Health department to begin offering methadone treatment

SANDUSKY — The Erie County Health Department's detox center is adding methadone to the list of addictive substances that it will help people deal with. The new offering was approved at a recent health board meeting. Stephanie Salyer, a registered nurse and the department's chief of behavioral health, said she gets two or three calls a week asking if her agency will help people who are addicted to methadone. The detox center helps people end their physical addictions in a medically supervised inpatient setting. It offers treatment to alcoholics and to users of various drugs, including opioids, such as heroin; alcohol; benzodiazepines, such as Valium; and stimulants, such as methamphetamines, cocaine and Ritalin. The health department wants to try offering treatment for methadone to the list of available treatments to see if there is a demand for it, said Pete Schade, Erie County's health commissioner. The health department suspects there will be, according to Schade. "There's a call for it. People would like to get off everything. People have been on methadone for 20 years," Schade said. According to the National Library of Medicine, methadone is an opioid, like heroin, that since the 1950s has been used as a treatment for people suffering from opioid addiction. It is safer than heroin and can be taken as a liquid or a pill. Methadone treatment reduces the injection of drugs and, therefore, helps prevent the spread of the HIV virus that causes AIDS, the medicine library stated. Furthermore, it not only reduces the death rate associated with opioid dependence but there's also a decrease in crime since many heroin addicts feel forced to steal to feed their habit. The use of methadone, however, is not without risks. According to a paper, "Methadone-involved overdose deaths in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," also available online at the National Library of Medicine, the United States had 55,225 methadone-involved overdose deaths between January 1, 2007 and March 31, 2021. Methadone-involved overdose deaths began increasing in April 2020, the paper said. Methadone is supposed to be a temporary method to help people end their opioid addiction, Salyer said. "It's meant to be used as a bridge with the end goal to wean off instead of stopping things cold turkey," Salyer said. "What we've learned over the years is that people are not being weaned." Treatment for methadone addiction should be able to begin in about a couple of weeks, Salyer said. Schade said the health department will be seeking a grant for the new treatment and that the board's approval of the new treatment will be helpful in the grant application. How to get help People can contact the Erie County Detox Center, 420 Superior St., Sandusky, by: • Visiting: eriecohealthohio.com/detox/ • Calling: 419-624-3353