New federal laws went into effect earlier this summer which affect the recovery process. Those laws are proving to be successful, especially for Montanans who are battling addiction and trying to get to the next step in recovery.
“In the past still [if they] wanted to be on methadone, but just were so far away from it, didn't have the funds to get here,” says Greg Shiver, physician assistant at Community Medical Services (CMS).
Shiver has worked at CMS in Belgrade for the last five years. He has seen firsthand the changes the federal government made around methadone.
“Montana was the first state to accept all the new laws and implement them really quickly early this summer. And that's helped a lot, especially being in such a rural state,” says Shiver.
When he first started in 2019, Shiver says he was seeing about 80 patients. That number has jumped to around 200 this year.
“When I first started, we saw a lot of heroin. We saw a lot of OxyContin. Pretty much the only thing we see now is fentanyl,” says Shiver.
Old rules surrounding methadone clinics like CMS required those battling drug addiction to come in every day.
“So basically, the change that took place was when a client starts on our services on the dome, they used to have to come in, six days a week,” says Clinic Manager Traci Von Schriltz.
But now, the clinic is able to offer a higher dosage of methadone every few days.
“They can start right now, coming in Monday, Wednesday, Friday, right at the beginning. And every 28 days they jump up to weekly,” says Von Schriltz.
Shiver says about one-third of the patients they see at the Belgrade clinic come from Butte. They’re also seeing more rural Montanans taking advantage of the flexible treatment service.
“Be allowed to go into a medical facility every day to pick it up as a huge barrier, jobs, taking kids to school, things like that,” says Von Schriltz.
Shiver hopes that as drug addiction continues to grip the lives of many across the state, more people can look to them for help.
“Excited that hopefully a whole lot more Montanans into our clinic or into any clinics here in Montana,” says Shiver.
