Sapphire Community Health to expand addiction treatment

by Sarah Glass

Opioid overdoses and related emergency room visits are common statistics shared in the telling of the story of the nation’s opioid crisis. Sapphire Community Health (SCH), a community-based primary and behavioral health center in Hamilton, focuses on the number of people in treatment working to recover from addiction. Over 400 patients utilize the Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) program at SCH, and a recent $137,000 grant, awarded to the health center by the Montana Opioid Abatement Trust, is now being employed to expand its services.

The MAT/SUD program is an initiative primarily characterized by the medications and counseling it provides to those caught in the vicious cycle of opioid and alcohol dependency. For people experiencing physical addiction, these medications are used to quell withdrawal symptoms while patients work to rebuild their lives.

Patrick Peer, the chief executive officer of SCH, said the MAT/SUD program is non-judgmental. “When we look at someone on the MAT or SUD program, it’s not to judge them as right or wrong or good or bad, it’s what we can do to help them help themselves.”

The creation of the Montana Opioid Abatement Trust came about as a result of a multi-state settlement with pharmaceutical companies associated with the opioid epidemic. The grant awarded to SCH made it possible for the health center to hire a new case manager last month. As of mid-March, SCH was also working to hire an on-site licensed addiction counselor.

Said one SCH MAT patient that approached the Bitterroot Star to speak on the subject, “Experiencing opiate withdrawal is what I imagine being trapped on the ocean without water is like; at some point it is hard to fight the compulsion to take a drink. It becomes an issue of functionality. What starts out being a crutch becomes the only way you think you can walk at all. That is not to say that I don’t take responsibility for the actions that led me down the path of addiction in the first place; what is important is that people have a way they can get back to living a fulfilling life. The MAT program provides this.”

Peer went on to explain that sustaining a MAT/SUD program in the Bitterroot Valley makes it possible for patients to receive care without the burden of frequent travel to Missoula. SCH’s sliding-scale program also considers a person’s income and works out terms to ensure patients are not going without care or going to the emergency room at the hospital when primary care is sufficient.

“The majority of my patients are at the federal poverty level,” said Peer. “I have an obligation to make sure their medical and psychological needs are met, and that’s what we do a good job of.”