GREENFIELD — Hancock Regional Hospital is creating a clinic to treat those struggling with addiction that it hopes to have up and running next year.
The center will be called RISE Recovery and Wellness Clinic, with RISE standing for resilience, individualized care, safe space and empowerment.
Dr. Ben McAllister, doctor of osteopathic medicine with Hancock Counseling and Psychiatric Services, is leading the efforts.
“If there’s one thing I want to accomplish from this, it’s to be a model that’s going to try to remove the hurdles, the stigma, all of those things, and I want it to be a place where people feel safe, people feel listened to,” he said.
The clinic will treat those with substance use disorder, which entails using a substance, like alcohol, opioids or other drugs, to the point in which it becomes problematic.
McAllister pointed to the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which cites 11 criteria for substance use disorder, two of which need to have occurred in a 12-month period for a diagnosis. The criteria includes factors like spending a lot of time obtaining, using or recovering from a substance; continued use of the substance resulting in failing to fulfill major roles; getting cravings; and experiencing withdrawal symptoms.
The clinic is very early in its planning stages. Organizers are still determining where it will go, but they hope to be operational sometime in 2022.
Its initial focus will be solely outpatient rather than having a residential component, and will include evidence-based treatment and medication, therapy, group programming and case management, McAllister said.
Healthy365, the hospital’s community outreach arm, and its support navigators that connect people with resources may be part of the case management part of the clinic, he continued.
“Folks are not getting to work, maybe they’re not employed, maybe they’re on disability, they’re maybe using a majority of their money on substances as opposed to food, shelter, all of those things,” he said. “So you’re going to need case management, and you’re going to need some of that navigating support.”
McAllister wants the clinic to not only address substance use disorder, but provide mental health treatment as well for conditions like depression and anxiety — the kind of treatment he already provides at Hancock Counseling and Psychiatric Services. It’s not uncommon for those with substance use disorder to also have other mental health disorders, he said.
“I think what’s unique is being able to help treat their depression and anxiety and all of those things, and not have to go to multiple different places potentially,” McAllister said.
He hopes the clinic will also help diminish the notion that substance use is a choice, a failure in the individual, or something that can be easily stopped.
“It’s a brain disease,” McAllister said. “Sometimes people have a predisposition from a genetic standpoint that puts them at a higher risk for substance use disorder.”
Brent Eaton, Hancock County prosecutor, sees firsthand on a regular basis the devastating effects addiction has on county residents.
“Sobriety is good for public safety,” Eaton said. “People that are sober are a lot less likely to commit crimes than people that are in addiction and actively using substances to excess. And whenever there’s more tools and resources in our community to move people in the direction of sobriety, it is unquestionably a good and positive thing.”
He called the hospital’s and others’ similar efforts in the county a testament to recognizing the challenge and gravity of addiction.
“People are rising to the occasion to address what is without question a critical issue for the safety of our community,” he said.
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Substance use disorder occurs when using substances like alcohol, opioids and other drugs results in a problematic pattern leading to clinical impairment and distress. Two of the following 11 criteria in a 12-month period would result in a substance use disorder diagnosis:
- Substances are taken in larger amounts over a longer period of time than intended
- Persistent desire to or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control use
- A great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain it, use it or recover from its effects
- Cravings for the substance
- Continued use results in failure to fulfill major roles
- Continued use despite creating interpersonal problems, relationship problems and/or legal problems
- No longer taking part in important social or recreational activities
- Use becomes physically hazardous to health
- Continued use despite it causing physical or psychological problems
- Developing a tolerance to the substance
- Experiencing withdrawal symptoms
Source: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition
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