When a patient makes a decision to see Pete Lane, D.O., and Hazel Woodward, they either have seen the light or feel the pain.

Pete Lane, medical director of the Addiction Recovery Program, and Hazel Woodward, program director, are part of a multidisciplinary team that treats those enrolling in the program.

“By the time they come here, they’ve stopped having fun,” says Woodward, program director of the Addiction Recovery Program. “Now they have to use drugs just to feel normal. They’re not getting high any more.”

The Addiction Recovery Program unites renowned specialists, innovative treatments, advanced research and state-of-the-art medical resources to create a strong network of support for each patient.

The program can help anyone with a chemical dependency and other addictive disorders, including sexual addiction, gambling compulsivity and shopping compulsivity.

“Our patients have access to more than 700 expert physicians in more than 30 medical fields, including psychology and psychiatry, should they need it,” says Lane, medical director of the Addiction Recovery Program. “Our staff is a true multidisciplinary team, and members blend expertise and experience in a multitude of areas — from spirituality, social work and relationships to pain management, sexual abuse, grief and trauma.”

Lane diagnoses and detoxes patients, and a staff of six counselors guides them through recovery. All treatment services — from assessment to inpatient/outpatient services to follow-up care — is in one place to provide advanced care for everyone, including family members.

The goal is to restore patients and their loved ones to productive lives and help them abstain from all mood-altering chemicals. Each patient undergoes a comprehensive evaluation on an inpatient or outpatient basis, and several levels of care are available, including:
• A detoxification program
• A recovery stabilization unit, which provides a 24-hour safe environment
• A partial hospitalization program, which combines components of outpatient and inpatient treatment
• Intensive outpatient programs enabling patients to work while learning about recovery
• A Professionals Resource Program that serves health-care professionals throughout the Southeast with addictive disorders and mental health issues
• A weekly Trauma Track, which addresses the needs of patients who struggle with the after-effects of traumatic events experienced from childhood to adulthood
• A Grief Recovery Track, which meets weekly to focus on unresolved issues related to grief and loss
• The Relapse Prevention Track, which helps patients understand the personal, social and clinical factors that may contribute to relapse
• Other tracks that include anger management, a weekly spirituality focus group and a gender focus group

Painkillers popular
The most common abuse by patients is prescription drugs, and according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Americans are using painkillers more than ever before.

Between 1997 and 2007 the volume of five major painkillers sold and distributed in the United States rose by 90 percent. Americans bought in excess of 200,000 pounds of codeine, hydrocodone, meperidine, morphine and oxycodone. That’s the equivalent of 300 milligrams of painkillers for each member of the population.

Most of the increased sales came in pills that contain oxycodone, the active ingredient in the painkiller OxyContin. Its sales rose by nearly 600 percent in the eight years between 1997 and 2005, according to Associated Press reports. Lane says acquiring these drugs is easier than one might think.

“Go to a friend’s house and you can rifle through a medicine cabinet,” he says. “Kids can steal it from their parents. You can buy them anywhere off the street, and kids can get them easily in high school. You can buy any of them off the Internet except for methadone. It’s that simple.”

Measuring success
Woodward says drugs and alcohol are symptoms of the problem. The ultimate problem, she says, is the pain the person is trying to mask by using drugs. She says there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a patient fight to get better and make it. Sometimes the road that is traveled to sobriety is long and painful. 

So how does she measure patient success?

“Success or progress is seeing a reduction in the level of their denial of the problem and their ability to demonstrate willingness, open-mindedness and honesty to try something different,” Woodward says.

And for that, the patients who embrace treatment earn Woodward’s respect.

“To me, our patients are so brave,” she says. “Imagine for treatment, going somewhere and telling a bunch of strangers some of the bad things you’ve done. How amazing is that? I don’t know too many people that are willing to admit some of the things our patients have admitted. It takes a lot of courage to step in here, but it takes a lot of stamina to stay.”

To learn more about the Addiction Recovery Program, call 934-7008.