ALASKA'S METHADONE WAITING LIST COULD BE ELIMINATED WITH OPERATING BUDGET FUNDING

Wow! Could you imagine being on a waiting list for almost a year for MMT? This is so sad. Alaska is part of the US not some third world country who doesn't offer or support MMT. These ppl actually WANT help and are being turned down for an unspecified amount of time, even pregnant women who are suppose to get priority access. This is really sad.

It doesn't say if these are private clinics or not. I would assume not because if they were private pay the patients would be paying for their own way and not having to rely on money from the govt.

http://www.ktva.com/local/ci_14923785

Methadone waiting lists could be eliminated with operating budget funding

Created: 04/20/2010 07:58:31 PM PDT

The $8.1 billion operating budget passed by lawmakers includes money for methadone clinics in Fairbanks and Anchorage.

The money could not come at a better time for Anchorage's methadone clinic, which has a growing waiting list.

"What that means is we can expand our treatment slots from 75 to 100 and cut down on the wait list time," said Ron Greene, Clinical Director for Narcotic Drug Treatment Center.

For the past couple of years, the Narcotic Drug Treatment Center waiting list in Anchorage has been growing, with no sign of letting up. "A guy has been on there since June 12. We have had other people who had been on since August and September. So, we will be glad to finally get those people finally enrolled on the program," said Greene.

Methadone clinics in Anchorage and Fairbanks will each see $80,000 to help eliminate the waiting list.

Greene says if Governor Parnell approves $160,000 for the clinics, the money will help with staffing and getting more methadone with his Anchorage clinic.

"Methadone remains the gold standard for opium addiction, despite everything you hear about it. It is still the number one choice for treating opium addiction," said Greene.

Currently, the clinic has 76 patients and 23 people on the waiting list. There was even a time when it had to stop admitting pregnant women who usually get first dibs on the waiting list because it reached full capacity with 87 patients in the program.

As it stands right now, pregnant women are the only ones to get into the program and some have been taking desperate measures to secure a spot.

"We heard of at least two women who got pregnant on purpose so that they could get treatment at the methadone clinic," said Senator Johnny Ellis, D-

Anchorage."But they were so short of treatment that even pregnant women were having a hard time getting in."

Ellis has been trying to get funding for the methadone clinics for several years. He says this year was different thanks to more drug addiction awareness in the legislature.

Ellis says he believes there is a good chance Parnell will approve the funding, but he says more still needs to be done to solve Alaska's addiction problems.

"This money will be in future budgets, but it will not be adequate if the problems keep growing with heroin addiction," said Ellis.

For the first time in almost eight months, the methadone clinic is scheduled to admit five more people next week who are not pregnant. That was already scheduled to take place with or without the additional funding in the operating budget.

Governor Sean Parnell's office said it was too early to comment on whether he will veto the funding.

i left alaska after using heroin for8 years because the waiting list at the only mmt program was over a year....i am on methadone in a bigger city now in oregon and happy, living normally and holding down a job.it seems like once a month i get a call from someone in alaska telling me another one of my freinds has od'd and i know if they had access to mmt at least 10 of my freinds would still be alive. I am just lucky i left. and i am disgusted by the one my home state turned a blind eye to this epidemic for over 10 years and when it got real bad cut the funding for the little MMT program that was able to take patients...........

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us.

I really think it is such a shame that all they need is such a small amount of money to elimate this waiting list. If nothing else, they could take a wee bit of money out of their own paychecks/and raises or even take a bit out of the dividend fund money that is issued each year to the residents of Alaska.

I contacted the methadone clinic in Fairbanks when we were considering moving to Alaska for a job opportunity and I was told that there would be no problem transferring me from my current clinic to their clinic. I don't know if it had something to do with the fact that I was already a methadone pt elsewhere or not. She also told me that all the methadone clinics in AK are govt funded rather than private. Granted private clinics are expensive to the patient but that would eliminate a waiting list due to funding as well. Most of the ppl I know in the lower 48 states attend private clinics and have to pay for their own methadone treatment so this could also be a solution.

I've tried to find a follow up to this article to see if any decisions had been made, but wasn't able to find anything other than that Gov. Parnell reappointed Anna K. Sappah (who has a methadone advocate certification from AATOD) to the Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. Sappah has been on the board since 2007 so why isn't she advocating for the treatment of addicts w/methadone? Why isn't she pushing to get the funds for the methadone programs??