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What’s New: Substance Use Disorder and Medication Assisted Treatment Services

November 27, 2019

In August of 2019, we announced that Greater Family Health was awarded funding from the State of Illinois to begin offering a wider array of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment services. This funding allows Greater Family Health to expand its existing Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) services, among others. Greater Family Health’s MAT services are already available at Greater Family Health in Sycamore, Greater Family Health in Elgin, and at Greater Family Health in Hanover Park.

Our Team has been hard at work developing the expanded SUD services with best practice standards in mind. Our goal is to ensure that our patients have access to a wide range of services that meet their individual needs during their journey of recovery. Our SUD Team is composed of Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors, Certified Recovery Support Specialist, Physicians, and Care Managers.

The inclusion of Certified Recovery Support Specialists as part of the Care Team is important to the success of our program. They are credentialed personnel who use the unique insights gained through their own personal recovery experience. Research shows that patients have the highest rate of success with recovery when their treatment uses a combination of approaches including medication, therapy, care management, and peer support.

What can Greater Family Health patients expect when starting SUD/MAT services at Greater Family Health?

Everyone entering SUD/MAT treatment receives a clinical assessment. A complete assessment is needed to help the Care Team offer the type of treatment that best suits each individual. The assessment also helps the Care Team work with the patient to design an effective Treatment Plan.

A Treatment Plan is a written guide to treatment that includes the person’s goals, treatment activities designed to help him or her meet those goals, ways to tell whether a goal has been met, and a timeframe for meeting goals. The Treatment Plan helps both the person in treatment and Greater Family Health treatment professionals stay focused and on track. The Treatment Plan is adjusted over time to meet changing needs and ensure that it stays relevant.

When a patient accesses the SUD/MAT services through Greater Family Health’s Health Centers, they have access to all of the benefits that our medical, behavioral, and dental patients enjoy. As an example, patients who need SUD/MAT services can receive integrated and comprehensive primary health care services by the same medical practitioner who is overseeing their SUD/MAT services; Greater Family Health has 7 medical practitioners who have achieved the DATA 2000 Waiver and are part of the SUD/MAT Care Team. In addition, patients accessing the SUD/MAT services who meet the income guidelines will qualify for our Sliding Fee Discount. Eligible patients can also have access to a the 340B Drug Discount Program.