By CAMERYN CASS
Capital News Service
LANSING — A shift in treating addiction as a disease rather than a crime recently got a boost in Michigan, which is now one of 10 states piloting a federal program that reimburses select health centers with Medicaid dollars for any patient’s care.
The pilot project, recently announced by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, affects 13 counties: St. Joseph, Clinton, Eaton, Ingham, Muskegon, Macomb, Saginaw, St. Clair, Ionia, Washtenaw, Lake, Mason, Oceana and metro Detroit.
Now, in these communities, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics offer patients access to quality care at little to no cost to them, regardless of Medicaid status. Medicaid is a public health insurance program for those with low incomes.
“Without controlling your addiction — especially opioid addiction or others — there’s no way out,” said Robert Sheehan, the chief executive officer at the Community Mental Health Association of Michigan, who spoke at a recent press conference announcing the initiative. “You’re eventually going to break the law by using an illegal drug or selling one.”
The program is part of an expansion of a 2014 bill Stabenow coauthored, the Excellence in Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Act.
The move is part of a broader trend to treat rather than punish addiction.
The idea of a drug treatment court in Michigan was first introduced in 1961, and the first was established in Kalamazoo 20 years ago, advocates say.
Since then, these systems have adapted and expanded. The initial goal was to address the underlying reasons why offenders continually return to crime remains, according to a 2020 report by the Michigan Supreme Court.
Today, there are 199 treatment courts around Michigan, providing service primarily to “high risk, high needs” participants, meaning those most likely to reoffend, said Katharine Hude, the executive director of the Michigan Association of Treatment Court Professionals.
Eligibility for treatment courts varies around the state. Some prosecutors require prior jail time, while others avoid jail altogether and use a treatment program. Successful completion of a program sometimes avoids a criminal charge altogether, according to the report.
Another piece of Michigan’s addiction services is medication-assisted treatment. If a patient and doctor agree this is the right option, the patient is prescribed buprenorphine, vivitrol or methadone, which are drugs that chemically block the effect of opioids on the brain or reduce withdrawal symptoms, Hude said.
Yet, stopping addiction is only the first step.
Treatment courts work to ensure graduates can return to and participate in society successfully, the report says.
As part of an individualized approach to recovery, treatment courts provide the option for outpatient programs like Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center Inc., which provides service statewide.
It, too, integrates former substance abusers into society, said Paula Nelson, the president and chief executive officer of Sacred Heart, based in Macomb County.
“There’s motivation with a sobriety court saying you can go down this path and get yourself help or you can go to jail,” Nelson said. “For individuals that are choosing to try treatment and get in recovery, I think you’re seeing across the state they’re doing well.”
And they are.
Graduates of sobriety court programs are three times less likely to be convicted of a new offense, according to the state Supreme Court report.
Still, advocacy on the substance use disorder side is lacking compared to its mental health counterpart, Nelson said.
“Until the opioid epidemic was in the national spotlight, how much did we really hear about addiction treatment?” Nelson said. “Now, everyone understands it’s a chronic brain disease and needs to be treated as such.”