Americans are worried about family members experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis. They support community-based treatment and easy access to Narcan, the nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose by restoring breathing, and say their health care provider has talked to them about the possible side-effects and risks of prescribed opioids.
Yet, the majority with addiction experience either personally or within family say they have not received treatment for reasons ranging from denial to cost to shame. This is some of the data that KFF, the independent non-profit organization focused on national health issues, tracked in its July poll on substance use and accessing treatment.
Hope and support in recovery can be easily accessed at MiraVista Behavioral Health Center through a range of outpatient substance use programs with convenient hours that do not interfere with work schedules, and that include individualized assessment and treatment.
Our Holyoke-based facility offers same-day admission and free transportation to its Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) that provides daily medication in combination with behavioral health therapy for Opioid Use Disorder. Medications used to stop or reduce the use of opioids include suboxone, methadone or vivitrol. The care management services of a Recovery Support Navigator are available and include referrals to community-based services.
In addition, OTP offers therapeutic support for other co-occurring substance use conditions including nicotine addiction.
MiraVista’s Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) for individuals with a substance use diagnosis who do not need detoxification has expanded to include evening and Spanish-speaking sessions and provides additional clinical support and education beyond outpatient counseling. IOP’s follow a four-week curriculum focused on motivation and self-harm reduction presented by licensed clinical social workers. Individual counseling and group meetings are included.
It is well understood at MiraVista that relapse is part of recovery. Treatment is designed with the hope that periods of relapse get shorter and shorter and the duration between them gets longer and longer.
MiraVista’s outpatient recovery services are able to respond quickly to an individual’s desire to initiate treatment as well as provide treatment after a reoccurrence. Each individual receives a comprehensive assessment by a master’s level clinician to determine what program best fits their needs. Free Narcan is available to anyone at risk for opioid overdose or knows someone who is a risk.
Another study, also released this month and designed to help shape public health policy for each generation, tracked substance use trends across age groups. Monitoring the Future, a government-funded panel study, shows past-year use of marijuana and hallucinogens such as MDMA, mescaline, and peyote, along with binge drinking, by adults 35 to 50 reached all-time highs in 2022. Marijuana and nicotine vaping for those 19 to 30 reached historic high levels as well in 2022.
A KFF survey in February reports more than 32% of U.S. adults with symptoms of anxiety and depression with the majority of those last year needing, but not receiving treatment. More current data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the end of July into early August shows young adults, 18 to 19 years of age, transgender and bisexual individuals, and individuals with disabilities showing high levels of anxiety disorder symptoms. Analysis of other CDC data released earlier this month by KFF shows more than 49,000 people died by suicide last year, a record number attributed to an increase in the number of firearm-related deaths.
A psychiatric hospital, MiraVista Behavioral Health Center offers a range of inpatient mental health services in addition to its outpatient substance use recovery services to help adolescents and adults in crisis return to their families and friends and lives in community.
For more information, visit https://www.miravistabhc.care/ and for more information on the studies, https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/marijuana-hallucinogen-use-binge-drinking-reached-historic-highs-among-adults-35-50 and https://www.kff.org/other/poll-finding/kff-tracking-poll-july-2023-substance-use-crisis-and-accessing-treatment/