By Benjamin Nordstrom, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer
Talking Treatment vs. Recovery
As you likely know, BHG is continuing to lead the way in Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) treatment by expanding the services typically offered at Opioid Treatment Centers and in Office-Based Opioid Treatment. Across the country we are launching ASAM Level 2.1 services (Intensive Outpatient Programs) and are piloting mental health treatment to address co-occurring conditions. These changes will allow us to do more than ever when it comes to supporting OUD patients and expand and expand into broader populations with substance use disorder (SUD).
Recovery will always be our end game
These additional forms of treatment are exciting, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the reason people come to treatment in the first place, which is for recovery. BHG has long said, “Medications support the treatment, and the treatment produces recovery.” This is why we favor the use of “Medication Assisted Recovery” and not “Medication Assisted Treatment.”
Our medications can make treatment possible by preventing withdrawal, quelling opioid craving, and blunting the euphoric effects of opioids. We have great evidence that they reduce illicit opioid use, lower the chance of overdose death, retain people in treatment, and reduce criminal behavior. The medications can’t, however, teach people adaptive coping skills, or educate them on how to identify and avoid high risk situations, repair broken relationships, or get them to have different tools to manage strong, negative feelings. Treatment does those things, and it’s why treatment is such an important part of what we do.
But even then, we ask people to do the hard work of treatment not for its own sake, but because these things can lead to recovery. SAMHSA defines recovery as “[a] process of change through which individuals improve their health and wellness, live a self-directed life, and strive to reach their full potential.” A life in recovery is supported by four dimensions: health, home, purpose, and community.
Real recovery is not a second-class victory
For some people, getting into recovery means getting back to where they were before they developed an OUD. For other people, getting into recovery means attaining something they never had before in their life. Any recovery where someone is physically and mentally healthy, has a stable home environment, a clear sense of purpose and meaning to their life and is participating in the life of their community is a real recovery. And achieving all these things with the support of a medication is not a consolation prize or a second-class victory. We wouldn’t say that to someone with bipolar disorder who maintained recovery in part through maintaining adherence to their mood stabilizer regimen, or to someone whose depression is kept at bay with an antidepressant. We shouldn’t tolerate that message for our patients either.
Our purpose helps patients connect with theirs
We are here to help heal individuals, families, and communities. That is our animating purpose and our goal for all our patients. It’s hard work for us, but harder still for them. We should all be proud of the work we do to help give people the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in this endeavor, and we must always inspire in our patients the hope, rooted in our experience and observation, that they can achieve this goal.
