Tuesday, September 23, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The number of people seeking treatment for opiate addiction at Meridian Community Care since the beginning of the year has grown threefold compared to the same period in 2013, reports Larry Moliterno, president and CEO.
Of those who want and need treatment, only 10% have access to programs, Moliterno emphasized during a press event that hosted U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
That's because federal law limits the number of addicts a physician can treat and the medications prescribed. In his first year of practice, a physician can treat no more than 30 addicts, 100 each year thereafter.
"We have to figure out a way to get as many people in treatment that want access to treatment," Moliterno said. "We want to make sure that people are not only going to be engaged in treatment, but do it with reputable organizations to make sure there's going to be effective outcomes."
Brown has introduced legislation -- The Recovery Enhancement for Addiction Treatment -- or Treat, a measure intended to increase the number of patients that providers are allowed to see.
"Five Ohioans a day die from drug overdoses," Brown said. "When it becomes easier for Ohioans to get heroin than it is for them to break their addiction, then we need to fix that."
All too often, the senator said, people become addicted to opioids as a result of being treated for pain with other opiate drugs such as Oxycontin. They then turn to other opioids such as heroin once their prescriptions expire because it is inexpensive and easy to acquire.
The medical director of Meridian Community Care, Dan Brown, said demand for treatment far exceeds the services those physicians licensed to prescribe the drug can provide. Brown’s bill, if enacted, would help Meridian Community Care expand its treatment capabilities and not have to refer clients to services elsewhere. "The idea behind this bill is to expand the capacity of treatment programs, like ours, that treat probably the majority of the patients in this area," he said. "We can give them the appropriate medication and not have to refer them to different levels of service."
Daniel Ross said that he used drugs for roughly 45 of his 58 years before becoming clean eight months ago and remaining drug-free because of the treatment program at Meridian. "What I've learned is how to stay recovered," he said.
Moliterno noted that although medication is an important aspect of treatment, recovery programs must also have a behavioral component for a user to stay clean. "The accountability that comes with that, the drug screening that comes with that, ensuring that they're going to counseling -- all that has to be part of the package," he said.
Another aspect is providing critical services that help the client's long-term recovery, Moliterno said. "We know that addiction is a chronic illness, and we want to make sure we provide services for the long run, and that's going to help reduce relapse," he stated.
Moreover, educational programs intended to prevent addiction are a critical component of battling the problem. "We have to make sure we're investing in prevention,” Moliterno said. “We are now seeing generational addiction, and we have to break that cycle.”
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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