Officials say Massachusetts is overwhelmed by number of addicts looking for help

"We have a pretty significant problem boarding mental-health and opioid patients," the Quincy Democrat said. "We are not equipped in any way to handle increased demand for bed and treatment programs." Then there is the question of efficacy. It's hard to tell how many addicts...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSentinel & enterprise
Main Authors Faulkner, Sarah, Kumar, Ayush, Sitrin, Carly
Format Newspaper Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Fitchburg, Mass The Lowell Sun 31.05.2016
Subjects
Dimitri, Dennis
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Summary:"We have a pretty significant problem boarding mental-health and opioid patients," the Quincy Democrat said. "We are not equipped in any way to handle increased demand for bed and treatment programs." Then there is the question of efficacy. It's hard to tell how many addicts are getting clean. There aren't any state statistics keeping track of the success rate of treatment programs. According to the Department of Public Health, opioid-addiction treatment can take anywhere from three days (inpatient), to six weeks (residential "step-down" programs) to several years. "I think what you see among physicians is an increasing number of doctors who now understand, appreciate and accept the fact that addiction is a disease process," [Dennis Dimitri] said. "It is, unfortunately, a chronic, relapsing disease that needs ongoing attention. There's not a magic bullet or quick fix to this."
ISSN:1049-1155