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National Alliance of Methadone Advocates (NAMA)
For Immediate Release

Date:  January 12, 2004
Contact:  Joycelyn Woods and Walter Ginter
Phone: (212) 595-6262


PATIENT DIGNITY PROJECT THREATENED

NAMA has been involved in a Methadone Emergency Database Project which will
create a way to verify a patient’s dose in the case of an emergency.  Now we
hear that the Methadone Emergency Database Project, which we have been
referring to as the “Patients Dignity Project”, is not going to be funded.
Apparently, patient dignity, specifically, methadone patient dignity doesn’t
have the support necessary. 

Why This Is Project Called The Patient Dignity Project?

The reason we call it the patient dignity project is that it will allow
patients to go to any program and eventually any hospital and get their
medicine immediately in the event of an emergency. Currently, in an emergency,
patients have to wait hours to have their doses verified. When that is not
possible, and most times it is not, patients are given a few milligrams at a
time by worried physicians. Patients are left begging for hours for more
medication. 

But MORE OFTEN THEY AREN’T MEDICATED AT ALL forcing many patients back to the
streets from which they are escaping. That is why advocates call this the
PATIENT DIGNITY PROJECT.

After September 11 many of us at NAMA became concerned about what would happen
to methadone patients in the event of similar crisis. A number of groups,
including NAMA formed a stakeholder committee to look into possible solutions
for this problem and to insure that patients would never be turned away from
programs again. 

The Methadone Emergency Database Project

Patients need a way to get their medication in times of an emergency. The
project, funded by the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) has just
completed its report and is ready to advance to a demonstration project in the
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut area. The report calls for the
establishment of an emergency database that could be accessed only in the
presence of the patient requesting his or her medication at a place other then
the patients home program. The project calls for the use of a finger imaging
system that besides being inexpensive and easy to maintain fully protects the
rights, privacy and dignity of the patients. 

NAMA has visited programs in the states involved. The patients interviewed were
100% in favor of the project. 

What Happens Without The Methadone Emergency Database Project

In the past 2 years there have been at least 3 major emergencies, where despite
the “emergencies plans” called for in the Accreditation Guidelines patients
were left for between 1 and 3 days without medication. The Presidents Day Storm
where at least 9 programs failed to open in the Mid Atlantic states, the east
coast blackout, and the recent northeaster where hundreds of patients in Boston
were left without medication despite repeated warnings about severe weather. 

NAMA is aware that many patients were forced to resort to heroin during those
emergencies. There is no way to tell the ultimate impact that this had on
patients being forced into using again.  Whatever the effects they can’t be
good. 

If an emergency database were available those patients could have gone to any
program, and eventually any emergency room, to get their medicine.

What Should Happen Next?

The next stage is just a demonstration project and admittedly it will be
several years before all the kinks are ironed out and it is ready to go
national. But this is the start of a strategy to insure that ALL patients are
able to get their medication no matter the crisis. By not being funded the
project will be delayed further and we can’t wait another thirty-five years. 

NAMA believes that this project is important and should take precedence over
other projects. We encourage all advocates, methadone patients, friends and
family of methadone patients and all concerned individuals to contact Mr. Curie
of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and
Dr. Clark of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) and tell them that
you care about the dignity of methadone patients and encourage them to fund the
Methadone Emergency Database Project. 

The email links for the esteemed gentlemen mentioned are listed below:

wclark@samhsa.gov                      ccurie@samhsa.gov       


Please e-mail them today and tell them you support the Methadone Emergency
Database Project. Ask your friends and family to do the same.