baystate and by the Springfield Public Health Department.

View the original article at thefix.com

17 January 2019
"Times" Readers Share Stories Of Addiction & Recovery

New York Times readers shared their personal experiences with opioid addiction and recovery.

The opioid epidemic can be covered with statistics and numbers: the 72,000 Americans who died of drug overdoses in 2017 or the five-fold increase in babies born dependent on drugs.

However, that only captures some of the picture. To really grasp the effects of the opioid epidemic, The New York Times asked readers at the end of last year to share their experiences with addiction and recovery.

Charlotte, North Carolina resident Cindy Chandler, 64, reminded readers that the issue of drug addiction has been affecting families since long before it started getting press coverage. Her brother overdosed on heroin in 1997 at age 40.

“He took the entire family on psychological roller coaster rides throughout his life. We never knew when the phone rang from then on if it was the end for him,” Chandler wrote. “Turns out it took 28 more years of family torture.”

Some readers, including Michele Sevik, a 58-year-old from Vermont, described the initial euphoria that kept them coming back to opioids.

“It was like offering an emotional and social paraplegic a drug that would suddenly allow them to hop out of their wheelchairs and walk and run,” Sevik wrote. “Even knowing about addiction, even knowing about HIV, it was irresistible.”

Stephen DePasque, a 35-year-old from Pennsylvania, was more productive than he had ever been when he started using opioids, but the new energy was short lived.

“Before long, the upkeep of my back-pocket superpower took the top spot on my priority list,” he wrote.

St. Louis resident Heather Hudson, 27, found that even facing the heartbreak of addiction head on wasn’t enough to make her stop using.

“At age 26, my little brother and I found our big brother dead on the floor from an accidental fentanyl overdose. I actually took the rest of his dope and did it in a McDonald’s bathroom while the coroner was loading him into a van,” she wrote. “As sick and twisted as that is. But that’s addiction. Sick and twisted. It’s like being in an endless tunnel. You can see the light at the end, but you never feel like you’ll reach it.”

Despite the heavy answers, some readers wrote in to share hope for recovery.

“Recovery is not an exact science, or a recipe that can be applied to different people in different ways. But many of us do recover,” wrote Katharine, a 29-year-old from Philadelphia. “I wish I knew the answer to this current crisis. All I can do is keep my hand open and available to the next person who may need help.”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 January 2019