Drug Treatment Program in Brunswick Lifting a Community

BRUNSWICK, Maine - May 16, 2018 - PRLog -- A drug treatment program in Brunswick, Maine is gaining some momentum  thanks to a partnership organized by Mid Coast Hospital.

Mid Coast Hospital recently became the first hospital in the state to establish an affiliation between emergency room (ER) physicians and Mid Coast's Addiction Resource Center's (ARC) behavioral health providers.

There are only four facilities that offer treatment services in Brunswick and Mid Coast's ARC is one of them, according to the National Directory of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Treatment Facilities 2017.

The program is called ED/ARC Enhanced Referrals for Suboxone and Alcohol, and it allows ER doctors to deliver treatment for low-risk drug and alcohol withdrawal. Doctors also get to administer Suboxone to patients who are the ER. Mid Coast Hospital is the first facility to prescribe Suboxone in Maine.

The substance abuse treatment program will give doctors an opportunity to send patients to ARC for more care. Patients who depart the ER often go to the facility the following day.

ARC is filled with a complete system of healthcare services, allowing for simple referrals, organized care and unlimited access for any patient in need of drug treatment, regardless of if they can pay.

Dr. Ranjiv Advani, the medical director of the ER at Mid Coast, emphasized how valuable the program is because local drug treatment services are starting to become rarer due to more people seeking treatment.

Advani noted that Mercy Recovery Center, which offered a similar program closed down in 2015, creating more difficulties in helping people.  He stated that doctors at Mid Coast would have to send patients to a center in Westbrook.

He said that in the past that they could only guide people to other locations but now they could actually help them directly.

https://www.drugaddictionnow.com/2018/05/16/drug-treatmen...