Pubdate: Sun, 28 Apr 2002
Source: Kingsport Times-News (TN)
Copyright: 2002 Kingsport Publishing Corporation
Contact:  http://www.timesnews.net/index.cgi
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1437
Note:  Will not publish letters in print editions from online users who do 
not reside in print circulation area, unless they are former residents or 
have some current connection to Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.
Author: Joellen Weedman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

GROUP PUSHING METHADONE CLINIC SEEKS TO PARTNER WITH LOCAL MEDICAL FACILITIES

JOHNSON CITY - A group proposing to open a methadone clinic in Johnson City 
says they don't want to cause division in the medical community, but 
partnership.

"Our intention has never been to set up a division, but to work jointly," 
said Terre Grable, a counselor at the Middle Tennessee Treatment Center. 
"The issue is not we're coming to hurt, but to help." Grable works with a 
group under the management of Dr. Steven Ritchie, who has filed a 
certificate of need application with the Tennessee Health Facilities 
Commission to open a clinic projected to serve 250 people in its first two 
years of operation in Johnson City.

Officials from the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State 
University, Frontier Health and the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs 
Medical Center at Mountain Home are opposed to the clinic.

Those groups say they already offer addiction treatment programs and do it 
"without substituting one drug for another."

The certificate of need states that the Johnson City Addiction Research and 
Treatment Center would seek partnership opportunities with Quillen and 
other providers like it has in Nashville and Memphis.

Grable said in Nashville students, residents and physicians from the 
medical school at Vanderbilt work closely with the methadone clinic there.

Grable said her clinic works with people who have tried treatments like the 
ones offered in the region and failed.

"Generally, what we have found is a lot of our patients have tried 
inpatient treatment numerous times and have failed at it," she said.

She said many people in the region addicted to opium-based drugs have to go 
out of state for treatment.

She said Georgia has 28 methadone clinics, while Tennessee only has six.

"Clearly the need is there," she said.

Grable and the staff in Nashville take issue with the idea that methadone 
treatment is "trading one drug for another."

"Truly you're not," she said, citing addicts being treated with methadone 
who are able to maintain stable employment and improve family relationships 
as well as the decline in illegal activity.

"If a person is in active addiction, they are not able to do that," Grable 
said. "Some people get confused - they think we're substituting one drug 
for another - the clients' lifestyles are different."

She said many people involved in inpatient addiction treatment end up 
leaving early or having severe withdraw effects.

Addicts in the Johnson City area and areas across the state "go unreached 
simply because of the stigma," she said.

The certificate of need application also states that counseling will be 
mandatory for all patients at the clinic.

"Counseling is a very key component," said Grable.

She cites a "more holistic approach" to addiction treatment and said 
patients being treated by methadone can "go beyond relapse prevention."

"It's a tool that allows us to address the client on a much more 
comprehensive level," she said.

The application will be heard at the June meeting of the HFC.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager