ELGIN, IL | by Gloria Casas | September 3, 2019
Original article can be found at: https://www.chicagotribune.com
Greater Elgin Family Care Center is expanding its substance use treatment program and its medicated assisted treatment in a new approach in battling the opioid epidemic.
The center is one of five Illinois federally qualified health centers chosen to expand its substance use disorder services, Executive Director Bob Tanner said. Greater Elgin offers outpatient, individual and group therapy, case management, and peer recovery support for adults struggling with substance use disorder, he said.
The funding helps Greater Elgin expand those services including adding adult psychiatric services, Tanner said. Patients with or without insurance can get into treatment, he said.
Part of the expansion includes adding peer specialists, a new concept among treatment providers, said Claire Brown, MAT and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) program coordinator. A peer specialist is a credentialed recovery specialist who themselves are in recovery, she said. Peers are a “really great support because they understand what a person is going through because they have been in that situation,” she said.
Additionally, Greater Elgin has started and will expand Medicated Assisted Treatment (MAT) services, Tanner said.
MAT is an approach more treatment providers are using, said Claire Brown, MAT and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) program coordinator. “There’s no one size fits all treatment,” she said. But, “there’s a lot of research that indicates medicated assisted treatment with behavioral health therapy is the best way.”
Greater Elgin began its MAT program in Sycamore in April. Another program kicked it off in June at its Elgin location, Brown said. It starts in the Hanover Park center in September, she said.
“It took a little bit of time to develop our MAT program,” Brown said. “We modeled it off research and what other successful programs were doing in our area and across the country. We wanted to incorporate the highest standard of care across the country.”
MAT involves a doctor prescribing a drug called Suboxone, which helps decrease opioid withdrawal symptoms and decrease cravings, Brown said.
Patients must have an assessment and must meet with Brown, and the doctor prescribing the medication, who decides whether he or she is a good candidate for MAT. “We talk about the pros and cons of treatment and educate them about the changes going on with their life,” Brown said.
The first dose of suboxone must be monitored by medical professionals to make sure their condition is stable, she said. The patient is sent home with the medication but must attend group or individual therapy regularly and return for follow up appointments, she said.
Elgin’s program has a capacity of about 90 people in the first year, Tanner said. The numbers will increase as the number of physicians authorized to prescribe the medication increases, he said.
While there’s a focus on opioid addiction because of the national epidemic, Brown said substance use disorder involving alcohol, prescription pills, and cocaine need to be addressed too. A message Brown hopes to push is substance use disorder is a brain disease, she said.
“It’s not a moral failure,” Brown said. “The brain is changed by addiction. It just should be managed as a medical condition. It’s different than other medical conditions, but it can be managed.”
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