43
Warren comprehensive medication-assisted drug treatment facility to open in three to six months
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Trumbull County’s first comprehensive medication-assisted treatment program for opiate addiction will open in three to six months at the Compass Family and Community Services office at 320 High St. NE.
It will provide treatment using Suboxone, Vivitrol and methadone, coupled with counseling and meetings such as Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous, said April Caraway, executive director of the Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board.
Medication-assisted treatment is available in the county now, but the physicians and others providing it don’t offer the kinds of therapy and group assistance Compass will, Caraway said.
The facility is a collaboration between Compass and Meridian Healthcare on Meridian Road in Youngstown, which already provides comprehensive medication-assisted treatment at its Youngstown facility.
Joe Caruso, Compass president and CEO, spoke at a news conference Monday at its High Street offices, saying the Compass program will “replicate what Meridian has been doing.”
Caruso said he thinks the program can “make a huge difference” in the county’s huge addition problem. There were 86 drug overdose deaths through Dec. 8, 2015, an increase of 27 over 2014 when there were 59.
That was an increase of 22 over 2007, when there were 64, the previously highest number, the county coroner’s office recently reported.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown also spoke, discussing the federal legislation he has sponsored that would expand access to medication-assisted treatment.
Brown said opiate addiction was viewed as a character flaw when it was viewed primarily as a problem affecting the black community.
“It’s not a character flaw. It shouldn’t be treated that way, and it never should have been,” he said.
“We have to look at this as a chronic disease,” said Dr. Daniel Brown of Meridian, noting that addiction sometimes stems from lifelong mental-health issues.
Caraway noted that recovery houses in the community have come under criticism from people not wanting one near their home, but she urged people to “give the recovery houses a chance” and not view them as a failure just because there have been drug relapses and deaths at some of them.