When someone in your immediate circle – a friend, spouse, family member, or other loved one – has opioid use disorder (OUD) and needs professional support for opioid addiction, heroin addiction, or addiction to prescription pain medication, they can find the help they need at a methadone clinic in Tom’s River, NJ.
People with opioid addiction can change their lives with medication-assisted treatment (MAT) with methadone, which is one of three medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD).
Methadone Clinics: What You Need to Know
Methadone clinics are opioid addiction treatment centers, which are officially classified by the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs). These treatment centers meet all the FDA and DEA requirements to provide patients with MAT with methadone. In New Jersey, we operate opioid addiction and heroin treatment centers at various locations with medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), like our methadone treatment services at our methadone clinic in Tom’s River, NJ, called Ocean Medical Services.
Our Methadone Clinic in Tom’s River, NJ
At our methadone clinic in Tom’s River, NJ, we offer medication-assisted treatment (MAT) as part of our addiction treatment services, specifically for people diagnosed with opioid use disorder, heroin use disorder, or prescription opioid use disorder.
About Methadone
Methadone was originally developed as an alternative pain reliever to opium during World War II, to prepare for potential opium shortages. It was sold as a cough reliever in the 1940s before doctors began experimenting with it as a treatment for morphine and heroin addiction. Due to the success of these experiments, the first methadone clinic in the United States opened in New York City in 1964.
Since then – 60 years ago – research has confirmed that methadone is a safe, effective, lifesaving medication for opioid addiction. Methadone helps people with opioid or heroin addiction because it’s a full opioid agonist. This means it has complete affinity for opioid receptors in the brain, and can occupy them easily. However – and this is why doctors use methadone to treat addiction – methadone doesn’t cause the same feelings of euphoria associated with other opioids.
Medication-assisted treatment with one of the three FDA-approved MOUDs is widely considered the gold standard treatment for opioid addiction. It’s part of an approach to treatment called harm reduction.
The Harm Reduction Movement: New Legislation in New Jersey
In response to the ongoing opioid crisis in the U.S., which has negatively impacted people around the country and in New Jersey, the state government passed a series of laws in 2022 that prioritize and expand harm reduction services across the state.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicates methadone treatment programs:
- Reduce frequency of opioid use
- Reduces fatal opioid overdose
- Decreases criminal behavior associated with opioid use
- Decreases spread of disease associated with intravenous drug us
- Improves social, family, academic, and vocational function
- Help people stay in treatment longer
- Reduce premature mortality associated with opioid use
The treatment experts as SAMSHA sum up treatment with methadone as follows:
“Methadone helps individuals achieve and sustain recovery and to reclaim active and meaningful lives.”
When the harm reduction legislation passed in New Jersey, which include the expansion of MAT services and methadone treatment, former New Jersey State Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Hurtle released this statement:
“Research has shown time and again that harm reduction measures work. Our state loses thousands of residents each year to overdoses alone. If we want to help our fellow community members avoid these tragic outcomes, we must offer the resources and [treatment] alternatives they need.”
If that person in your immediate circle needs support for opioid use disorder (OUD), or another type of opioid addiction such as heroin addiction, one thing you can advise is to arrange a full addiction screening with a mental health professional. The result of the screening may indicate opioid use disorder. If so, they may receive a referral for MAT. If they’re in near Tom’s River, NJ, they can pursue treatment with methadone at Ocean Medical Services.
Pinnacle Treatment Centers Methadone Clinic in Tom’s River, NJ
It’s important for everyone to understand that a medication-assisted program is about more than the medication. A methadone program is not only about methadone. It’s about a comprehensive approach to addiction treatment. A treatment plan at Ocean Medical Services may include – in addition to methadone – some, if not all, of the following components:
- Individual counseling/therapy
- Group counseling/therapy
- Coaching on lifestyle changes, including healthy eating, stress management, and daily exercise/activity
- Education on the science of addiction and recovery
- Complementary support, such as mindfulness, meditation, and yoga
- Community support programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA) SMART Recovery
- Aftercare and case management services
The goal of these services, and the overall goal of harm reduction, is to bring treatment to people in need in the way they’ll accept it, when and how they’re willing to accept it. Not everyone responds to treatment in the same way. Therefore, at Pinnacle Treatment Centers, each treatment plan meets the unique needs of each individual.
Finding Treatment in Tom’s River, NJ
If a friend or loved one seek addiction treatment at a methadone clinic in Tom’s River, NJ, don’t hesitate to call us at Ocean Medical Services. To ensure you find the treatment that best meets your needs or the needs of a friend or loved one, we also encourage you to do your due diligence and research treatment centers independently. These resources can help you as you seek evidence-based treatment:
- For residents of New Jersey: Addiction Treatment Providers -Treatment Directory Application (rutgers.edu)
- For people in New Jersey without insurance: 1-844 ReachNJ.GOV at (844) 732-2465
- IME Addiction Access Center: call (844) 276-2777 for 24/7/365 referral support
- The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) online treatment locator
The Impact of the Opioid Crisis on Ocean County
At the beginning of the opioid crisis, in the year 2001 – before anyone labeled it a crisis – data from Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show that just over 19,000 people died of a fatal drug overdose. The latest complete set of data we have, from 2022 indicates over 108,000 people died of drug overdose – with around ¾ of those deaths attributable to opioids. That’s a staggering increase of almost 460 percent.
In the state of New Jersey, officials created the New Jersey Opioid Dashboard and the NJ Cares Opioid-Related Data website to track overdose deaths. These following figures demonstrate the impact of the crisis on Ocean County, New Jersey
Fatal Opioid Overdose: Six-Year Trend for Ocean County, NJ
- 2018: 219
- 2019: 204
- 2020: 245
- 2021: 242
- 2022: 186
- 2023: 168
Since 2020 – the infamous pandemic year – rates of overdose in Ocean County have decreased, year-over-year. That’s encouraging. It’s important to understand these figures in context, however. This trend in decrease appeared after close to 20 years of increase nationwide. It’s also important to humanize every number we see, and remember that each overdose represents pain, grief, and heartbreak for families and loved ones, and a tragic outcome for the person who overdosed.
At Pinnacle Treatment Centers, we know that each of those overdose deaths was preventable. That’s why we continue to offer harm reduction services, including MAT with methadone, at our methadone clinic in Tom’s River, NJ. We’ll continue to offer our services as long as the need for addiction treatment exists – and we hope to be a big part of the reason this need decreases, rather than increases, over the next several years.