Manna opens satellite clinic to reach addicts farther north

MEDWAY – The agonizing, lonely war against alcohol and drug abuse starts with a profound realization: “I need help.”

It continues with the struggle to find treatment services and to incorporate them into everyday life. It is there, Bill Rae says, that the war ends in defeat for many northern Penobscot County addicts – not because they don’t want to win, but because winning is quite literally beyond their means.

“They can’t get to the services they need,” Rae, executive director of Manna Ministries of Bangor, said Monday. “They can’t afford gasoline or to drive all the way to Bangor to get services, and that’s the only place they can get them.”

Prompted by the lack of a service outlet from Bangor to Houlton, Manna Ministries of Bangor in two weeks will open a satellite office, its first, for outpatient alcohol and substance abuse treatment and counseling, Rae said.

Less than a mile from Interstate 95, the Manna Inc. Northern Region Outpatient Counseling and Treatment Services office at 1970 Medway Road, Route 157, will feature a licensed counselor treating as many as 40 people from the Katahdin and Lincoln Lakes regions and farther north.

“This way, we can bring it to them,” Rae said. “To me, it’s a great benefit to the people up there to have this.”

“The need is great,” said Aimee Cyr, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor who will operate the office. “With the mills closing, and with rural towns especially, our rate of substance abuse is increasing dramatically.”

Cyr signed a lease for the building last week and has started moving in. She hopes to contract for outpatient services with other regional health care providers to expand her services and client base, eventually hiring a secretary and another clinician. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics chapters will meet there, she said.

The office is not a methadone clinic, Cyr said, and shouldn’t have the problems associated with those clinics.

“I think when people realize that we’re there and understand that it’s safe, that they come there and be at ease with it,” Cyr said.

The office will offer deep counseling for drunken drivers; family intervention services; outpatient substance abuse counseling, often in conjunction with court-mandated treatment sentences; and an employee assistance program and Department of Transportation-ordered counseling.

Lincoln had a similar service, but that office was closed by budget cuts, Cyr said.

Manna Ministries scouted several locations, including Lincoln, but chose Medway because it will be a shorter trip for people coming from farther north, Rae said.