By working for many years in the field of opioid addiction treatment and recovery, we have found that, as with most important things, it’s not as simple as it would seem.
Most of our patients are regular people who have had the misfortune to need opioids for legitimate pain and the genetics to get them addicted very quickly. Most people do not have much money saved for a rainy day or access to discretionary funds. Those who are buying opioids to keep from going into withdrawal, many times, have none. They can usually beg, borrow or steal a few dollars to keep going with $10 or $20 at a time. By the time they get together the $250 to enter treatment, they are into withdrawal, and their (limbic) reward system overrides their prefrontal cortex (reasoning and consequences), and they give in to the opioids once again.
Since OUD (Opioid Use Disorder) patients can have co-morbidities that complicate their recovery, no single treatment pathway is the best starting point for everyone.
We use donations to help patients get started in treatment, whether it be Suboxone, Detox, Therapeutic counseling, medication, or even transportation.
Once patients are started, they can use the funds that were used for opioids to self-pay and continue treatment. Since money can be misappropriated by a patient who is not in treatment yet, we work with doctors and therapists to gain the proper diagnosis, and, if the fit is right, we send the funds directly to the provider in the patient’s name. With the proper release forms signed, then we can follow up on their treatment progress.
Our goal is to give people the chance to accept help and then help them help others.