Having worked in the Emergency Room in a few facilities over the years I have seen the heartbreak in the eyes of the family or loved ones of addicts when they come to the ER in hopes of detox or rehab. Unfortunately addiction recovery is not something that ERs do, and less and less hospitals have specialized units for this kind of medicine.
Sadly when a person is triaged and they say that they want to "kick", stop using, whatever addictive substance they have been abusing and dependent on we can't always offer them help. Sometimes the patient has been down this road before and they know that the only way they are going to get away from the substance is to say.."I'm suicidal". But what happens when the ER they go to doesn't have an addictive treatment center or unit?
Unfortunately the person is generally medically cleared, they are seen by a mental health screener (social worker from a crisis unit) and then a psych doc and if that patient doesn't have a plan for hurting themselves, they are often given a list of treatment facilities and discharged. If the person is truly an addict and they walked into a facility seeking treatment, then that was a major step. Perhaps they really wanted to change their lives. But then there is the discharge and the piece of paper. There is no hand holding or someone to help them navigate the insurance red tape. They are on their own. If the person is lucky maybe they hit rock bottom and still have a family or support system intact, but there are the others who have nobody. No support. They have that piece of paper. Perhaps no cell phone, no home, no address. They might be withdrawing and this isn't what they expected recovery would look like. Maybe it was easier just using.
Addiction and mental illness are not luxuries like Botox and boob jobs! It's time that we start treating the whole patient, addictions included.
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