Hospice is intended to be the final phase of healthcare as someone’s life is drawing to close. The work of hospice is generally regarded as more of a mission than a job and its central goal is to keep patients and their families as comfortable as possible as they move through the end-of-life process. The use of prescription painkillers is almost always vital to hospice achieving its goal. Since hospices only accepts patients that doctors believe will pass within the next 180 days, the concept of addiction to the medications prescribed is the least of anyone’s worries as a patient’s comfort becomes paramount.

Nevertheless, medicine is by no means an exact science and predicting when someone will die is not a guarantee, but an educated guess. Currently, 200,000 patients a year survive hospice and are discharged back to live life. After surviving deadly ailments, many of these individuals are left to fight once again for their lives due to an addiction to painkillers.

It is a rare hospice patient that does not receive opioid painkillers-these prescriptions include the likes of morphine and oxycodone. Often patients are receiving much higher doses of these prescriptions than is normal. Dr. Jane Orient, a professor at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, says she had to remove her father from a hospice who insisted on giving him morphine he did not need.

Hospice Survivors Often Find Themselves In Drug Rehabilitation

This tendency to overmedicate leaves the nearly quarter of a million people a year who survive hospice in grave danger of a prescription drug addiction. Dr. Walter Ling, director of the substance abuse program at UCLA states, “Everybody who works in the drug rehabilitation field finds these hospice cases.”

For-Profit Hospices Possibly Making Money Off Addiction and Illness

Although in general most hospice care follows its guiding principles to the letter and provides a valuable and necessary service for both patients and families, a Harvard Medical School study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) sheds some light on why we are starting to see hospice survivors turning up in drug rehabs. For-profit hospices have quadrupled Medicare hospice spending in the last ten years while not-for-profit have stayed steady. Twenty percent of for-profit hospice patients survive as compared to twelve percent of not-for-profit hospice patients with an average stay of 30 days longer. Nancy Kane, a professor of health policy at Harvard believes from her analysis of the information that “The long lengths of stay and high rates of live discharges suggest some hospices are signing up people who don’t belong in hospice.”

In other words, for-profit hospice may be manipulating medical uncertainties, such as when someone will die, for profit and possibly creating prescription painkiller addicts in the process. What do you think can be done to help curb painkiller addiction for hospice survivors? Do hospices have a responsibility to survivors who develop a dependence? Your opinions are welcome below.

In the past, stereotypes about drug addiction and those who suffer from the disorder often threw up an insurmountable obstacle in providing treatment for those who needed it at a community level. Many small towns and neighborhoods would protest and block plans for new methadone clinics or sober living homes on their streets out of fear of an increase in crime, violence, and other unsavory activities that they felt were associated with addiction – even when that addiction were being actively treated.

It appears that, due to widespread education and increased awareness about the issue of heroin addiction and opiate dependence and treatment, those attitudes are changing. In small town Rutland, Vermont, a methadone clinic that was previously proposed was opposed by local law enforcement, the medical community, and locals alike. Ten years later, those opinions appear to have shifted: the new methadone clinic proposed for the town have been met with approval.

Changes in Attitude

Over the past decade, it has become clear that opiate abuse and addiction to prescription drugs like Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet and other painkillers have become more and more prevalent. The one thing that seems true across the board about those is that there are few unifying characteristics of those who develop this type of dependence. There are no class barriers, race and gender is not an issue, and few Americans have been untouched by the epidemic. The reality of how devastating and debilitating opiate addiction can be has increased the urgency to get help where it is needed –and if that means creating a local methadone clinic or allowing for sober living services within the town limits, then people are opening their minds to the possibilities.

Heroin Addiction Help

Heroin addiction is the main form of opiate addiction treated at methadone clinics, and even small towns like Rutland, Vermont, have been exposed to the health problems and crime related to its spread. Back in 2000, only 49 patients sought treatment for heroin addiction in Rutland. By the following year, that number had almost doubled to 96. By 2008, the number of patients in search of heroin rehab would reach 315.

The best way to lower this number is to provide services that include more than just medical detox through methadone. A comprehensive heroin rehab program that provides detox as well as intensive psychological treatment will help patients to stop abusing their opiate of choice and learn how to live without drugs of any kind, including alcohol.

If you would like to learn more about the woman-centered heroin addiction treatment options we provide here at The Orchid, contact us today

Drummer Patty Schemel once played for the band Hole and is the focus of a new documentary called Hit So Hard: The Life and Near Death Story of Patty Schemel. Now screening at film festivals across the country, the documentary tells the tale of Schemel’s experiences in a famous band and her struggles with heroin addiction which she eventually overcome.

Building a Foundation for Hole… and Heroin Addiction

Schemel grew up in a small town and soon found that most of the world was not as receptive of her gay identity as her supportive parents were. According to Schemel, her mother told her “There’s such a huge world out there for you,” and with the support of her family, Schemel went out to find it. She soon found “her people” and began to play music more and more. It wasn’t long before she was introduced to Courtney Love and other members of the band, Hole… and heroin.

