The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
New home, same mission for substance abuse facility
TORRINGTON — Just like anyone in a new “home,” the Midwestern Connecticut Council of Alcoholism outpatient care facility has been settling into theirs at 410 Winsted Road.
The facility, also known as MCCA, is a rehabilitation organization based in Danbury with 24hour treatment and sober centers. It also has seven outpatient clinics focused on relapse prevention throughout the state, including one in Torrington.
The outpatient clinic offers treatment services through individual, group and family therapy for recovering drug addicts, alcoholics and those with gambling problems. Their slogan is “providing help and hope in overcoming addiction.”
Program Director Ebony Wilson said the move was
due mostly to ease of access for their patients. The bus running from Torrington to Litchfield no longer stops at its old Peck Road location.
“So, clients were walking in the rain. They’re walking in the snow just to come to groups, and a lot of times, clients would say, ‘I can’t come. I can’t make it.’ and some would go to other agencies,” said Wilson.
Wilson said they have already seen an uptick in clients since the move, which is particularly important because summer is usually a season of declining interest in the service.
“No one wants to come to a group three nights a week when it’s a Friday night or a Thursday night, so sometimes the summertime can be a little bit difficult for people to be consistent,” Wilson said.
Being on a more accessible street and a bus route accessible to both Torrington and Winsted residents has proven successful in retaining patients.
Lee Bodkin, director of marketing and communications, said there are a wide range of patients MCCA treats and it has facilities specialized for each step of the rehabilitation process.
A sober center and a 28day overnight program is offered in Danbury. From there, patients either transition to the outpatient facilities such as the one in Torrington for sessions one to three times per week, or to Trinity Glen for more handson care.
The Trinity Glen locations, in Kent for women and in Sharon for men, are “designed for the individual who is chronically addicted,” Bodkin said.
There are affordable housing units near its headquarters in Danbury under its supervision for those transitioning back to a substancefree life. “There’s no wrong door when you come to us,” Bodkin said.
A patient who goes by Jon F. said MCCA’s program has helped him move to recovery.
“When I was deep into the addiction, that’s all I focused on. It was about where I was gonna get my next fix. How I was gonna get it,” Jon said.
Jon was working as an automotive technician when two severe back injuries left him addicted to prescription opioids and cocaine, and evolved his social drinking habit into a dependency, he said.
Jon recalled a time when he was much more of an outgoing person. Baseball games were a passion he and his friends shared. But the need to get back to work as soon as he could after an injury meant masking the pain with pills and anything else he could get his hands on.
“I was working a lot so I would bury myself in work, saying I couldn’t do this because I was working. Meanwhile, I was only working to support a habit,” said Jon.
MCCA takes both voluntary patients and those court ordered to attend rehab. Jon called his time there a “blessing in disguise” and as one of the best things to happen to him.
He thinks he would have eventually gotten to helping himself, but this was the push he needed. Otherwise, he said, “There could have been severe consequences — death or jail.”
Wilson said one the pieces of the program they worked on together was figuring out Jon’s “triggers,” whether that be stress, angry emotions, environmental factors or others.
“A stressful day, probably the easiest thing to do is to go grab a beer or whatever else I want to mix with it,” Jon said.
As part of the MAT program, or Medically Assisted Treatment, MCCA prescribes him what he needs to slowly break his body’s dependence on opioids and alcohol, and he has been clean since Feb. 2.
“If it wasn’t for MCCA I don’t know where I’d be today. I wouldn’t be in a great place; I can tell you that,” Jon said.
Recently, his friends have seen him at far more baseball games and events. “They’ve seen the change in me, just being engaged in daytoday activities. Not just being there but being there,” said Jon.
“When Jon first got here, he’s always had a good personality, but his smile was just a smile, you know. Now when he walks in, he’s just genuinely happy,” said Wilson.
“You can see the difference between someone who’s just going through the motions because they have to and someone who’s just genuinely happy,” she said.