medication assisted treatment

Six years ago, if you had told Jamie Cline that today, she would be the mom of a toddler, working at a doctor’s office and completing her bachelor’s degree, she would have thought you were nuts. But, she is doing all of those things. On top of all of that, Cline is also nearly six years into recovery from drug addiction.

A couple of blocks off U.S. Route 12 in Walla Walla, Blue Mountain Heart to Heart has been treating people with substance use disorder for over a decade. But, for years, the nonprofit was unable to quickly offer a proven treatment for opioid use disorder: medication-assisted treatment.Staffers would have to arrange for patients to get an assessment with a trained substance use professional elsewhere to start the medication. Getting that assessment, and then, getting started on the medication, buprenorphine, used to take weeks.

For people seeking medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorder in some rural Washington communities, there could soon be more options. Recent grant funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has been allocated to develop medication-assisted treatment (MAT) at rural clinics.