Schemel’s Heroin Addiction

Her heroin addiction was not at all connected to her identity as a lesbian. Though many gay and lesbian youth turn to drug and alcohol addiction as a way to escape the pain and guilt that they feel for the discrimination they face, this was not Schemel’s experience. For her, heroin started out as something to try, but she had a genetic predisposition for the development of addiction so experimental use quickly turned into something more serious.

Heroin Addiction Treatment for Schemel

After a few years of living with an active heroin addiction and continuing to tour with Hole, Schemel soon lost control. She left the band and began the process of seeking treatment for heroin addiction – but it was a long road.

When asked what helped her to finally start living a clean and sober life, Schemel said: “The small things like the small estimable acts like taking time to help and teach drum students or teach rock and roll camp for girls and that got me back to being around music. Now I do all kinds of stuff with music. It was a slow return, you know?”

Schemel hopes that the documentary will remind viewers to be careful of what they wish for. Also, because she lost a lot of friends along the way to heroin addiction, she hopes that the documentary may inspire viewers to make the changes necessary to kick their own habits.

Women who are interested in heroin addiction treatment can call The Orchid today and learn more about our woman-centered heroin rehab program. Call now.

Heroin addiction is a problem across the United States but for years, Baltimore City has been called the Heroin Capital of the US. The latest research says that a great deal of progress has been made in the last few years in terms of lowering the number of those living with active heroin addictions, those admitted to the hospitals for heroin overdoses or heroin-related accidents, and those admitted to heroin rehabs in search of treatment.

Unfortunately, the number of Baltimore City residents needing help for heroin addiction is still higher than almost any other city in the country – but a number of help measures have decreased the number in need dramatically.

Some of the Heroin Addiction Help Measures Baltimore Implemented

Baltimore may not have wiped out the problem of heroin addiction in Baltimore City, but they’ve gone from having a heroin overdose death rate that exceeded their extremely high homicide rate to investing heavily in heroin addiction treatment. Their work shows:  increased funding meant increased care and more 18,000 admissions into heroin rehab increased to 30,000 over five years. A heroin overdose prevention and care system was implemented, which also helped to decrease the number of Baltimore City resident deaths due to heroin addiction. Drug courts were increased and expanded to include more addicts in treatment. Suboxone treatment for heroin addiction was offered on a wider basis, providing more active addicts with an outpatient means of treatment. The end result has been a strong heroin addiction recovery community in Baltimore City and hundreds of saved lives.

Why Heroin Addiction Wasn’t Wiped Out

With all the increased funding and availability of treatment, why isn’t heroin addiction a thing of the past in Baltimore City? Unfortunately, despite the increase in services, it still is outmatched by demand. Waiting lists are months long in some cases and there was limited funding for the area of highest need: uninsured heroin addicts in need of treatment.

Finding Help for Heroin Addiction

If you need help for heroin addiction and the services are lacking in your town, opt for a private heroin rehab that can give you what you need without the long wait list. At Orchid Recovery Center, we offer women a comprehensive heroin detox and addiction treatment program. Call now to find out more about how we can help you fight heroin addiction and learn how to live without drugs of addiction.

Amy Winehouse has famously struggled with a drug addiction that included dependence upon and abuse of heroin, crack and cocaine, among other substances. But she’s worked hard on her sobriety, broken free from the relationship that was keeping her in active addiction and now she’s taking another big step: the singer is getting married.

Since Winehouse divorced Black Fielder-Civil in 2009, she’s been dating British director, Reg Traviss off and on. Now the pair are ready to makie it official and plans are in the works for a ceremony at the end of the year.

Traviss told Britain’s The People newspaper: “Amy and I have been talking about getting married, we are looking to book something very soon. I am thinking of getting something sorted in the next six weeks for the end of the year. I love Amy very much. She’s a wonderful, talented, lovely girl.”

A Different Kind of Comeback

Though Winehouse has been somewhat absent from the music world in the past couple of years, she has not been absent from the media. Everyone has been waiting and watching to see what the controversial singer will do next. What’s she been doing? A little bit of shopping, a little bit of dating, and a lot of staying clean and sober.

All who felt their own experience in Winehouse’s music and lyrics can take heart from her personal turnaround. No longer the star of viral YouTube videos highlighting bad behavior and drug addiction, she proves through action that it is possible to change your life after addiction.

How To Make the Change After Drug Rehab

Making the decision to enter treatment and actually following through are huge in recovery. But holding onto the changes you make and retaining the information that will help you avoid relapse is crucial to a long lasting sobriety. How do you make the change after drug rehab – and make it stick? Here are a few tips:

· Build a strong support network.

· Avoid bars and other places where people are drinking heavily or using drugs.

· Find positive things to focus on.

· Find a job that you enjoy – or at least one that isn’t stressful.

· Go to 12-step meetings, personal therapy, group therapy, yoga, workouts – anything to keep you busy, healthy, happy and clean and sober.

Do you have any tips for avoiding relapse during sobriety? How did you make the change? Do you have any tips to offer?