Niagara Health addictions program succeeding
Denis White smiled as he returned to his office at the end of a day spent working at Niagara Health’s rapid access addiction medicine (RAAM) clinic.
“We had a couple of success stories,” the nurse practitioner said.
White and his colleagues have helped patients overcome decades-long addictions to high dosage sedatives, and chronic alcoholics return to sobriety. After months of treatment, the transformation can be “amazing.”
The patients appear rejuvenated and ready to carry on with their lives free of the cravings that had plagued them, White said.
Similar success stories are relatively common for the RAAM clinic’s team of medical professionals led by Dr. Richard Kimacovich — working to help Niagara residents overcome their addictions before they need to be rushed into an emergency department.
Kimacovich began his career as an emergency department physician, where he treated “lots” of patients suffering from overdoses and addiction-related issues.
“We frequently saw patients with substance abuse problems and mental health problems in the emergency department. In that environment we’d do the best we could, but many times I’d see the same people come back a week later, or a few weeks later with the same problem,” he said. “I wanted to do more.”
Through his work with the RAAM clinic, Kimacovich and his colleagues are doing more.
In its first two years of operation, the RAAM clinic — it opened in January 2016 — has helped reduce the number of patients visiting emergency departments for addictions issues by 53.8 per cent, while reducing the number of hospital inpatient stays by 74.7 per cent.
And the need for the RAAM clinic is becoming increasingly urgent.
Niagara Emergency Medical Services paramedics responded to 224 suspected overdoses in the first four months of this year — more than twice the 120 suspected overdoses they responded to during the same period a year earlier.
Kimacovich, however, said Niagara is “probably better prepared (to deal with the crisis) than many other communities have been in the past.”
He said, as an example, Niagara hospitals were “one of the first places anywhere to offer buprenorphine treatment in the emergency department offered by emergency physicians (trained as part of the RAAM clinic) for acute opioid withdrawal.”
Emergency departments, he said, “are kind of the front door of addictions care.”
From there, patients are referred to the RAAM clinic “quickly, within a few days,” where Kimacovich and his colleagues can continue treatment.
Despite the attention focused on the dangers associated with opioid use, “there’s still a background of smouldering problematic alcohol use and other substances as well.”
The patients seen are from all walks of life.
“It involves every type of neighbourhood or family, now. It’s cross-sectional. Urban, rural every cross-section of society, now,” Kimacovich said. “We treat people with substance problems of all ages from young teens to senior citizens.”
Kimacovich said about 70 per cent of patients referred to the RAAM clinic are treated for alcohol addiction, compared to about 15 per cent being treated for opioid addictions.
He said stimulants are “a big problem,” too, including drugs such as crystal methamphetamine and cocaine.
But they all pale in comparison to the lives lost to yet another drug — tobacco.
“Tobacco kills more people than all those other substances combined,” Kimacovich said.
While many patients find their way to the RAAM clinic through the emergency department and other community partners, Kimacovich said a referral is not necessary.
“Anyone can self-refer to the RAAM clinic for any substance problem,” he said.
More information about the clinic is available by calling 905378-4647 ext 49463.