Contact: Val Compagna, 207-661-6633, Valerie.compagna@mainehealth.org
Brunswick, Maine – Mid Coast Hospital’s Addiction Resource Center, managed by Maine Behavioral Healthcare has become the first in the state of Maine to offer scalable treatment for individuals with Stimulant Use Disorder using Contingency Management protocols. The program is in the pilot stages with a small population to begin receiving care on May 30.
What is Contingency Management?
Contingency Management is the only proven effective treatment modality for individuals with Stimulant Use Disorder. This includes people struggling with stimulants like amphetamines or cocaine. Contingency Management is a behavioral intervention that uses incentives to promote positive behavior change. This program is modeled after California’s statewide “Recovery Incentives” program and is done in collaboration with the same national experts that developed their program.
Using this behavioral intervention, patients will have two office visits each week to provide a urine drug screen and if it is negative for stimulants they will get an incentive. The incentives typically take the form of a gift card, which cannot be exchanged for cash and is specially programmed to prohibit purchase of alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, or firearms.
For Clinical Director Christine Wyman, LCSW, LADS, CCS, the pilot is the culmination of more than two years of exploring ways to treat the disorder.
“We found that there is no medication available to treat stimulant use disorder,” said Wyman. “Contingency Management is the only behavioral intervention demonstrated through research to be effective. The incentive needs to be meaningful for the patient and is most effective if patients are eligible for at least $500 a year per patient.”
Federal regulations cap incentives at $75 per year through Medicaid, not nearly enough to provide effective treatment. To provide an effective intervention that is consistent with the research, the program is supported through the MaineHealth Innovation Center to cover the costs of the incentives, and through the State of Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services to cover other aspects of the program. Training and consultation is being provided through the Co-occurring Collaborative Serving Maine (CCSME) and Richard Rawson, PhD.
The pilot program is expected to treat approximately 30 people this year with a goal to grow the program in other areas of MaineHealth.
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About Maine Behavioral Healthcare
As part of MaineHealth, Maine Behavioral Healthcare (MBH) is a not-for-profit organization serving more than 20,000 children, adolescents and adults at over 30 locations throughout southern, western, and mid-coast Maine, providing a continuum of coordinated mental healthcare from outpatient community offices to inpatient acute care at Spring Harbor Hospital. Learn more at www.mainebehavioralhealthcare.org.
About Mid Coast–Parkview Health
Mid Coast–Parkview Health is a dynamic healthcare system that addresses a full continuum of community health, wellness, and prevention needs with a full-service 93-bed hospital (Mid Coast Hospital), a diverse medical group (Mid Coast Medical Group), senior health care (Mid Coast Senior Health), and home healthcare services (CHANS Home Health & Hospice). Mid Coast–Parkview Health is part of MaineHealth, the largest health system in northern New England, with approximately 22,000 employees providing preventive care, diagnosis and treatment to 1.1 million residents in Maine and New Hampshire.