St. Vincent Kokomo responds to increased demand for local addiction treatment

“It’s just sort of shifted which drug is being used. We’re seeing a lot more heroin addiction whereas before it was a lot more prescription pill addiction,” said Rudy, who is executive director of diagnostic treatment services at St. Vincent. “Certainly in our community, the fact the Wagoner Clinic closed – that was a big source of pain medication.”

In 2013, Kokomo police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raided former medical doctor Don Wagoner’s clinics in Burlington and Kokomo, where they found evidence doctors at the clinics were over-prescribing pain pills. Wagoner pleaded guilty to eight of 20 felony charges related to drug dealing, and four of the eight other clinic employees arrested also pleaded guilty to charges related to drug dealing; two cases are still pending, and two cases were dismissed when the employees cooperated with the investigation.

Howard County residents are still paying the price for those medical professionals’ actions.

From January to July this year, Howard County has lost 25 people to overdose deaths, and Howard County Coroner Jay Price says toxicology reports on other deaths are still pending. In the past, the county has averaged about 20 overdose deaths a year. Chuck McCoskey, Howard County's assistant chief of probation, has tallied a total of 38 deaths so far this year related in any way to drug or alcohol use, not just overdosing.

A similarly disturbing trend can be seen statewide in recent years. In 1999, 25 people died in Indiana from overdoses related to opioid abuse, according to the Indiana State Department of Health. By 2013, that number had climbed to 168, and sat at 250 as recently as 2011.

As Federal Special Agent Louis Arona noted at a presentation at Tipton High School last month, it’s common for people abusing prescription painkillers to transition to using heroin because heroin is cheaper and easier to get. 

St. Vincent Kokomo has seen an influx of people in need of its Intensive Outpatient (IOP) treatment, a type of group therapy that meets for three hours a day three times a week for about eight weeks, depending on individuals’ needs. In July, the hospital hired more staff to offer a fourth IOP session, reducing the wait time to get in from about six weeks to one or two weeks, Rudy said. Each session accommodates up to 12 people.

“Just the volume of people needing to get in, we just weren’t keeping up with it,” said Rudy, who has worked at St. Vincent Kokomo since 1987 and helped start the Trinity House, which provides the mental and behavioral health services at St. Vincent Kokomo.

Initially, people admitted to the Trinity House are given an assessment within 24 to 48 hours to determine their level of addiction and level of care needed, and then a psychiatric addiction nurse will determine the best course of treatment.

Trinity houses a 16-bed unit for addiction and mental health treatments, and as many as eight of those beds at a time are designated for people going through a three- to five-day detox. From there, addicts can enter IOP and other self-help groups offered by various community organizations. St. Vincent Kokomo also provides free after care at least once a week to help people stay on track in their sobriety.

“Typically, we don’t turn anybody away for detox. If we can’t take them, we’ll find another place for them,” Rudy said. “It’s rare that we’re at capacity for detox.”

Rudy is pleased to hear recent discussion from the Howard County Opioid Overdose Task Force about the possibility of opening a long-term addiction treatment center in Kokomo.

“What the community has been lacking for a long time is really safe housing [for addicts],” Rudy said, adding that people who have just gone through detox will struggle if they move back into the same environment where they were using. “One of the problems in this country is we have not dedicated the resources to addiction treatment that other diagnoses get.”