Recovery Center takes next step in helping combat opioid crisis

MADISON, Wis. — An addiction treatment center is taking the next step in combating the opioid crisis in Dane County. The Department of Health Services gave a $250,000 grant to Tellurian to initiate a case management program and introduce new drugs to help stop the effects of opioids, such as naltrexone and buprenorphine.

“It’s a pure opiate blocker. Once people have that injection every 28 days, they report decreased craving for opiates,” said Tellurian’s medical director, Brian Lochen.

The new services of case management offer one-on-one “points of first contact” with recovery specialists.

“The ability to have case management. People who work with the addicts, besides just getting the injection that blocks the opioids, they need case management. They need other recovery tools,” Lochen said.

Clinicians work directly with patients, driving them to appointments, doing whatever they can to help them help themselves.

“There’s a very big epidemic across our country with heroin. There’s thousands of people dying in our country. In fact, more people die from heroin overdoses than from drunk driving,” said Tellurian CEO Kevin Florek.

This service is already offered in Sauk County, and right now, that county is reporting an 80 percent success rate in patients no longer having the urge to use.

“A lot of folks are doing well. They feel good about it They feel that it’s helped with their recovery,” Lochen said.

Patients need to be sober for at least seven days before program doctors can administer the opioid effect-blocking drug.

“There’s safety in that. They’re not going to overdose because the opioid effect is blocked,” said Lochen.

Through this new program, health professionals are hoping to help those in recovery stay in recovery.

“We feel that we can really save peoples’ lives and make a difference for people in our community,” said Florek.

For more information on available services, you can check out the program’s website here.

For help with heroin or opioid addiction, call 608-204-8447

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