Hub at LRGH opens Doorway to recovery

Editor's note: This is the first of a weekly series spotlighting people who are in recovery from opioid dependency.

LACONIA — At age 28, Kevin MacRae has seen his share of trouble, including serious injuries from a traffic accident, a disrupted college education and opioid dependency.

He feels he is on the right track now, living in a sober house, walking the recovery road and working as a roofer.  

MacRae is one of those who have benefited from a new state program intended to help people get treatment for substance abuse disorder. Nine hubs, or “Doorways,” throughout New Hampshire, including LRGHealthcare, direct patients to the services and resources they need.  

Just a few weeks ago, he realized that he needed to make a change in his life and end his heroin use.

Bad situation

“I was in a bad living situation on a friend’s farm in Gilmanton,” he said. “I was losing rides to work, losing money and rotting away. I decided it was time to make some kind of a move.”

He checked in with Garry Ranno, of Navigating Recovery of The Lakes Region, who told him about the state program and set him up with an interview at LRGH’s Doorway.

At LRGH, MacRae met with Valene Colby, a certified recovery support worker with Navigating Recovery.  Any person seeking help can call 2-1-1 or just walk through the front door of LRGH and ask for the Doorway.

“She interviewed me and asked what I was looking for,” he said. “I told her about my living situation, how it was depressing, not helping with sobriety and that I was looking to go somewhere else.”

Medication-assisted recovery

Some people seek medication-assisted recovery, in which patients may get a prescription for Suboxone, which reduces a person’s cravings for opioids, helps reverse the effects of opioids and eases withdrawal symptoms.  

“They asked me if I wanted Suboxone or anything like that,” MacRae said. “I told them I’d rather do it cold turkey. I didn’t want to rely on another medication. One way or another I have to get off everything and would rather just get it done.”

Corey Gately, director of substance use services for LRGHealthcare, said many people benefit from medication to help with recovery, but the decision rests with the patient.

“It’s an individual thing, but it is a tool that seems to be working well and one we didn’t have for a long time,” said Gately, who is a master licensed alcohol and drug counselor.

“For a lot of clients, it provides them with the opportunity to have a clearer head, they don’t have as many cravings and can apply for insurance, apply for a job, connect with treatment.

“To choose not to do it is just as valid. We’re open to all paths to recovery. That path might be hiking, it might be yoga.”

Gately said the Doorway at LRGH has had 129 interactions with people seeking assistance since Jan. 1, when it opened. That includes people who called 2-1-1, called the Doorway directly or walked in. About half of all interactions were related to opioids.

A total of 13 people sought medication-assisted treatment and 12 of those are still in treatment.

Sober house

Gately said it is necessary to solve problems and impediments that can get in the way of recovery.

“We can get them medical help if that's what they are asking for but we are also making sure they are safe and have food if they are hungry,” she said.

Necessities like transportation and housing, must also be considered, with financial stability the ultimate goal, she said.

Colby recommended to MacRae a sober house run by Phil Spagnuolo, a former state representative who has been active in the recovery community and once struggled with substance misuse himself. The house contains men in recovery who are seeking support to make their journey successful.

With help from the Doorway, his parents and Spagnuolo, MacRae put together the fee for the first month at the house. He plans to pay his own way after he starts getting paychecks from the roofing company employing him.   

Eight men live at the sober house.

“It’s nice to be around some good guys and not be in a room melting away,” MacRae said. “Comparatively, it’s a really nice place. Phil has a decent house. It’s not falling apart. It’s not a place where kids are relapsing. It’s kind of like having a family. It’s really cool.”

There are curfews and required meetings. He is also undergoing continuing counseling and therapy for addiction, depression and anger. Lakes Region Mental Health Center is the typical provider for such therapy.

Percocet dependence

MacRae is able bodied and can work construction, but still has residual pain from a bad car accident in 2014.

“I was on Route 107 in Gilmanton,” he recalled. “Somebody had fallen asleep, crossed over the double yellow line and hit us head on going 50 mph. We took a tow truck from behind at the same time. I broke my neck in the accident.”

MacRae was one semester and an internship short of graduating Plymouth State University with a degree in adventure education. He had experimented with drugs before, but things got much worse for him when he went into withdrawal from  Percocets after the accident.

“I had previously been red-flagged about giving me pain meds,” he said. “So, they took me from 60 Percocets a week down to zero without weaning me off at all.

“I was in pain, dope sick, reaching out to folks on the street, buying Percocets illegally and then it was heroin.”

He ended up going to Florida, where his problems with drugs continued.

Now back in New Hampshire, MacRae thinks he is in the right place to recover, but there will be challenges.  

“I’m still going through it physically as far as sickness,” he said last week. “But mentally, I’m in a great spot. Physically, it’s like the flu, but I have no intention, not a thought in my head of getting high. From here, it looks like blue skies ahead.”

Next week: Some find answers at the Riverbank House.