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Heroin problem hits home in rural areas like Wayne County

Published by Reid Health, April 28, 2016.

It’s fall 2014, and a few kids are out for a joyride through Wayne County’s back roads. The mood darkens when a kid in the backseat — a high school sophomore – pulls out a heroin syringe and shoots up.

The dose is too high, and he loses consciousness. His friends, some of whom are also high, stop the car in a panic, leave the overdosing teenager on the side of the road, and call 911 as they speed away. The 911 operator guides emergency responders to the teen’s location. On the scene, the paramedics begin triage.

The first line of treatment for heroin overdose is a drug called Narcan, which can reverse the effects of heroin within two minutes. The paramedics quickly administer Narcan and bring him back from the brink. The teen is briefly hospitalized, but soon he’s back to school. And sadly, back to using heroin.

Indiana, like many areas across the country, continues to face a heroin epidemic. The drug has become easy to find and cheap to buy, causing problems in Indiana and across the country. But because of caring individuals in our community, like Hagerstown teacher Jason Schmittler, awareness is becoming action.

Inspiring education

While teaching an English class, Jason watched a teen lose consciousness in his classroom. After the student was taken to receive medical care, Jason learned that the teen’s abnormal behavior was caused by heroin. He was shocked:  “It occurred to me that this is unusual, but heroin is nowhere on my radar.”

This experience inspired Jason to educate his students on the horrors of heroin use. “I didn’t know then what I was going to do, but I’m not going to watch this kid die, and I’m not going to watch another kid die.”

Jason began researching heroin abuse and reaching out to others in the community, like Reid Health and Wayne County’s drug task force. With the support of school administration, he planned a heroin abuse education and prevention initiative aimed at convincing students to never pick up the drug.

A focus on prevention

It became clear to Schmittler that the message needed to be focused on prevention, a sentiment echoed by Reid Health CEO Craig Kinyon. “Inherently, there are so many people who don’t understand the power of addiction,” Kinyon said.

Heroin use is exceptionally dangerous, and overdose is frighteningly common. In 2015, approximately 203 patients were treated with Narcan for opioid overdose at Reid Health’s emergency room. Treatment for heroin addiction is challenging for patients and requires motivation and commitment. “Sometimes you can’t get someone motivated to be clean,” said Reid Health physician Dr. Erika Brandenstein at a meeting on the impacts of heroin. Relapse is common.

Community involvement

Prevention and education are vital to stopping the cycle of heroin addiction. With the cooperation of Reid Health, Wayne County drug task force, and the community organization Heroin is Here, Hagerstown hosted heroin abuse education presentations for students, parents, and the community.

By design, the presentations didn’t sugarcoat the gruesome reality of heroin abuse. Medical professionals from Reid Health, including Lisa Suttle, Director of Psychiatric Services, along with an emergency room physician, presented information on the mental and physical impacts of heroin use. Suttle, who leads Reid Health’s Neonatal Abstinence Intervention Committee, shared information on the unfortunate number of babies born addicted to heroin at Reid Health.

Wayne County Coroner Ron Stevens presented statistics on the number of recent heroin-related deaths, emphasizing that heroin addiction often ends with a trip to the city morgue. A local mother shared the story of her son, lost to a tragic heroin addiction. Finally, before opening a question and answer session, the Wayne County drug task force showed examples of common forms of heroin, including powder and rock heroin.

All portions of the presentation shared the same message- never start using.

The presentations highlighted the strength of our community when we come together to face an issue. “The drug task force can’t do it alone, Reid Health can’t do it alone, and the schools can’t do it alone,” says Jason “We all came together as one unit to give a powerful presentation.”

So far, similar presentations have been given at a few area schools and at meetings of community organizations, with more planned in the coming months. A recent meeting

If you or someone you know is struggling with heroin addiction, call 211 for support.

New device offers hope, less painful opioid detox

Published by Reid Health, February 9, 2016.

A new device designed to help with withdrawal from opiates could become another important tool in helping deal with heroin/opiate addiction in the region.

