For 15 years, I have had the honor of being the executive director for Wellspring, which is a substance abuse treatment center located in Bangor. The agency has been providing substance abuse services to individuals and families for over 50 years. We pride ourselves on trying to provide immediate access to treatment, but despite what you may have read or heard, we do have waitlists in our residential programs.
Our waitlists can be longer than 50 individuals waiting for only 28 beds. Our staff screens people for appropriateness and, if they meet criteria for admission, we then have to tell them we have a waitlist. This is a horrible thing to have to say to someone who is reaching out to get help.
Our programs are focused on rehabilitation and often begin with detoxing our clients in order for them to fully participate in treatment. Our programs not only promote learning about their substance use disorder and making life changes but building life skills, vocational skills and, most importantly, learning how to get the support of the recovery community for continual health.
At least once or twice a week we receive a heartbreaking call from a desperate family member looking for treatment for someone they love or for themselves. I can assure you we are often not their first call. They spend days on the phone trying to find a detoxification unit and/or a residential bed only to find themselves reaching a brick wall. Detox programs and residential programs often are at capacity and have waitlists. Our staff spends countless hours on the phone comforting and trying to help those in need of medical care, treatment and support. The call that cuts the deepest is when we are asked to remove someone from our waitlist as they have passed away.
We are kidding ourselves if we think we can tackle this public health issue of addiction with ignoring the need for increased treatment and recovery services. What I know to be true is that our friends in law enforcement also understand. Law enforcement professions call it the “three legged stool”: law enforcement, treatment and prevention. I would add a fourth and most important leg: recovery. This is how we can make a difference in the lives of individuals in our community.
It has been said that treatment doesn’t work, but I know differently. What I have had the pleasure of seeing over the years is that treatment saves lives. I am in contact daily with former clients who are making a difference in their community. They are social workers, counselors, teachers, nurses, contractors, moms or dads and small business owners.
What I know after all these years is that denial doesn’t help anyone, so denying we have waitlists will not help the families of Maine get the much needed treatment they deserve. It would be my biggest wish to have everyone on the waitlists get the treatment they need. Supporting law enforcement, prevention, treatment and recovery is the best investment that we can make in our future.
Pat Kimball is executive director of Wellspring, a substance abuse treatment center in Bangor.