On March 26, Boothbay Region Health Center opens a new medication-assisted treatment (MAT) clinic for those with substance use disorders.

Combining peer coaching, addiction counseling and treatment assisted by medications, the outpatient clinic is open Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Health Center’s offices in the small mall.

The recovery clinic provides individual treatment plans for those dependent on or abusing opioids, alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, stimulants or anti-anxiety medications. Offering a combination of group and individual therapy, peer coaching, recovery maintenance and medication-assisted treatment, the clinic treats young people, adults, pregnant women and the elderly.

As Patty Seybold, president of Boothbay Region Health Care, explained, the Health Center clinic uses the Opioid Home Health framework of MaineCare and also treats those with alcohol and other non-opioid issues.

Seybold pointed out that Lincoln Medical Partners has been prescribing Suboxone and others have offered counseling locally. “Bob Hasch and Holly Stover (of Boothbay Region Community Resources Council) have been incredibly pivotal in addressing the opioid and addiction crisis ...and thanks to them, we now have our Peer Wellness Center run by Amistad, where we all converge.“

Seybold said the Health Center clinic lets local patients be treated without leaving the peninsula. “It’s an intensive treatment plan that combines medical prescriptions (when needed), individual and group counseling with peer coaching.” The clinic also offers care for those with co-existing mental illness and substance use disorders.

The clinic provides a program based on the “3 Principles of Mental Health,” which teaches people they are not broken and don't need to be fixed, but instead need to relearn their innate coping skills. According to Seybold, the program is faster and more effective than the traditional 12-step program, with half the relapses. 

Boothbay Region Health Center has assembled a team of experienced professionals to provide its MAT clinic. Brett Auclaire, RN, CFNP, has been a registered nurse for 34 years and a family nurse practitioner for 22 years. Married and living between Boothbay Harbor and New Hampshire, she has worked in detox and rehabilitation centers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts and has a practitioner waiver to prescribe Suboxone under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA.)

As she explained, “I’ve worked with addicts, alcoholics and inmates in correctional institutions.” Some of her experience was in New Bedford, Massachusetts, which has the second highest per capita incidence of opioid dependence on the East Coast. “People become someone they don’t want to be and withdrawal is awful,” but comfort medications can be offered to help," she said.

Other team members are Michele Walters, certified addiction counselor and licensed clinical social worker (LCSW,) Karen Greenleaf, RN, a nurse care manager certified with a psychiatry specialty in nursing and whose experience includes the rehabilitation center at Mercy Hospital.

Shawn Doyen, who has been facilitating a weekly meeting at the Peer Wellness Center, will hold peer coaching sessions at the clinic twice each week. A $100,000 grant from the Mildred H. McEvoy Foundation will provide $25,000 each year for four years. That has helped fund the program.

“Part of our plan from the beginning has been to focus on local issues and help people obtain treatment without leaving the peninsula,” Seybold said. “Our goal is to help people get off Suboxone as soon as possible and live a normal life.”

Those seeking help may walk in during clinic hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. After releasing their medical records, they are asked to sign an agreement covering the requirements to participate in the clinic. A confidential assessment is created using an internet-based tool. Then a care plan is created.

Practice manager Lynn Thompson said MaineCare clients are covered for treatment at the clinic and those not insured can be covered through a MaineCare grant. The clinic staff will help patients navigate available funding. Patients commercially insured need to check with their insurance providers to see if the treatment is covered.   

For more information, call Boothbay Region Health Center at 633-1075.