Substance use disorders occur when the use of drugs or alcohol cause impairment in a person’s life, including health problems, or failure to meet responsibilities at home , work, or school. According to 2023 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, 17% of the U.S. population had a substance use disorder in the previous year. Addiction problems, which are notoriously hard to overcome, present a significant problem for health care providers.
To address the problem, Healthcare Network in Immokalee has launched the Primary Care Addiction Treatment, or PCAT, program, which treats the whole patient. Marlene Gonzalez, MD, is the Clinical Director of the program.
“The whole point of the program is that we're not just treating addiction, we're treating the patient,” said Dr. Gonzalez. “So primary care addiction treatment program is that I'm seeing you as your primary care provider for your diabetes, your high blood pressure, and yes, we're going to treat your addiction as well, because it is a chronic disease. So we're treating the whole person, holistic treatment approach to that.”
Gonzalez and her team hope to lessen the stigma around treatment for substance abuse. They use various behavioral treatments as well as medication, and they tailor their treatment to each patient.
“With addiction, there is a lot of relapsing. So you have to keep them engaged. You have to keep them motivated, you have to put in the work, just like with anything. You want to treat your diabetes, you got to work on your diet, your exercise, and take your medications properly. So that's how we do it, very individual,” she said.
The program is outpatient only, and currently offered to patients over age 18. Patients can self-refer or be referred by their doctor. Currently, the program is actively treating about 26 patients. Gonzalez hopes eventually to include adolescents and pregnant women in the program.
“Next step, hopefully expanding, is to reach to our adolescents and our OB and there's been ongoing training on that for everyone to feel more comfortable to do that work,” Gonzalez said.
The PCAT program is offered at Healthcare Network at Marion E. Fether, 1454 Madison Ave. W., Immokalee, and at Healthcare Network at Friendship Health, 2355 Stanford Ct, Naples.
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