MONROE — A gap in addiction services for the Sky Valley now is sealed. A company called Ideal Option had its quiet first week in a business center at Lewis and Main streets.
The company focuses on reversing chemical dependency through medicine, counseling and monitoring.
The clinic gives prescriptions to take to a pharmacy. It doesn't administer medication in-house, and isn't a drug injection site.
Ideal Option offers suboxone as well as being able to offer Vivitrol and Sublocade injections later in the recovery process.
It's also one of the few to take Medicare and Medicaid (Apple Health), a large changemaker for people who can't afford the service otherwise.
Walk-ins are allowed at its office located upstairs.
Suboxone is their initial prescription for opioid users. It's a replacement medication that can help manage opioid withdrawals.
Ideal Option says it can arrange a suboxone prescription on the first visit. Most pharmacies have suboxone immediately available, medical assistant Lisa House said, and if not, then Ideal Option can arrange with its network.
It comes as film strips that go under the tongue, physician assistant Josh Morrison said. It also can offer treatment
Then, they'll anticipate seeing the person twice a week during the first three weeks to start. Visits reduce as recovery is evident.
The labs can screen for fentanyl but also xylazine, the latest drug being mixed in.
Almost all opioids are synthetic today, but detecting xylazine is important because xylazine and fentanyl are being blended into methamphetamine and cocaine without the buyer knowing. Xylazine, a sedative, is being blended into fentanyl.
The company also treats for addiction to benzodiazepine (Xanax pills or similar) and alcohol addiction.
April Provost is part of the company’s field outreach team visiting where people who might benefit from treatment hang out. “It’s meeting people where they’re at,” she said. She also lived the experience, as addiction took her to her breaking point.
There were less services in Monroe some five years ago when a county embedded social worker convinced her to get help, Provost described. There still aren’t any clean-and-sober houses open in Monroe, she noted.
Her past experience is why she is willing to share her story and promote a message of recovery.
Addicts experience shame and guilt, and find their social networks shrink, she said. A byproduct of doing anything to get money for drugs is usually the actions to feed the drug habit alienate any of the addict’s friends and family who are hurt by lies, thefts and manipulation.
There is a “wide funnel” on how people come to Ideal Option, Morrison said. These include court referrals, police referrals and self-initiated visits.
Even though more services are open, the need has escalated, Provost said.
“The landscape of illicit drugs has completely transitioned. The need greatly exceeds what can be offered,” Provost said.
She sees this outpatient service as an important way to bring people through recovery. Wait times for inpatient beds are growing, and getting a substance user to go for recovery usually requires quick action.
Morrison previously worked as a case manager at Seattle’s Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) nonprofit. People sometimes resist inpatient treatment because an institution traumatized them in the past, he said.
Beyond lab screens and arranging patient counseling, it also does blood tests to test and treat hepatitis. A large number of intravenous drug users get infected with hepatitis, House said.
Ideal Option’s old Monroe site was a dud. It was somewhere in the Fryelands Industrial Park without nearby bus service. The organization selected downtown for a few reasons.
“It was a true labor of love to get a clinic opened back in this community,” Provost said.
The Monroe Ideal Option is open Monday through Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s closed for a lunch hour from noon to 1 p.m.
