The Hope House Hosting the Treatment Works March Event this Year - Article Example

The Hope House Hosting the Treatment Works March Event this Year The Hope House will participate and host The Treatment Works March event in September 2015. Planners want to increase awareness about successful of substance abuse treatment programs and to inform people about prevention and treatment.The outpatient clinic manager Brieanne OHearn talks about drug use and attitudes among people in last few years. OHearn has a masters degree in mental health counseling from The College of Saint Rose.

"I think that addiction is on the rise, particularly due to the heroin epidemic. I have seen an increase in substance use particularly in teens," she added. "There is more focus on substance use, and addiction now and people are more open to getting treatment."In Albany, The Hope House, a non-profit organization, has four facilities: outpatient clinic, women and children’s, Bette Center, and adolescent program. The Hope House is for people who are struggling with substance abuse issues such as drug and alcohol addiction.

The Hope House outpatient clinic on Madison Avenue has four primary counselors.“We normally have five, but we are down by one whom we are looking for," said OHearnEach counselor has 30 clients. Counselors meet with clients individually either weekly or bi-weekly and work with them in group therapy. The counselors work with the clients on treatment plans. They also coordinate care with other providers such as the courts, mental and health.The outpatient clinic also has a clinician who works with clients in the Shelter Plus Care program.

The Shelter Plus Care program has a manager who helps clients to find apartments, pays rent. He or she checks and works with clients on a regular basis.Besides that, the clinic has a satellite program at Saint Anne’s Institute where a clinician works with the girls on Manning Blvd and addresses substance abuse through both group and individual counseling.The clinic serves about 450 clients each year, and currently it has 148 clients.“We really use what I would call a bio psychosocial-spiritual model of addiction to treat the patient," said Dinny McClintook, a counselor, director of outpatient and quality assurance in-charge.

The bio psychosocial-spiritual model is a treatment plan that addresses biological, psychological, social, and spiritual conditions. The reason for using this advanced model is because the impact of substance abuse on an individual has all the four aspects, the recovery has to be at all these levels.The outpatient clinic uses two types of treatment including groups, individual therapy and has intensive outpatient groups that run from Monday 9 a.m. to Friday 12 p.m. On Mondays, there are three groups: two from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the last group from 1p.m to 2 p.m.

These groups are women’s, men’s, and a group for mental health. On Tuesdays, three groups meet to address how to live sober and another meet for anger management. On Wednesdays, there are three groups-relationships, criminal thinking, and early recovery.On Thursdays, there are two groups- self-esteem, and relapse prevention. On Fridays, they have one group that is an open process group.The second type of treatment is the Suboxone program, which is opioid replacement therapy. The clinic has a medical doctor that addresses psychiatric along with Suboxone.

Some of the clinics clients come to the clinic after graduating from the residential program, inpatient rehab, off the street, or probation on a drug court program.The majority of the clients are between the ages of 18 and 65.“We have had some cases of the younger (12-18) but not very many. We primarily serve the adult population and frequently attend to people between 20’s and 40’s," said OHearn.The outpatient clinic tries to provide a welcoming relationship between the clients and the team, to know their clients problems, and help them to get well because they want to encourage them to complete their treatment successfully.

OHearn is delighted when some clients call back after they are successful healed "Its awesome, I love it, its so rewarding to hear success stories about our clients," she said "Just a woman who finalized a few weeks ago, called me to let me know that she got a job and she is doing well."About their goals in the future, OHearn stated, "we have some conversations and kind of coming up with the program to get into schools by visiting high schools and elementary schools for awareness soon."