Report calls for expansion of drug clinic Bangor treatment facility praised

BANGOR – A much anticipated federal review of Acadia Hospital’s methadone treatment center confirmed reports of the program’s success, and prompted renewed opposition to a competing clinic looking to open in the city.

“I hope this speaks loudly to the state that they look at [the Acadia] model and see that it can meet the needs in the city,” City Councilor Nichi Farnham, chairwoman of the council’s advisory committee to the clinic, said Monday. “If a new clinic wants to come in, perhaps they can first go to an area with an unmet need.”

The report, written by University of Texas researcher Jane Maxwell for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, praised the Acadia operation, and called for its expansion in light of increasing demand for the treatment.

“From a statistical perspective, the Acadia … program appears to be a success both in terms of improvement by clients and in terms of impact on the community,” reads the Maxwell report, which pointed to a decrease in drug use and crime among those receiving methadone treatment at Acadia.

Buoyed by the report’s findings, Acadia officials said they were slowly expanding their program, which now treats 141 people addicted to heroin or other opiates, including the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin.

With the planned addition of up to five new nurses and clinicians, the hospital could nearly double its capacity to distribute methadone and provide the accompanying counseling services, according to Acadia’s chief operating officer, Lynn Madden.

“There has been a huge wave of requests for treatment,” said Madden, citing a tenfold increase in such requests this year compared to 2000. “Right now, we in no way can serve all the folks that need to be treated.”

While Maxwell’s report called for Acadia’s expansion, it did not address the planned opening in the city of a second clinic that would be run by Rhode Island-based Discovery House.

Local officials have been wary of the for-profit company, which also operates clinics in Winslow and South Portland, arguing that the already established Acadia program is preferable to an unknown entity in the city providing methadone to as many as 250 clients.

After her presentation Monday, Maxwell said she did not know enough about Discovery House to determine whether opponents’ reservations were founded.

“I’ve seen some very well run for-profits and some very poorly run nonprofits,” Maxwell said.

However, Maxwell did say that a for-profit clinic competing with a hospital-based nonprofit could present financial problems for the latter, which generally provides the treatment regardless of a patient’s ability to pay.

Madden said only about a dozen patients pay the full $121weekly fee at Acadia.

The rest either pay a sliding weekly fee of as little as $10 or are eligible for Medicaid, said Madden, who acknowledged the “public policy concerns” about for-profits competing with nonprofits.

“The argument I would raise is patient choice,” countered Steve Gumbley, program manager at Discovery House, which charges $85 a week at its Portland clinic and $95 a week at its Winslow clinic.

Well aware of the trepidation surrounding the pending Discovery House application, Kimberly Johnson, director of the Office of Substance Abuse, said Monday she would “strongly suggest” that the company consult with community officials before opening for business.

While Gumbley said he would be receptive to such a request, city leaders are not the only people Discovery House is going to have to win over before opening its doors.

The project is also running into a skeptical professional business community at Evergreen Woods, the proposed site for the new clinic.

“I think the concept of a methadone clinic is not what the owners ever contemplated as a use,” said Kevin Cuddy, a local lawyer and president of the Evergreen Woods owners association. He expressed his concerns about the potential for parking and pedestrian problems at the remote site off Mount Hope Avenue. “We were somewhat surprised by this.”