BANGOR, Maine — Bangor public health officials and law enforcement leaders have backed a proposal to launch a 10-bed social detox facility to help set people suffering from addiction on the right path.
“This is the opportunity for change, this is a pivot toward recovery,” said Allen Schaffer, chief psychiatrist for Community Health and Counseling Services.
The city’s Community Health Leadership Board, made up of area medical professionals and addiction treatment specialists, met Monday at the Cross Insurance Center. The group has been sitting down with city officials, first responders and lawmakers throughout the past year to come up with solutions to the region’s drug problem, which many say has reached crisis levels.
Social detox involves setting up a residential program in which people struggling to recover from an addiction can spend three to five days, or sometimes longer if needed. At that facility, people will receive medication to help cope with withdrawal, meet in groups with others recovering from addiction, get referrals to area programs to continue in their recovery, as well as medical and psychiatric services. People staying there are referred by emergency rooms, freeing up valuable hospital space, time and resources.
If people refuse to participate in the meetings or other conditions of their stay, they are asked to leave. Schaffer said programs like this help people suffering from addictions to substances including opioids, alcohol and sedatives.
Today, if an individual hits a crisis point in their addiction, he or she may end up in a hospital emergency department or a jail cell. Those who go to the emergency room may receive a prescription to help ease withdrawal symptoms before being released back into their old environment, where it can be easy to relapse, Shaffer said.
Often the only way a hospital will allow a person with an addiction to stay for a few days is if he or she claims to be suicidal, and it’s common for people to make that claim in order not to be sent out of the hospital, Schaffer added.
Jails already suffer from overcrowding and aren’t well equipped or well suited to treat addiction or aid recovery.
“We need a solution, and this is a very good solution,” Bangor police Chief Mark Hathaway told the board, adding most of Bangor’s crime is related to drug abuse and addiction. “Anything law enforcement can do, we will participate in this.”
A 10-bed facility in Bangor could serve about 100 people per month, according to Patty Hamilton, Bangor’s public health director. The demand will be much higher, but this pilot social detox program could serve as a launching point for others.
There is only one facility in Maine, Milestone in Portland, with a similar out-of-hospital detox program, according to Community Health and Counseling Services. There are existing definitions, regulations and guidelines for social detox facilities outlined in state law.
Planning is in its early stages, Hamilton said, but the facility likely would be started by an existing Bangor-area health care organization, such as Community Health and Counseling Services, a hospital, the city or a collaboration of those entities. The city is already a hub of addiction treatment, with methadone clinics and several doctors who prescribe Suboxone (buprenorphine), which treat opiate addiction.
The proposed facility likely would be set up in a renovated home somewhere in Bangor. Officials also are trying to find a funding mechanism to help cover detox costs for people who don’t have insurance, Hamilton said. It’s unclear what that cost would be, as staffing and other considerations haven’t been ironed out.
Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed a $4.8 million spending package to combat addiction and the spread of drugs in the state. Included in that bill is $1 million earmarked specifically for the launch of the Bangor social detox facility. The package also includes $2.5 million for more Maine Drug Enforcement Agency officers, $800,000 to cover costs of residential and outpatient treatment for uninsured individuals, among other funding.
“You can’t just put money into treatment, you can’t just put money into enforcement, you can’t just put money into prevention,” said Dale Hamilton, director of Community Health and Counseling Services. “You can’t silo any of those. It really is a systemwide issue.”
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