GREENFIELD — Residents in Hancock County who struggle with addiction will soon have another resource available to help them on the road to recovery.
A counseling center called Groups will open its doors in Greenfield early next month to provide science-based addiction treatment — the latest in a handful of programs to pop up in the county in recent years to help fight the opioid epidemic.
Groups aims to form a community of support around a person struggling with an addiction to opioid-based drugs like heroin and prescription painkillers. Joe Henry, a regional manager for the organization, said the organization finds success by coupling weekly group therapy sessions, led by a licensed counselor, with the administration of an opioid blocker, typically Suboxone.
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The treatment comes at a cost of about $65 a week, though some insurance is accepted. The prescription opioid blocker comes at an additional cost.
Groups started in the northeastern United States by two doctors in 2013, and their program quickly spread across the country. Now, the organization has facilities in eight states, including more than 20 sites in Indiana.
And the program has a track record of success, Henry said: clients who stick with Groups for at least six months have a 95 percent attendance rate at weekly meetings; and 85 percent of those clients are living opioid-free lives.
Groups requires its clients to attend at least one weekly one-hour group-counseling session. This allows Groups’ licensed therapist to regularly check in with clients about their progress, and hear about their successes and struggles, said Debbie Phillips, who will be the therapist working in the Greenfield location once it’s open.
At these sessions, the clients also meet and get to know people who share their same struggles. As they form friendships, they strive to hold each other accountable, Phillips said.
At each weekly session, clients are also given a prescription for Suboxone, a drug that combines buprenorphine and naloxone to block opioid cravings and ultimately curb addiction. The prescription they receive is only for seven days, forcing them to return for the next session in order to receive a new dosage, Phillips said.
Now, Groups is the latest in a series of recovery programs to pop up locally in recent years, when officials say the state’s opioid epidemic took hold.
First, county leaders declared a state of emergency and used rainy day funds to hire a detective to work undercover to catch drug dealers.
Keeping in step, the Hancock County Jail and local probation department partnering to offer more addiction-treatment programs to local inmates, including offering Vivitrol injections to those preparing to leave the jail and creating the Heroin Protocol, in which offenders are ordered to serve 90 days in an area halfway house as part of their sentence.
Additionally, two recovery homes have opened in the county since early 2017 — the women’s only Talitha Koum Recovery House in downtown Greenfield and the high-end Hickory House near New Palestine.
Henry said he and Phillips have been in contact with facilitators of all these organizations because Groups strives to take an active role in all community where they open facilities. They plan to partner with them whenever possible as their goals are the same, after all, he said.
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Groups, an addiction-recovery counseling center, is now accepting clients for its new Greenfield center.
Call (800) 683-8313 or text "RECOVERY" to 313131 to schedule an intact appointment.
Groups in Greenfield is located at 147 Green Meadows Drive.
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