Christine Lavosky, Providence Business News
After Mercedes Faust was arrested for driving under the influence and spent a day in the psychiatric unit at a local hospital nearly a year ago, the 28-year-old knew she needed help.
The Warwick resident had binged on alcohol and cocaine before she was involved in a crash on Interstate 295 last May. After she was charged at the state police barracks, Faust says she was taken to the hospital and monitored in a white room with glass walls.
“It felt like a movie, like I was a science experiment,” she said.
When she was released, Faust set out on a quest for rehabilitation and found Thrive Behavioral Health Inc.’s Ambulatory Withdrawal Management program, a year-old initiative that Thrive says is reshaping what early-stage withdrawal support and outpatient treatment can look like in community settings.
Faust believes it saved her life.
“This program offers everything that you need,” she said. “They’re right there with you every step of the way.”
Thrive says the program combines an intensive outpatient model, medication management and a partnership with nonprofit addiction treatment agency CODAC Inc. to offer care that flows smoothly from one step to the next.
The Ambulatory Withdrawal Management program gives individuals with substance use disorder the alternative to inpatient care, Thrive says, which allows them to still work, take care of family and continue their lives without disruption, while still receiving treatment.
Indeed, ambulatory withdrawal management has gained momentum nationwide in part because many with mild to moderate withdrawal issues who are medically stable don’t need a hospital bed and want to keep working and parenting.
Thrive is currently the only organization in Rhode Island that offers an in-house program. Other certified community behavioral health clinics refer clients to outside providers of this type of treatment.
“[The outpatient program] keeps people connected to their lives and shortens wait times to treatment,” said Katie Hansen, Thrive’s director of adult outpatient services. “The feedback that I’ve gotten from individuals and families accessing support … is that they’ve not felt so seen and so supported by any team previously.”
According to Thrive, its clinicians are trained in person-first, trauma-informed care, which can include cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing and dialectical behavior therapy.
The team also includes licensed substance-use disorder counselors, peer support specialists and a care coordinator.
The organization shares a building in Warwick with CODAC, Rhode Island’s oldest and largest nonprofit providing outpatient treatment for opioid use disorder. “CODAC has always been a close partner with Thrive,” said Linda Hurley, CODAC’s CEO and president. “And they’ve always utilized our expertise in terms of more-complex cases relative to substance use disorder.”
The program receives clients coming from nearby hospitals and people who walk into the Thrive facility on Health Lane seeking support. Hansen says her team aims to knock down the barriers to care by offering a consultation to anyone who visits Monday through Friday, with or without an appointment or referral.
Before joining Thrive’s Ambulatory Withdrawal Management program, Faust says, untreated depression and suicidal ideation left her with a drinking habit and occasional cocaine use as her coping mechanisms. Without therapy, psychiatry and a medical detoxification, Faust’s depression took over and her life was thrown into tumult.
She stagnated at the same job without receiving a promotion for 10 years. Her girlfriend broke up with her.
“I have cirrhosis,” Faust said, referring to the potentially deadly liver disease that can be caused by long-term alcohol use.
The program supplied Faust with one-one-one therapy, group therapy, a case manager and psychiatry – all on an out-patient basis. Now she’s been clean for eight months, has two new jobs, a devout religious practice and has rekindled her relationship with her girlfriend.
Faust’s treatment also allowed her to strengthen her fractured connection with her mother.
“The biggest thing that just resonates – and I think it will stick with me for life – is that my mom was like, ‘I always love you, but I like you now,’ ” Faust said.
At the beginning of her rehabilitation journey, Faust attended group therapy three times a week and one-on-one therapy twice a week. After eight months in the program without a relapse, Faust now attends group therapy once or twice a week and private appointments once a week.
Faust’s experience reflects that of many others in the program, Thrive says. With the freedom to continue working, attending school, or taking care of family members during the day, the road to recovery is paved with each client’s specific needs in mind.
“They keep me accountable without making me feel less of a person,” Faust said of Thrive.