A new intensive outpatient program at Sweetser’s Hope and Healing Center is helping Mainers living with substance use disorder find support, connection and a path forward.
A new intensive outpatient program at Sweetser’s Hope and Healing Center is helping Mainers living with substance use disorder find support, connection and a path forward.
A new intensive outpatient program at Sweetser’s Hope and Healing Center is helping Mainers living with substance use disorder find support, connection and a path forward.
Two out of every 10 Mainers are living with a substance use disorder, but the vast majority never get help.
The hardest part is asking for help. But once someone takes that step, the next challenge is understanding what options are available.
Sweetser’s Hope and Healing Center in Brunswick is working to help people rebuild their lives, one step at a time.
“They try to put just enough in to keep you addicted more,” said Tommy Monat, who is living in recovery.
Monat knows how addiction can decimate and destroy lives and impact families.
“My son, he was 22 when he passed from fentanyl. He died behind a Porta-Potty on a job site in Portland,” Monat said.
Right now, two of his other sons are in prison.
“My son Isaiah, he’s 21 now, and he’s also in jail facing fentanyl charges,” Monat said.
It is an incredible amount of pain. But when someone is sick and tired of being sick and tired, there is a way out.
“You just have to pick up the phone call. You just have to ask us for help,” said Aaron Johnson, a Sweetser drug and alcohol counselor.
For Monat, that call went to Sweetser’s Hope and Healing Center. He found help through the center’s new intensive outpatient program in Brunswick.
“It’s a six-week program, and it’s four days a week for three hours. So it is a big commitment for folks to join us,” said Alison Zubrod, a Sweetser clinical supervisor.
The wraparound support program helps people build a strong foundation of recovery.
“We have mental health counselors, substance use counselor. We have a recovery coach. We have nurse practitioners with expertise in mental health and substance use. And case managers. So, we have lots of providers in this building that can help out,” Zubrod said.
For Monat, isolation fueled his addiction. At Sweetser, connection is key to his recovery.
“I see a friend in there, and he’s like, what I’m trying to model my life after,” Monat said.
Monat is now thinking about going back to school. He has a goal of becoming an X-ray technician.
“There is help, there’s resources. But you have to you have to like you have to want to have do it too. It’s not going to be handed to you,” Monat said.
It is a journey he is no longer walking alone.
“I think Tommy is a great example of what can be done if you are willing to put the work into recovery,” Johnson said.
Sweetser encourages anyone, whether they have private insurance, MaineCare or no insurance, to call or walk in and see what options are available:
https://www.sweetser.org/certi…
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