‘It is still a crisis and an epidemic’
OBHAW gets grant supporting medication-aided opioid treatment
Ouachita Behavioral Health & Wellness of Hot Springs was recently picked among a selection of institutions throughout the state to receive a grant to provide office-based medication-assisted treatment for individuals with opioid use disorders.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences recently announced it had received $3 million to help facilities across the state provide opioid use disorder patients with the treatment they needed. The money was provided by the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
The state was awarded $21 million in grant money in 2020, as announced by the ADHS, to increase access to medication-assisted treatment as well as to expand treatment options to help prevent overdose deaths over the next two years. OBHAW initially received $50,000 from the grant, with the opportunity to request more depending on the need of individuals in the program and the availability of the UAMS grant funds.
Michelle Kveum, certified community behavioral health clinic project clinical director at OBHAW, said this is the second installment of grant funds they received from UAMS after receiving the first earlier this year.
“We were given the opportunity to apply, as many agencies in the state, with how we can help with the opioid crisis,” she said Thursday. “It’s a big need. There aren’t enough providers, or people willing to prescribe and provide treatment for this population. So through our efforts in substance abuse, in growing this program, we’ve adopted the medication-assisted treatment program.”
Kveum said the grant helps them further treatment by helping pay for transportation, medication, and “most importantly” peer support specialists.
“I think that, to me, is the most important component of the program, because it’s someone with lived experience that can
help someone entering this program to say, ‘I’ve been there. It’s possible. You can do this,’ and give them that front line experience,” she said.
The grant allows medical providers to offer treatment for opioid use disorder to patients without insurance or the ability to pay for services. According to UAMS, medication-assisted treatment involves the “use of medication to relieve cravings and withdrawal symptoms along with counseling and support to overcome the use of opioids.”
This includes methadone, which can only be dispensed through an opiate treatment program, products containing buprenorphine that require a federal waiver for prescribers and injectable naltrexone, which does not require special qualifications for prescribing.
“We are really the stewards of the money; our job is to give it away,” Dr. Michael Mancino, a professor of the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry,
said in a news release. “We are working with clinics already providing medication-assisted treatment to people below the poverty line, so they don’t have to turn anyone away. We look forward to continuing these efforts with previous and new awardees.”
Kveum said she believes progress is being made in treating opioid addiction in Hot Springs as the availability of different modes of treatment options become more prevalent.
“It is still a crisis and an epidemic, so just those words alone tell you that it’s a severe problem,” she said. “It affects more people than you know — of all walks of life. If you think of someone that’s affected by this crisis, they look like me; they look like your neighbor; they look like the kids in school. Anyone can be affected. So it is a remaining crisis but I do believe it is getting better the more treatment and the more funds we have through great programs like the UAMS program.”
The response from the patients has been good, as well, Kveum said, noting a great component of OBHAW’S program is its data collection to help further research and fund the treatment. She said many of the patients come from two and three hours away, and so the transportation the program is able to provide is a huge part of its success.
“They’re getting treatment in these very rural areas where there may not be supports,” she said. “So they’re grateful.”
OBHAW uses a team approach in which the prescriber, therapist and everyone involved have weekly discussions about the client’s progress how they can better impact their lives, Kveum said, and the goal is to link the clients with the resources they need to be successful.
“It’s not surprising that at OBHAW, you know, we’ve got a long-standing reputation for therapy and treatment, so we’ve wanted to bring this to a population in need,” she said. “And the things that I’ve personally learned is how easy it is, like I said before, this is anybody and everybody that’s affected or touched in some way by this crisis. But the hearts and the willingness to share, the clients that come in and find success are amazing. The more we can reach out to let people know this exist, the better off we are.”
Kveum said they do their best to “individualize” the treatment to the client and work with them in a flexible manner.
“We’ll have some clients say, ‘You know what’s great about coming to OBHAW is I can still work — and — do my program,’” she said. “Some people have requirements that may be a little more strict where you have to have a choice to go to work or be in this program. So when we individualize, we’re able to help the client where they are and support them.”