New facility focuses on comprehensive treatment

More than a year ago, Indiana’s governor announced the addition of an opioid-focused recovery center in Greenwood, and now that new facility has opened.

New Vista Outpatient Recovery Center opened earlier this month in an office park off Main Street, and has already started helping patients struggling with addiction.

Through a range of treatment options, from medication, such as Methadone or Vivitrol, to counseling and case workers that can connect people to local services, the program hopes to help people struggling with addiction be able to have a chance at life again.

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The new Greenwood facility is one of five announced by the governor more than a year ago. And nine more were approved by state lawmakers in this year’s legislative session.

The goal is to treat the whole patient and meet the multiple needs they are facing in their struggle with addiction, said Kristen Williams, program director.

The new facility, which is just west of the affiliated Valle Vista Health System, is taking new patients weekly, but is starting slow. The goal is to grow at the same rate as the needs of the population, Williams said.

Eventually, the facility is expecting to have a caseload in the hundreds, said Sherri Jewett, Valle Vista CEO.

“We are keeping it small for now. We want to focus on quality, instead of quantity,” said Kristin Fettig, director of business development.

Already, the facility is getting multiple referrals from clinics in downtown Indianapolis for patients who live or work closer to Greenwood, she said.

The goal of the new outpatient treatment center is to focus on the whole patient, Fettig said.

Patients will come there to get medication-assisted treatment, such as Methadone, but their treatment will also focus on addressing any health issues they have, individual and group counseling and working with case workers, who can help them find jobs or training and get the help they need, she said.

The goal is to be able to lower the dose of the medication they are taking and wean off opioids eventually, but that is far from the only focus, she said.

Medication-assisted treatment, such as Methadone, has gotten a bad reputation, but it is the gold standard of treatment for opioid addiction, said Dr. Simon Feng, medical director of the new facility. Feng also runs a practice in Whiteland focused on managing pain medications.

Methadone has been used to treat opioid addiction for decades, and has proven medical benefits, Feng said.

When patients receive medication-assisted treatment, death rates plummet, they stop getting arrested, infection rates for HIV and Hepatitis C drop and many are able to return to work, Feng said. That is often why clinics that administer Methadone and similar drugs open so early in the morning, so patients can get to work, he said.

The new clinic will be able to meet whatever the patients’ needs are; some may need Methadone, while others may need a different treatment, such as Vivitrol that blocks the effects of opioids drugs, Feng said. He will meet with each patient and prescribe their treatment course, based on what works best for them, he said.

His hope is to see death rates drop significantly, which includes deaths from more than just overdoses, but also suicides, accidents and crime-related deaths that can be associated with opioid use, he said.

Kyle Morris, who is in recovery and also an advocate with the Indiana Addictions Coalition, praised the new center for focusing on helping people struggling with addiction, rather than focusing on the stigma of drug users.

“What we need to see is not how far a person has fallen, but how far they can go,” Morris said.

Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers was initially skeptical of the idea when Valle Vista first approached him about the new outpatient center, he said.

But he also knew his city is in the midst of a huge opioids crisis, and wanted to see residents who are struggling be able to get help, he said. He hopes that the treatment offered, along with community partnerships, such as with local employers, will make Greenwood an example for the rest of the state and show there is hope, he said.

The opioids crisis is a focus statewide, with the issue being a top priority for Gov. Eric Holcomb, said Jim McClelland, state executive director for drug prevention, treatment and enforcement.

Getting treatment fast is key to addressing the crisis, he said. And the odds of recovery are better when using proven treatment methods, such as medication-assisted treatment, he said.

“We’re going to end this scourge that has destroyed so many lives,” McClelland said.

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Valle Vista Health System has opened a new outpatient addiction treatment center:

Name: New Vista Outpatient Recovery Center

Where: 65 Airport Parkway, Suite 104, Greenwood

Services: Medication-assisted treatment, such as Methadone or Vivitrol, individual and group counseling, case management services, health services

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