Methadone clinic will open its doors Monday

JESSICA KELLEr | ARGUS OBSERVER Allied Health Services Treasure Valley nurse Erin Kim practices the combination to the wired-for-sound vault that will secure the methadone supply in the dispensary. Allied Health Services Treasure Valley, the only methadone clinic in Eastern Oregon, will open for business Monday, with dosing beginning Tuesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Monday the clinic is scheduled for admitting processes, but Tuesday will begin the day-to-day aspects of the clinic with the methadone dosing, Wilson said.

Five certified professionals will oversee the program's operations - two nurses to distribute the methadone, two counselors and one supervising physician, whom Wilson said are all local. For the first week or so, an Allied Health nurse, the executive director of Allied Health and Wilson will also be on hand to ensure things run smoothly.

Already the clinic has between 10 to 15 clients registered, and Wilson said they are expecting at least five to 10 more in the registering process Monday.

Of the clients already registered, about five are from Malheur County, Wilson said.

Most of the client contingency is from those people who travelled to the Salt Lake City/Ogden, Utah methadone clinic for dosing.

Wilson said they are anxious about the opening of the Malheur County clinic "for obvious reasons."

Wilson said news of the clinic's opening has also been passed onto various health and law enforcement agencies on both the Oregon and Idaho sides of the border for referral purposes.

The clinic is almost an experiment, Wilson said, because this is the first methadone clinic to open in Eastern Oregon. Some of the opponents to the clinic claimed there was not enough of a local need to necessitate such a clinic, but Wilson said the clinic will demonstrate whether there's a need in the Treasure Valley.

"Although we think there's plenty to go around, we don't know for sure," Wilson said.

He said if all goes well, the clinic will provide services to about 50 clients in six months. Allied Health professionals hope for 100 at the one-year mark.

To begin with, the clinic will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday, with dosing taking place until about 8:30 a.m. As the program expands, Wilson said, the hours will probably be extended, most likely until early afternoon.

Since the Drug Enforcement Agency signed off on the last of the papers, and the methadone arranged to be delivered, the timeframe for opening has sped up considerably, Wilson said.

"You wait and wait and wait, and all of a sudden it's hyper-speed," he said.