Cheryl Flerl and Robert Starnes welcome those with addiction issues.Every Monday, a mobile unit from Cedar Recovery spends most of the day at Ascension Saint Thomas Hickman Hospital, dedicated to the recuperation of those addicted to drugs or alcohol.
There is no charge for the service; insurance is taken.
Paul Trivette, Cedar Recovery’s chief strategy officer, said the assistance will be available indefinitely, and additional sites in Hickman County are being sought.
The recovery staff will help anyone who visits between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.; no appointment required.
The mobile staff assigned here are Robert Starnes, a recovery specialist — he’s been clean of drugs for nine years — and Cheryl Flerl, a patient care coordinator who handles paperwork and support, such as food and transportation.
“They walk in here struggling, is a good way to put it,” said Starnes.
Starnes said first-timers will be asked for basic information and must submit to a drug screening. During the same visit, a client will participate in a closed-door meeting with a Cedar Recovery medical provider — nurse practitioner or physician — and a therapist, by Zoom.
“We will see them that day,” said Trivette. “No barriers; more importantly, no stigma. Come as you are.”
The mobile unit parks at the local hospitsal every Monday, open to all without appointment.
The mobile unit parks at the local hospital every Monday, open to all without appointment.
Diagnosis and a treatment plan will be formulated, and medication may be prescribed, from the hospital pharmacy, at that first visit. Counseling is part of the program, either with other addicts — Starnes will lead that — or for cognitive or behavioral reasons.
“Left to my own devices as an addict, I need to stay motivated,” said Starnes, a peer counselor for three years. “That’s one of the things I can bring.”
Trivette said the program seeks solutions to help a client move toward a drug-free life; that includes help with housing and legal issues.
More immediately, he said, Flerl will provide information to meet food, clothing and transportation needs.
“This will continue every week until they are stable enough, then every two weeks,” Trivette said.
The mobile unit has been parking at the Centerville hospital on Mondays for about a month, Trivette said. While Cedar Recovery has 13 standalone clinics in Tennessee, the mobile “office on wheels” program to treat opioid and alcohol addiction in rural areas was initiated this year.
A $3-million grant from the federal Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA), through Middle Tennessee State University, will allow Cedar Recovery to send its mobile unit to five counties. Right now, Trivette said, Hickman and Giles are being established.
Hickman County is a “high-need area,” Trivette said, based on data from HRSA. More than 3 percent of Hickman Countians are believed to have an opioid disorder, he said, and Medicare statistics “show a higher occurrence” among the population its serves.
“Nobody will be turned away,” Trivette said, including those without homes and persons concerned about perceptions of others.
“Stigma is one of the biggest things,” he said.
Encouraging an addicted person to continue the care they have started is another issue. Starnes says he will communicate by text regularly with a client, encouraging him or her to stay the course, attend weekly sessions and maintain their counseling discussions.
Starnes may be reached at 615-538-0666.
“We meet people where they are,” said Trivette, which is one reason the mobile unit program was developed — to reach rural folks who have trouble getting to programs that are farther away, like Columbia or Nashville.
Fentanyl users are prevalent here, Starnes said. Other addictive drugs are emerging, including Xylazine — it’s not an opioid but mimics it, it is not illegal and it is more powerful than Fentanyl. Trivette said it is sold in gas station convenience stores.
Cedar Recovery’s presence here — a second weekly location for the mobile unit to visit here is being sought — is not only because of data.
“It’s because of this hospital and this community,” said Trivette, citing help from the hospital’s behavioral health manager, Jennifer Harris, and now-retired administrator Kevin Campbell.
“They’ve been very supportive,” he said.
