Gov. Eric J. Holcomb joined state and local leaders recently at Community Hospital East to announce a new Community Health Network program designed to address opioid use disorder in mothers and to treat babies born addicted to opioids. The announcement comes on the heels of an announcement by the state in February that a new online portal, www.in.gov/recovery, will enable Hoosiers to find FSSA-certified addiction treatment providers throughout the state, and that a new addiction residential treatment unit specializing in opioid addiction will open at Richmond State Hospital.
The Community Health Network Neonatal Opioid Addiction Project was made possible through a $570,516 grant from the Indiana Family & Social Services Administration’s (FSSA) Department of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA). The grant was created in 2017 to address maternal opioid use disorder and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS). NAS is the technical term used for the medical condition experienced by babies born addicted to drugs. The withdrawal symptoms begin within one to three days after birth, but may take up to a week to appear. Symptoms may include diarrhea, excessive crying, trembling, vomiting, slow weight gain, and hyperactive reflexes. Babies with NAS may require weeks and months of special care after birth.
The program will start at Community Hospital East with the ultimate goal of expanding to additional Community facilities by December 31 of this year.
Goals of Community’s Neonatal Opioid Addiction Project include:
• Conducting screenings for all expectant mothers to identify those who need support for depression or drug use
• Caring for expectant mothers who test positive for opioids throughout their pregnancies and after their children are born
• Offering specialized care for newborns exposed to addictive substances
• Developing a Maternal and Neonatal Center of Excellence for the Treatment of Drug Use Symptoms (TODUS)
• Enhancing data collection, analysis and reporting on health outcomes, costs and best practices as well as ways to identify and remove barriers to addiction treatment and recovery
This project builds upon the success of an Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) pilot project at Community Hospital East. In 2015, the hospital became one of four statewide to pilot an ISDH program to identify and treat pregnant mothers and babies with substance use disorders.
The results were encouraging. In 2016, 45.95 percent of the hospital’s drug screens for expectant mothers were positive. By the time those mothers who tested positive came back to the hospital to deliver their babies, 55 percent of them tested negative for drug use.
However, the opioid crisis shows no signs of ending any time soon. Every 15 minutes, a child is born in the U.S. addicted to opioids. From 1999 to 2013, the nation saw a 300 percent increase in NAS. These babies spend five times longer in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit than babies born with no substance dependency.
For information about getting help with addiction, visit in.gov/recovery.
