Responding to the opioid epidemic

The most important admissions in two recent highly critical Bangor Daily News articles about Acadia Hospital’s Narcotics Treatment Program are the statements that “For many people, the methadone program has been a lifesaver,” and that “To date the clinics have seemingly had little if any negative effect on the community as many suspected they would when they first were proposed.”

These points are sadly lost, however, in stories that mischaracterize the treatment environment at Acadia based on a highly selective sampling of patient experience. Our staff and patients justifiably feel injured by a headline describing conditions at Acadia as “intolerable” and a quotation calling patients “a bunch of filthy people who are still using drugs.” The real truth is that the patients in our program are likely your relatives, friends, people you work with or others that you know.

Meg Haskell’s article titled, “Methadone Maze,” was based on interviews with two couples, only one identified by name, with no evident effort to explore the experiences of any of the 692 other patients who currently receive treatment at Acadia Hospital. Renee Ordway’s column a week later simply repeated Haskell’s claims, with no effort to discover the truth through additional investigation. Despite her lack of investigation, Ordway blithely accuses Acadia of “choosing to lower its standards and ignore its own rules.” Astonishingly, neither writer ever requested to observe the program in operation before publishing her negative characterizations of our therapeutic environment.

The allegations made in the articles prompted visits by representatives of the Maine Office of Substance Abuse and the State of Maine Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse Licensing Division, with the result being that Acadia remains fully and unconditionally licensed to operate our Narcotics Treatment Program.

Regarding the allegations of drug dealing and fighting at the hospital included in Haskell’s original article, every effort we made to put these matters in accurate perspective during Haskell’s interview was met with resistance or ignored. The frequency of fighting and drug dealing was vastly overblown in the article. These behaviors are somewhat endemic to the condition, and they do not instantly disappear once a person walks through the door of a hospital, but the extent of the problem was exaggerated.

We have had on average three to five fights a year at the program, dramatically low considering that we have on average 71,000 patient visits per year. We promptly and effectively respond to instances of fighting or drug dealing. We have discharged approximately 60 patients for drug use, distribution or physical assaults at Acadia. It is important for us to reassure the public that we do not condone or tolerate these behaviors on our campus, but in fact have rules and protocols that are enforced as needed.

Our narcotics programs have been lifesavers for many in our community, and opioid addiction is a killer. Untreated narcotics addicts’ risk of dying is 50 to 100 times greater than the general population. Greater Bangor has one of the highest rates of untreated narcotics addiction in the country, but over the previous six years Acadia has enabled hundreds of individuals with this grave medical condition to bring the pieces of their lives back together.

Our average NTP patient is 25 years old and has been addicted to opioids for five years. Eighty-five percent of our patients have dual diagnosis, which means that they have a psychiatric condition in addition to their addiction. We take our responsibility to address both of these needs very seriously, and we have a significant degree of success. At three months follow-up, only 16 percent of our patients test positively for illicit drugs. At 24 months, illicit drug use drops to 9 percent to 10 percent in our population.

Acadia is a nonprofit psychiatric and substance abuse treatment hospital, recognized as the first psychiatric Magnet Hospital in the nation, a distinction based on excellence in patient care. We provide a full array of services to opiate addicted patients, including a well-child clinic, baby massage therapy, parenting classes, a connection to the Head Start program through Penquis CAP, an HIV-Hepatitis C clinic, nursing care and help with any co-occurring mental health issues.

Unlike other programs in Maine and elsewhere, Acadia accepts all patients regardless of their ability to pay. We are proud to hire and retain professionals who are highly skilled, competent, nonjudgmental and compassionate. Roughly half of our Narcotics Treatment Program providers are master’s-level providers, an exceptional level of expertise for methadone maintenance therapy.

It is regrettable and uncharacteristic of the Bangor Daily News that their reporting has obscured the truth about the very serious struggles our patients are waging, and their very significant successes. Haskell’s far shorter Finding a Fix article in the June 21 Lifestyle section is an attempt to present a more balanced perspective, clearly in response to concern expressed by numerous patients. It hardly rights, however, the wrong done by the front-page feature story.

For information on our Narcotics Treatment Program, we urge readers to go to www.acadiahospital.org. They will find a confidential e-mail address they can use to have any further questions answered.

Dorothy E. Hill, RNC, is president and chief executive officer, Paul W. Tisher, M.D., is vice president and chief medical officer, and John W. Bragg is chairman of the board of trustees of The Acadia Hospital.