ARM-ME BLOG

SAMHSA Grant Program Will Help Address Methadone Poisoning.

Will this be a good or bad thing for Opiate Addiction Treatment?

It could be good because SAMSHA is very well versed in how to use methadone for the treatment of addiction.  It could force bad practice clinics to start being more “up-to-date” with their dosing (as some clinics still employ blind dosing, dosing caps and limits)……..however, if this initiative tries to lump prescribing for chronic pain and addiction into one category and teach from that angle–we may have new doctors prescribing at clinics that don’t “get” addiction treatment and how it is different.

This isn’t in Maine, but it’s pretty close! I live right on the Calais, New Brunswick border. Moncton is about 4 hours away, and Fredericton is only about an hour away.

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/393533

By Don Macpherson

Fredericton  The province plans to add personnel to help with drug-treatment program throughout New Brunswick, a spokesperson said this week, but allocation of funding for addiction services is up to health authorities.

Health Department spokeswoman Mehgan Cumby said this week that the department plans to add six full-time-equivalent positions in various New Brunswick locales for methadone-treatment programs.

Two of the positions will be in St.Stephen, she said, two in Bathurst, one in Edmundston and one in Campbellton. Those positions are part of the province’s previously announced health plan.

The capital region has already been given funding for a new staff person for the same purpose, Cumby said.

“The department provided funding in the past for an additional full-time-equivalent in Fredericton to address client wait-lists for the methadone program,” she said.

Gordon Skead, manager of addiction services for River Valley Health, said in a special Canadaeast News Service report last week that wait-lists are a reality of life for any facet of the health-care sector.

He said one way to reduce wait times would be for the government to provide added resources and funding.

Cumby said beyond what’s lsited in the health plan, the Health Department has no specific plans for adding funding for addiction services.

Furthermore, she said, it’s up to the various health authorities to allocate the funds they receive from the provincial government.

Oposition health critic Claude Landry said yesterday that’s not enough to address the problem, that more money and resources must be allocated for drug reatment.

“For centers such as Saint John, Fredericton and the Miramichi,  is absolutely essential that the minister of health commit more resources and funding to help people with drug addictions,” said Landry. “These drug-treatment centers are already burstng at the seams with people looking for help.”

He said he was pleased to see new drug-treatment centers established in areas such as Bathurst, Cambellton, Edmundston and St. Stephen but it’s still important to look at the number of patients who require services in the province’s larger urban centers.

Skead said drug treatment has come a long way in a few short years. River Valley Health’s addiction services branch had no methadon program in 2004, he said. Now it has between 140 and 15 opiate addicts in its methadone program, he said.