The device, called the Neuro-Stims Systems (NSS) BRIDGE, was pioneered by Indiana company Innovative Health Solutions and offers an alternative to the pain of opioid withdrawal in patients overcoming the disease of addiction. The BRIDGE is a tool that could help with one of the most challenging aspects of overcoming an opioid addiction — the initial detox, company officials said.

Powerful, non-narcotic pain relief

“This is a tool to help with the withdrawal and detox portions of the disease,” says Brian Carrico, Vice President of Innovative Health Solutions, “this is a paradigm shift in the treatment of addiction through innovative technology.”

Addiction withdrawal, especially opioid and heroin detox, is painful and typically takes 10-14 days for a person to overcome. “Imagine the worst flu you’ve ever had. Now imagine it ten times worse,” says Dr. Eric Davis, Co-Executive Director of the Life Recovery Center, a facility for the treatment of substance abuse. “People come to me and say that their family member is going through withdrawal. They ask if he’s going to die. I tell them, ‘he’s probably not going to die, but he’s going to want to.’”

Many patients quit during this challenging detox time, even before long term treatment (like with Naltrexone or Vivitrol) can begin. The BRIDGE is a powerful pain relief device- it can reduce pain by up to 75% within 30 minutes, and reduces detox from 10-14 days to only 2-4 days. Using the BRIDGE helps more patients make it to long term treatment. Studies are showing the BRIDGE helps 8 out of 10 patients successfully progress to long-term treatment in fewer than four days.

The BRIDGE is intended to be one part of a system of treatment that includes detox, therapy, and long-term treatment. Craig Kinyon, President/CEO of Reid Health, said his team welcomes  anything that brings new hope to better manage withdrawal and addiction. “Our health system recognizes the impact of heroin and opiate addiction on our communities. We have to attack this problem with all tools at our disposal. This new technology provides great promise for managing withdrawal. We also recognize that technology alone won’t be effective without addiction counseling. In other words, we need to continually treat the ongoing disease of addiction.”

BRIDGE presentation in Lingle Hall

In addition to providing benefits to detox patients through non-narcotic pain relief, it could also prove to be a more cost-effective way to treat addiction. Indiana legislators, Reid Health leadership and physicians, Wayne County law enforcement, prosecutors, and representatives from the community attended a presentation about the BRIDGE in Reid Health’s Lingle Hall recently to learn more.

The device, which costs about $495 per patient, is followed by treatment with a medication like Vivitrol and therapy over the course of 16 months. The entire course of treatment costs about $15,000, but is offset by some insurance plans.

Senator Jim Merritt attended the presentation and commented on the potential this technology has to not only save lives, but to decrease treatment costs and reduce the number of addicted individuals. Many people struggling with opioid addiction end up in trouble with the law, and end up in prison. According to him, it costs more than $44,000 to house a person in a correctional institution for a year, whereas a comprehensive treatment plan with the BRIDGE, Vivitrol, and therapy would cost a comparatively inexpensive $16,000. “We have a very good opportunity to rehab an individual,” Merritt says, “We need to make sure this is recognized as a disease and not a character flaw. We need to offer hope and empathy. But when you get down to it, in terms of dollars and cents, it’s crazy.”

Representative Cindy Ziemke, who also attended the presentation, spoke in favor of having the device as a component of an addiction treatment plan, hopefully supported by Medicaid and insurance. “If we can get the correct funding, we would have a really comprehensive plan and you would have no bigger fan than me.”

Pilot program explored by Reid Health, Heroin is Here committee

As part of ongoing efforts to address the heroin epidemic, Reid Health and the Heroin is Herecommittee are exploring ways to bring new tools for addiction treatment, like the BRIDGE, to the community. Physicians and representatives from Innovative Health Solutions are working together to review the device and put together a comprehensive treatment plan, and possibly a pilot program, that combines the BRIDGE and Vivitrol. Such a plan would make it less painful to for a person to face addiction, and more likely to succeed with a long-term sobriety plan.

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