BIDDEFORD — Cynthia Rose marked four months of sobriety from opioids on Monday. Seated at a conference table at Maine Behavioral Health in Biddeford, she told her story to an array of medical professionals and a member of the Maine House, Ken Fredette, who is also a Republican candidate for governor.

Rose, 37, said she’d been a drug addict “pretty much my whole life,” and had tried various methods, including abstinence and methadone, in her quest to get clean.

“I got sick of my life,” said Rose. In December, she said, she was facing a choice — go to a detoxification program or go to jail.

She was able to get into a detox program in Worcester, Massachusetts, and then into the MBH program, an intensive, medication-assisted program. 

She said she has had the support of her parents, whom she said took her in when she had no where to live.

These days, she’s a resource coach for others in the program.

“It feels different this time,” said Rose. “I like being sober. I like my life.”

Rose is disabled and insured through MaineCare. Felonies in her past have meant she’s been rejected for part-time work, she said.

Andy Allen, who has been clean and sober for two years, is currently working two jobs until one of them, scheduled to become full-time, does so. He is uninsured.

Allen, 38, who now lives in Portland, was raised in Falmouth. He was undergoing treatment for a lower spine problem several years ago — and said his physician at the time prescribed 10 pills a day. He lost his health insurance when he divorced, and started buying opioids on the street. Then a friend gave him suboxone, but when that ran out, Allen started looking for help.

“I was in rough shape, I was at a point where I didn’t have hope,” Allen said, until he found the MaineHealth outpatient Integrated Medication Assisted Treatment program at Maine Behavioral Health.

Rose and Allen’s lives changed, they said, because of the “hub and spoke” model at MBH. Besides Biddeford, the program is offered at MBH in Springvale and in Rockland.

The hub and spoke provides intensive outpatient therapy three hours a day, three days a week at each of the three hubs, plus medication and an array of other counseling and case management programs. Over time, clients moves into the “spoke” portion of the program, where they are treated by their primary care physician with support from MBH.

“This is a perfect fit in my mind,” said Dr. Jessika Morin, medical director of the program and a physician at Southern Maine Health Care.

Supporters of the hub and spoke approach were happy to talk about it and were also looking to Fredette for support for L.D. 1430, which would expand the hub and spoke method of treating people with substance use disorder. Passage of the bill would provide funds to hub and spoke treatment, including medication for the uninsured; provide recovery support services; development of a referral center for substance use disorder using the 211 system and more. The bill carries a $6.6 million price tag. Passed by both the Senate and the House, on Monday the bill was set to go to Appropriations.

Dr. Jonathan Fellers, who works in addiction psychiatry at MBH, said staying away from opioids without medication can be challenging.

He said with suboxone, people are able to succeed. Fellers estimated 50 percent stay sober.

“Not everyone makes it,” he said, but noted the outcome is better than the 10 percent success rate of other non-medication assisted programs.

Southern Maine Heath Care Vice President Sue Hadiaris pointed out that there is shame associated with opioid use disorder that shouldn’t be present.

“It is a disease,” she said. “We don’t add up all those nickels and dimes with … other diseases.”

Katie Harris, MaineHealth senior vice president of  governmental relations, said MBH has had financial challenges providing care and that passage of L.D. 1430 would help. Hadiaris said community hospitals are losing money as well.

Fredette said addiction — where he said drugs take often on more importance than the user’s family — is difficult for people to understand.

He said one of his ideas to help recovery involves establishing a block grant program, funded with a pool of money where an entity could apply, showing how funding would help people in Cumberland, Penobscot, Washington or any other Maine county.

“It’s great to have facilities in York County, but what happens if you’re from Newport or Dover-Foxcroft,” he asked. “Because that is a critical piece.”

Proponents say that is where L.D. 1430 comes in.

Fredette asked where Medicaid expansion might fit in.

Harris said expansion would have an impact on the uninsured.

The discussion moved to work. 

“We want to see the transition back to the workforce for the people who can work,” Fredette said. “We want to be healthy but we want that next piece too.”

 — Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or [email protected].