Long-term drug treatment facilities at former Edwin Shaw site aim to fill gaps, prevent relapses

Hospitals in Colorado are changing their approach to opioid crisis by treating patients that come in as emergent cases and rushing them into medication-assisted addiction treatment. The model has proved so successful that doctors are now looking to expand this approach to methamphetamine users as well.

A facility in Ottawa called The Oaks gives alcoholics small amounts of alcohol throughout the day, and a place to live, to help them manage their addiction. Although research on the effectiveness of alcoholic recovery programs is limited, facilities like The Oaks that don't force abstinence from alcohol actually end up costing taxpayers less. This is because alcoholics in these facilities take fewer trips to the emergency room and have fewer run-ins with law enforcement, because they aren't on the streets binge drinking.

Manchester, New Hampshire is seeing early success with a new program that helps keep mothers battling addiction in contact with their children. Based on the premise that keeping parents connected with their child during their addiction recovery will result in more successful recoveries, the program provides the supports for overnight visits and consistent contact.

A two-hour investigation places America’s heroin crisis in a fresh and provocative light -- telling the stories of individual addicts, but also illuminating the epidemic's years-in-the-making social context, deeply examining shifts in U.S. drug policy, and exploring what happens when addiction is treated like a public health issue, not a crime.

In San Francisco, 23 percent of homeless people return to the street after transitional housing programs. A New York program gives the mentally ill and homeless individual apartments alongside average New Yorkers and has had an 84 percent retention rate.

The Dallas County deflection program diverts low-level, non-violent offenders (many experiencing homelessness and mental illness) away from jail and toward voluntary mental health, substance abuse, and stabilization services. The program served 918 people last fiscal year and started a newer eight-bed pilot that connected 11 clients with services in its first month of operation.

Compass House provides safety and support for women, many of them newly released from incarceration, who struggle with substance misuse issues or mental illness. The transitional housing program is the first of its kind in a state that is sorely lacking in such services. Peer support and professional counseling and treatment can last a year or more. The women in the program, who are at high risk of homelessness without a refuge like Compass House, pay 30% of their income for rent, with the rest of the costs covered by a state agency.

An upscale rehabilitation center is coming to Eagle County in Colorado, after similar models have seen success throughout California. Although many residents have opposed the development, developers hope that this addiction-treatment facility will help decrease the stigma for those in the community who need to seek help.

Eight California hospitals use government funds to play for the E.D. Bridge program. They dispense buprenorphine on demand in an effort to address the gap in care between withdrawals and entry into rehabilitation programs. Then the hospital connects patients to larger treatment centers for ongoing care. A Yale-New Haven Hospital study shows that patients given a dose of buprenorphine in the emergency room are twice as likely to be in treatment a month later.

Many people who struggle with mental health and substance abuse have trouble maintaining a consistent living situation. The Portland Hotel in the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver came to be operated by a woman named Liz Evans who decided to give the mentally ill residents a safe place to live, regardless of outbursts or poor living habits or drug use. Removing the fear of eviction improved the mental health of the residents and is the same philosophy implemented now by the Portland Hotel Society.