PORTLAND, Maine — A new addiction medicine clinic that opened in Portland in February is providing a host of services that doctors feel will best serve people struggling with substance use disorder.
MaineHealth's Comprehensive Addiction Medicine clinic at 576 St. John Street has a patient base of roughly 200 people, staff said. The team consists of addiction medicine physicians, a behavioral health clinician, nursing staff, and a peer support specialist.
The clinic is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, which includes walk-in hours from 9 a.m. to noon. The goal is to make the clinic as low-barrier as possible, so that someone struggling with drug abuse can start their recovery journey immediately, with access to not only addiction medication, but also primary care, mental health counseling, group therapy, and help with insurance or transportation. People can even text the front desk when scheduling appointments.
The model fills a big gap in addiction treatment, where waitlists for detox facilities can be weeks or months, just like the waitlists for residential treatment facilities or mental health counselors.
"It's like a part-time job trying to get into places to find the help you need," Dr. Sarah Hipkens, one of the physicians at the CAM, said. "I think of it as patient's changing their own lives."
"They have a small window of motivation [to pursue treatment]. There's no resources. They can't get in anywhere. They end up relapsing, going to use again. They end up back in the emergency room and it just goes around and around and around," Sonia Winslow, the practice manager, said. "If they stay alive."
Winslow worked at the Strafford County Jail after her schooling, then with Preble Street, giving her unique experience into the variety of issues people with substance use disorder suffer from.
Staff said this facility is not a medically-supervised withdrawal, or detox, center, such as Milestone Recovery. Patients cannot stay overnight. Only two MSW centers in Maine accept MaineCare, and they are almost always full, staff said. This facility accepts all insurance, including uninsured patients. The MaineHealth family of facilities refer patients to the CAM clinic.
Hipkens has worked in family medicine for 10 years, and addiction medicine for three. She called the current system of addiction treatment in the country inefficient, and that this model could be the new gold standard, by providing a patient with buprenorphine, a common drug used for helping people wean off of opioids. The facility has both daily doses and extended-release versions.
The clinic also helps with clothing, wound care, and harm reduction supplies, such as fentanyl test strips. Thirty percent of patients have Hepatitis C due to intravenous drug use, Dr. Hipkens said.
"The same day that they come in, we can do testing for it and we can start treatment later that week," she said.
The practice also has a phlebotomy area and lab to process blood samples. It includes a community room for art and group therapy as well as yoga and meditation. The mental health counselor's office is across the hall from the exam rooms. The facility also has vaccines, contraceptives, and more.
"Reducing the number of places that someone has to go to get care is a big deal," Hipkens said.
Staff understand addiction on a personal level. Winslow said three of her siblings struggle with substance use disorder, and that she was raised in a home where addiction was present.
"My brothers are good people. They would do anything for anybody. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Winslow said. "I know that there's a person behind the addiction that is absolutely beautiful, and when folks are sober, they can really be a different person."
That is the approach she and her team takes in caring for their patients, she said.
MaineHealth partnered with the City of Portland and the Davis Family Foundation to fund the opening of the practice. MaineHealth's addiction medicine has been around for roughly seven years, Winslow said, but that they never had a facility where all the services were under one roof.
You can reach the practice at 207-661-0700.