Navigating your health

Tackling the opioid epidemic

Last year, LRGHealthcare patients were surveyed on their top health care concerns in our community and one of those concerns was the narcotic/overdose problems sweeping the area. It's been all over the news that this is a statewide issue in New Hampshire, but has hit the Lakes and Three Rivers Regions especially hard.

In response, LRGHealthcare's Board of Trustees, Senior Team and the medical staff felt it important as the area's health care leader to do something to help. As a result, LRGHealthcare partnered with Horizon's Counseling Center and the LRGHealthcare Recovery Clinic, a best practice Suboxone recovery practice, was born; one of the first in the state.

While medication-assisted treatment is often a controversial topic and critics will argue it's fighting drugs with drugs, what's special about the LRGHealthcare Recovery Clinic is that it's not just about prescribing Suboxone. The collaboration between Horizons Counseling Center and LRGHealthcare aims to provide clients with medication assisted treatment combined with therapeutic measures that enhance long term recovery.

In order to be a patient at the LRGHealthcare Recovery Clinic, patients must agree to participate in counseling. Horizons Counseling Center will conduct initial evaluations to determine an appropriate level of treatment and whether or not they are a good candidate for Suboxone. People who are a good candidate will then be provided services at the Recovery Clinic, but will also be asked to engage in other recommended services throughout the time they are maintained on Suboxone.

Suboxone Film (what they prescribe to most patients) is a combination of Buprenorphine and Naloxone. Buprenorphine attaches to the same receptors as opioids and can help suppress withdrawal symptoms and reduce cravings, while Naloxone is the ingredient that is included to help prevent misuse of opioids. The main reason films are used is because they have the lowest potential for abuse. Statistics indicate this treatment, combined with other therapies (group, individual, etc), provides more long term recovery for clients.

At its six-month mark, the Recovery Clinic has already proved to be beneficial. It has serviced approximately 50 patients. The six-month retention rate nationally for Suboxone clinics is 50 percent and the LRGHealthcare Recovery Clinic has retained 90 percent of its patients.

What's especially exciting about a recovery/Suboxone clinic such as this is the patient and community benefit.

The average narcotic patient in a community costs the health care and legal systems about $70,000 per year. The average Suboxone clinic cost per patient per year is less than $10,000 including medication, and 95 percent of these patients are off the medication at the one year mark. Statistically speaking, many patients (approximately 40-50 percent) are able to maintain sobriety long term without long-term Suboxone.

In addition, narcotic overdose deaths go down by 50 percent when a recovery/Suboxone clinic enters a community and that appears to be holding true in our community as well. The extensive mental health counseling and treatment program gives these patients tools for life to battle their addiction.

This is a difficult area of medicine but has some unexpected rewards. One of the clinic's first patients was welcomed back recently with her newborn baby. She had been on Suboxone throughout her pregnancy and the baby was born without addiction, without a need for medication, and went home on time with mom.

The LRGHealthcare Recovery Clinic is currently located at Occupational Health at Franklin Regional Hospital. If you or someone you know needs help with addiction, contact Horizons Counseling Center at 603-524-8005.