New approach required as Nevada ranks third in U.S. deaths from painkillers
LAS VEGAS – Making a concerted effort to better serve the hundreds of people in Clark County struggling with opiate addiction caused by the scourge of chronic pain, Solutions Recovery, Inc. has completely overhauled its approach to chronic pain treatment.
The new chronic pain program is designed to address the co-occurring addiction and psychological issues commonly associated with long-term opiate use. The new treatment protocol aims to attack the dual-pronged crisis of chronic pain and opiate abuse as a public health issue with an underlying medical diagnosis.
The Solutions Recovery program includes physical exercise, physical therapy, extremity and spinal adjustments, trigger point therapy, group and individual therapy, family education and therapy, and education geared toward understanding pain and it’s underlying effects.
Residents of Southern Nevada have a unique need for treatment options and chronic pain programs. The Clark County coroner’s office has determined oxycodone, a widely prescribed pain medication in the opiate family, to be the county’s deadliest drug. Oxycodone has unseated methadone, another prescription painkiller, as well as street drugs heroin and methamphetamine as the culprit behind the largest number of area deaths. In an effort to tackle the scourge of addiction in the community and decrease the numbers of lives lost and families destroyed by chronic pain and its regular accompaniment, opiate addiction, Solutions Recovery has rolled out an entirely new approach to treating these issues in hopes of saving lives.
“While many Americans imagine ‘hardcore’ street drugs such as heroin and cocaine to be the biggest threats to our communities, more people actually die from prescription painkillers each year than from those two drugs combined.” said David Marlon, president and co-founder of Solutions Recovery. “We want to remove fear from the equation when talking about chronic pain and opiate addiction so we can address people’s problems without shame and get to the root of this disease.”
Restructuring the chronic pain treatment program at Solutions Recovery is only one part of the treatment center’s approach to facing up to Clark County’s opiate addiction struggles. Raising public awareness of the scourge of illicit opiate use and addiction, even by those who were originally prescribed the drugs legitimately under the care of a responsible physician, is a key tenet of the organization’s mission. When left untreated, opiate addiction resulting from the very real medical issue of chronic pain can result in workplace injuries, overdose deaths and turning to even more dangerous habits such as heroin or other street drugs when prescription drugs are unavailable or unaffordable.
Solutions Recovery aims to address opiate addiction by attacking the underlying cause of this disease: chronic pain. Through sophisticated therapies, innovative drugs and regular counseling, freedom from opiate addiction is entirely possible. One patient, identified only as Rachel, found her life spinning out of control after a painful on-the-job injury requiring cervicalgia surgery.
After more and more drugs were added but pain did not decrease, Rachel ended up in a 14-year drug abuse cycle that seemed hopeless. After treatment, she has experienced an 80 percent improvement in her pain levels and is completely free of opiates, giving her back both her mobility and her life.
“If you or someone you know may have an opiate addiction resulting from chronic pain, time is of the essence,” Marlon said. “Left untreated, opiate addiction can result in missed work, debilitating withdrawal symptoms and dangerous behaviors such as seeking opiates or street drugs through illicit channels.”
Solutions Recovery, Inc. was established by David Marlon in 2005 as a chemical dependency recovery program. Previously the vice president of Sierra Health Services Inc.’s Western region’s operations, Marlon originally created the company with the needs of business executives in mind, but Solutions Recovery soon found itself increasingly treating those executives’ children.
Today, Solutions Recovery is Southern Nevada’s premiere licensed residential treatment center. A 60-bed drug and alcohol treatment center, it provides detox, residential intensive outpatient and individual counseling services to patients suffering from chemical dependency. Plans are in the works to open 40 more beds within the next 12 months.
To provide a multi-faceted approach to addressing these issues, Solutions Recovery addresses the following afflictions: alcohol addiction; drug addiction; prescription drug addiction; chronic pain; and mental disorder, including anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, eating disorders, grief, problem gambling and sexual trauma. All programs are custom-tailored, and staff members are on hand 24 hours a day to ensure those who want to get help can receive it as soon as they’re ready; when they come in for treatment, they will see the same person with whom they spoke on the phone.
For more information on Solutions Recovery, visit solutions-recovery.com or call its 24-hour hotline at 855-708-6995.