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Substance abuse treatment providers and recovery centers around Vermont are now offering over-the-phone services and video sessions to increase social distancing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even the Wilson House, the former home of Bill Wilson, also known as “Bill W,” and a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, has had to shutter its doors in East Dorset this week.
“There will be no more AA or Al-Anon meetings, seminars or retreats in the building effective immediately,” reads the center’s website.
“I would say that most of our evening meetings were in excess of 50 people,” Berta Maginniss, The Wilson House executive director, said Friday. (On Saturday, the governor restricted meetings of more than 10 people.)
Now, the center’s Facebook page provides information about online sessions. She said with many church halls and community gathering places that have for years hosted 12-step programs closing in recent days, people in need of support need to look to alternative ways to take part, including online.
Treatment centers and recovery centers say they are also moving to new platforms to provide support to people in need.
‘It’s a tough situation, there is no question about it,” said Gary De Carolis, executive director of the Turning Point Center of Chittenden County. “I think community is probably the most important part of someone’s recovery, being able to connect with people.”
And now, he said, at his facility, the largest of the state’s peer-to-peer recovery centers, that is happening over the phone, through video calls, and online meetings. Information about those online meetings and services are available on the organization’s website and Facebook page.
“Most of the 12-step meetings that we have here have gone to a virtual format,” De Carolis said. “So they are happening, it’s just in a different way.”
He said the other 10 Turning Point and peer-to-peer recovery centers have also closed their doors to the public in response to COVID-19.
At the Chittenden County facility in Burlington, according to De Carolis, more than 100 people come into the center daily for a variety of reasons, from taking part in a group meeting to just having coffee and talking to another person.
“We have space here for people to come and meet with other friends,” he said.
De Carolis said the office is staffed with at least one person during the week between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to answer phone calls and emails.
He said recovery coaches at the center are doing their best to try to stay in contact, through phone or online, with as many people as possible.
“You can’t do this by yourself – recovery,” he said. “You do need to be connected to people, whatever it takes to reach out, an email or a phone call, this is the time to do that.”
Kurt White, senior director of ambulatory services at the Brattleboro Retreat, said the facility has taken several steps in response to the COVID-19.
“We’re doing quite a bit more with screening people for COVID-19 at the front door and not having people be in waiting rooms or groups and keeping social distancing so that therapists will sit more than 6 feet away from them,” he said.
Patients who received daily medication as part of their opioid treatment program are still receiving their medication, he added. However, White said, when appropriate, patients who may have been getting a single daily dose are receiving a larger supply to cover a number of days.
“If we can at all give people some sort of leeway to be away and at home with the supply of medications we are doing that,” he said.
Staff are also taking part in counseling sessions with clients on video through online services, and in some “limited” cases in person, White said.
And, he said, inpatient services are still available with screening for patients for COVID-19. “Inpatient services are operating currently,” he said.
Other medication assisted treatment programs around the state are instituting similar changes, including The Howard Center’s Chittenden Clinic in South Burlington. The clinic had served between 450 and 500 people a day, but with the latest take-home protocols that number has fallen to an average of about 200.
Howard Center’s First Call for Chittenden County crisis line is continuing to provide support around the clock at 802-488-7777, according Adam Brooks, the center’s assistant director of communications.
Also, Brooks said, The Safe Recovery program is still continuing with their needle exchange program. “They provide clean needles for those who are in addiction,” Brooks said.
He said the counseling aspects of the program are going to phone conversations and video conferencing.
Rutland Regional Medical Center’s West Ridge Center has also implemented changes, according to Faith Stone, the center’s director. West Ridge is a medication assisted out-patient treatment program for people diagnosed with opioid dependence.
“We have substantially decreased the foot traffic in and out of West Ridge,” Stone said. “There has been no interruption in medication for folks.”
Like other providers, she said, in appropriate cases, patients are receiving more than a daily dose of their medication.
“There’s a few that will need to come every day, some maybe every other day,” Stone said.
The facility, she added, remains open for new admissions.
“I have no idea what the access to illicit substances is out there on the streets right now,” Stone said “But now maybe this is the time that’ll push people to treatment.”
White, of the Brattleboro Retreat, said it appears that a lot of people are “hunkering down” leading to a decrease in demand for services at this time.
“Epidemics like this hit the most vulnerable populations much harder than they do individuals with certain sorts of privilege and protections,” White said. “And, and if you’re struggling with an addictive illness, then very likely you’re struggling with some kind of significant marginalization and vulnerability that is going to make you more at risk.”
He added, “We are very much wanting people to know help is still out there.”
