Pubdate: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 Source: News-Times, The (CT) Copyright: 2002 The News-Times Contact: http://www.newstimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/637 Author: Robert Miller Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) STATE MAY FILL GAP WHEN HOSPITAL ENDS METHADONE CLINIC DANBURY -- Danbury Hospital officially notified the state it wants to stop treating heroin addicts with methadone, ceding the work to a privately run, community clinic. At the same time, the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services has received a $150,000 grant to begin planning a new drug program in the Danbury area. Sam Segal, policy director for the department's substance abuse services unit, said the grant may be used to assess where a methadone clinic might be located in the wake of the hospital's decision. "Is there another location in the city?" Segal said. "Can we make one acceptable?" The acceptable place in Danbury for the past dozen years has been Danbury Hospital, which runs the state's only hospital-based methadone program. It launched the program in 1990. City residents, worried about the prospect of addicts in their neighborhood, have opposed any talk of moving the clinic away from hospital grounds. The clinic serves about 130 patients and has a waiting list of 20. At least 20 more people from the Danbury area get methadone in clinics in cities such as Waterbury and Norwalk. Methadone is a synthetic narcotic that's generally recognized as the most effective way to treat heroin addiction. In recent years, Medicaid reimbursement policies have caused a $400,000 annual deficit in the hospital's methadone program. Medicaid pays the hospital about $12 a patient visit. The government health care program prefers community-based clinics, and pays them $31 a visit. In an April 1 letter to the commissioner of the state Office of Health Care Access, which regulates hospitals, Gerard D. Robilotti, Danbury Hospital's executive vice president, said the hospital wants to terminate its program. Robilotti said the hospital will work with state hospital and addiction services officials to find someone to run a community-based clinic in Danbury. The hospital has met with Connecticut Counseling Center of Waterbury, the Hartford Dispensary and APT Foundation about running such a clinic. "We hope to do it this year," Danbury Hospital spokeswoman Linda Wiseman said of the hospital's wish to transfer the methadone program. One of the next steps, she said, will involve a meeting of community substance abuse professionals. They will set criteria for groups that might want to take over the methadone program. Again, there's the $150,000 federal grant to the state's addiction services department. An April 4 news release said the money is to be used to "support development of substance abuse treatment services in rural communities." The grant is to be used to design a "culturally appropriate evaluation for Latinos in Northwestern Connecticut near Danbury." Segal, the state substance abuse official, said the word "rural" is being defined loosely in Danbury's case. And although the state received the grant to improve treatment of Latinos, Segal said it makes sense to join the planning process for a new methadone program in the city. "There are two ways to go about this," he said. "One is to move into the community in the dead of night, open a methadone clinic, then take the heat afterward. The second way is to involve the community in the decisions. One would hope that's the better way." Wiseman said the hospital will be involved in the planning as well, and will work with the clinic after it opens. "The patients will still need to come to the hospital for nonmethadone-related problems," she said. "We want to make sure those services are maintained." One former addict, who has been off drugs for two years thanks to the methadone program, said the patients in it are concerned the community clinic won't offer the complete medical care they find at Danbury Hospital. "The don't just treat you for your addiction," the former addict said. "They treat the whole person. So people are scared." - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl