The Wexner Medical Center’s new Residential Treatment Program can hold up to 15 patients. Credit: Courtesy of the Wexner Medical Center
The Wexner Medical Center began accepting patients in a new Residential Treatment Program for patients with substance use disorders Thursday.
This new program, set up in Talbot Hall, is a dual-diagnosis residential facility, meaning it can treat a patient’s mental health and addiction at the same time. The hospital-based program has 15 beds and is the only one of its kind in Ohio.
“One of the key benefits of the residential program is to give people a safe and stable environment to start to build back their health and their lives,” said Michael Vilensky, a psychologist and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health.
The center used an evidence-based program called Hazelden’s Living in Balance to develop the program’s treatment approach, according to a Wexner Medical Center press release.
This evidence-based program can help people with opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder deal with problems in life, health, relationships and work, Vilensky said.
“The 30-day stay in our program will allow people to be in a supportive environment and learn some better coping strategies to be able to prevent relapse in the future,” Vilensky said.
The program includes a counselor that teaches patients how to build tolerance to stress and create a strong foundation for well-being to reintroduce themselves into life and work, said Dr. Leslie Pillow, the lead physician in the program and a psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health.
The next obvious step for Pillow and the program is to serve more patients.
“Our overdose rates are still high,” Pillow said. “We’re still having patients struggle with substance use.”
The Wexner Medical Center already has a detox unit— a unit dedicated to helping patients through substance withdrawal symptoms — and outpatient care including individual or group therapy, but Pillow said it wasn’t until now that they opened a residential unit to allow patients more time in recovery.
“Each year, more than 1,200 patients are treated at Talbot Hall for inpatient detoxification, along with more than 5,000 patients in various outpatient settings,” Dr. Julie Teater, medical director of Talbot Hall, said in a Wexner Medical Center press release.
The residential function is a way to give patients confidence in their next steps of moving forward and includes a team of physicians, counselors, recreational therapists and peer supporters.
“We know that with our population of patients with substance use disorders, comorbidity of mental health issues are extremely high,” Pillow said. “It is very common to see PTSD, anxiety and major depressive disorder.”
Dual diagnosis allows a patient to be treated for both their substance abuse disorders and their mental health, decreasing their risk of relapse and creating a long-term journey to recovery, Pillow said.
The Talbot Hall residential treatment program includes written exercises, group therapy, discussions and recreational therapy activities.
Vilensky said this center represents Ohio State’s goal to reduce any stigma of addiction.
“We really try to communicate the idea that addiction and mental health are our health problems,” Vilensky said. “They are not a moral issue, it’s a health issue and we try to support people to better their health.”
