GROUP PUSHING METHADONE CLINIC SEEKS TO PARTNER WITH LOCAL MEDICAL FACILITIES

JOHNSON CITY - A group proposing to open a methadone clinic in Johnson City
says they don't want to cause division in the medical community, but
partnership.

"Our intention has never been to set up a division, but to work jointly,"
said Terre Grable, a counselor at the Middle Tennessee Treatment Center.
"The issue is not we're coming to hurt, but to help." Grable works with a
group under the management of Dr. Steven Ritchie, who has filed a
certificate of need application with the Tennessee Health Facilities
Commission to open a clinic projected to serve 250 people in its first two
years of operation in Johnson City.

Officials from the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State
University, Frontier Health and the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs
Medical Center at Mountain Home are opposed to the clinic.

Those groups say they already offer addiction treatment programs and do it
"without substituting one drug for another."

The certificate of need states that the Johnson City Addiction Research and
Treatment Center would seek partnership opportunities with Quillen and
other providers like it has in Nashville and Memphis.

Grable said in Nashville students, residents and physicians from the
medical school at Vanderbilt work closely with the methadone clinic there.

Grable said her clinic works with people who have tried treatments like the
ones offered in the region and failed.

"Generally, what we have found is a lot of our patients have tried
inpatient treatment numerous times and have failed at it," she said.

She said many people in the region addicted to opium-based drugs have to go
out of state for treatment.

She said Georgia has 28 methadone clinics, while Tennessee only has six.

"Clearly the need is there," she said.

Grable and the staff in Nashville take issue with the idea that methadone
treatment is "trading one drug for another."

"Truly you're not," she said, citing addicts being treated with methadone
who are able to maintain stable employment and improve family relationships
as well as the decline in illegal activity.

"If a person is in active addiction, they are not able to do that," Grable
said. "Some people get confused - they think we're substituting one drug
for another - the clients' lifestyles are different."

She said many people involved in inpatient addiction treatment end up
leaving early or having severe withdraw effects.

Addicts in the Johnson City area and areas across the state "go unreached
simply because of the stigma," she said.

The certificate of need application also states that counseling will be
mandatory for all patients at the clinic.

"Counseling is a very key component," said Grable.

She cites a "more holistic approach" to addiction treatment and said
patients being treated by methadone can "go beyond relapse prevention."

"It's a tool that allows us to address the client on a much more
comprehensive level," she said.

The application will be heard at the June meeting of the HFC.