Pubdate: Thu, 05 Jan 2017
Source: Blade, The (Toledo, OH)
Copyright: 2017 The Blade
Contact:  http://www.toledoblade.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/48
Author: Nolan Rosenkrans

OPIOID DETOX CENTER SET TO OPEN IN 2017 IN MAUMEE

An addiction support group is partnering with a Florida treatment center
to open a new opioid detox and treatment facility in Maumee - one of three
potentially new detox centers in Lucas County.

Matt Bell, a former University of Toledo baseball player with the
addiction support group Team Recovery, speaks about his fight against
heroin addiction.

Team Recovery will work with Hollywood, Fla.,-based Recovery in the Light
to open the center at Arrowhead Park. Using the business names Midwest
Detox Center and Midwest Recovery Center, the new facility will have 22
beds for detox and 38 for treatment and recovery for those addicted to
opiates, said Matt Bell, co-founder of Team Recovery. It will have medical
directors, clinical directors, a 24-hour nursing staff, psychiatrists, and
counselors. About 75 percent of staff will be in recovery themselves, as
is Mr. Bell.

"They were able to walk out the other end, so they can relate to the
client and the clients will be better able to relate to them," he said.

During detox, patients will receive Suboxone, a drug that eases withdrawal
symptoms. But after detox, patients will not be given drugs such as
methadone, because those are also addictive.

"It does not make sense to us to use one drug to get you off another," Mr.
Bell said.

Sixteen detox beds are at the Zepf Center and 37 beds at the Arrowhead
Behavioral Health facility, said Scott Syak, executive director of the
Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Lucas County. Unison
Behavioral Health Group announced in December plans to open a 16-bed
facility on Cherry Street, and the Lima Urban Minority Drug and Outreach
Program has plans to open a 16-bed facility in the Spencer-Sharples area.

There's a history of people in recovery starting treatment programs and
facilities, Mr. Syak said. "The alcohol and drug field in particular is
rooted in people in recovery that have went on and got licensed," he said.
"There's a natural progression."

The Team Recovery facility will need to be licensed by the Ohio Department
of Mental Health and Addiction Services. A department spokesman said no
permit has been requested yet for the facility, though Mr. Bell said
Recovery in the Light will soon begin that process.

The Medicaid institutions for mental diseases exclusion prohibits
facilities such as the Team Recovery one from using Medicaid funding if
the facility has more than 16 beds.

But Midwest won't turn away patients on Medicaid or without insurance, Mr.
Bell said. Instead, about 15 percent of beds will be dedicated for those
patients, who will be admitted free of charge.

"If someone comes in we are going to get them in here or somewhere else,
wherever we can get them into," he said.

To complete the treatment program successfully at the Team Recovery
facility, patients would stay 90 to 120 days. Mr. Bell expects the
facility to open in the spring.
- ---
MAP posted-by: