Western Health working toward better methadone treatment

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Western Health working toward better methadone treatment

CORNER BROOK
CLIFF WELLS
The Western Star



The methadone maintenance therapy program is building on the west coast.

Right now the only place to begin treatment for opiate drug addiction is St. John’s. It involves a long intake assessment and interview, followed by about six weeks of treatment in the province’s capital.

After that, the patient has to take methadone daily to prevent withdrawal symptoms.
Prescriptions for methadone are needed monthly and can only be obtained from specially licensed physicians. Right now the closest doctor to the west coast with a methadone licence is in Grand Falls-Windsor.

There is one pharmacy that dispenses methadone in the Corner Brook area, another in Stephenville and another in Deer Lake.

Carol Anne Wight, director of mental health and addictions for Western Health, said counselling is a phone call away for those on the program who want it.

“A person who’s currently on methadone, thinking about being on methadone or has an addiction can access that service,” Wight said.

She’s part of Western Health’s methadone committee looking at the needs in the region and finding ways to fill gaps in services. The committee hopes to eventually host a complete methadone maintenance treatment program on the west coast, and they are working toward it, but it’s far from a certainty at this point.

A step in building the service is a methadone nurse, who will be hired in the next month, or so.

Funding was just recently obtained for the position which will be run out of the Humberwood mental health and addictions facility.

The visits to St. John’s may be reduced with assessments and some health services delivered electronically at the centre.

“One of the gaps is we don’t have a physician in this region that has a licence to prescribe methadone,” Wight said. “There’s only currently five physicians in the province that prescribe methadone, so that’s a provincial issue and that’s a concern along with the limited number of pharmacies that dispense. That’s some of the unique challenges with methadone.”

Along with the drug, counselling and monitoring are ideally part of the treatment program.

“It’s not an easy process, but you have really good results,” she said.

Ken Walsh, director of pharmacy and respiratory therapy, said methadone is also used as a pain medication in palliative care and it’s longer acting than most opiates.

There’s less euphoria with methadone than other narcotics, but it still has similar side effects, such as respiratory depression. It prevents a high when other drugs are taken.
People who are on methadone need to take it for a long time because it is also addictive.

“They have to have the drug every single day of their lives,” Walsh said.
Western Star.com