Cody, Wyoming Targets Painkiller Abuse with New Addiction Treatment

CODY, Wyo. - April 19, 2018 - PRLog -- A new facility that provides addiction treatment in Cody, Wyoming is changing how patients treat their pain.

The addiction treatment program has been implemented by the behavioral health department at the Cody Regional Health and uses pain medications that are not habit forming.

This give addiction treatment patients the chance to manage their pain levels but at the same time have significantly lessened risks of becoming addicted.

The director of the behavioral health department at Cody Regional Health, Heidi Hess, said that people who actually have acute and/or chronic pain only have the option of taking painkillers to function.

"We can give [the patients] a medication that doesn't make them high," she said.

Hess also said that the method will be key in keeping the patients from wanting to use more than they should.

The new addiction treatment program may be beneficial to the local community, as a new report has shown that prescription drug abuse in Wyoming is a severe public health problem.

The report was released last month by the Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center and highlighted that past-year nonmedical prescription drug use is comparable to the U.S. average — there were no differences between the statistical rates in Wyoming and the rest of the country.

Wyoming had an opioid prescribing rate that was higher than the overall rate for America from 2006 to 2016 — in this period, Park County also had the third highest rate of opioid prescription dispensed in pharmacies.

The data influenced the implementation of several efforts in the state.

These efforts looked to expand addiction treatment services and educate community members and were often introduced by organizations such as the Cody Regional Health.

One example is a lecture that will be hosted by Cody Regional Health at its West Park Hospital location on April 24 to introduce the new addiction treatment program and address the best evidence-based practices for substance use disorder relapse and prevention.

The main speaker will be Hess who will be focusing on the disease of addiction, treatment approaches, and relapse prevention.

https://www.drugaddictionnow.com/2018/04/18/new-addiction...