Mills Administration Commends Enhanced Reporting of Drug Overdose Data | Office of Governor Janet T Mills maine.gov - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from maine.gov Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Maine prisons will expand treatment for opioid use disorder
The state prisons will provide access to medication-assisted treatment for all inmates who need it, something advocates have long pushed the state to do.
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The Maine Department of Corrections will soon offer medication to treat opioid use disorder to everyone in state prisons who needs it.
Advocates have long pressed Maine officials to provide this option in jails and prisons, and the announcement represents an evolution in department policy from just two years ago, when the same medications were banned in correctional facilities.
Under a pilot program, the department currently provides the treatment to roughly 200 people, only those who are about to be released to the community. This expansion will make an estimated 400 people newly eligible for what is considered the gold standard in treatment.
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Since the pandemic arrived in Colorado nearly a year ago, a related mental health crisis has been forming in its shadow. Pandemic fatigue is the latest manifestation of this crisis. It’s a feeling of malaise resulting from months of isolation from family and friends, stress and pandemic endurance. The phenomenon has been growing, even among those who have not experienced the harshest effects of the coronavirus.
The growth of pandemic fatigue in Colorado is tangible and quantifiable. The state Office of Behavioral Health reported a significant increase in calls to the state’s crisis services hotline since the pandemic began, a number that has been increasing steadily since last March, reaching record highs in recent months.
Maine prisons will expand treatment for opioid use disorder centralmaine.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from centralmaine.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Criteria for involuntarily committing patients in Maine is about to change
The state supreme court ruled last month that a Damariscotta hospital erred in holding a patient without getting a judge s approval and in how it evaluated his petition to be released.
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Maine health officials are revising the process for involuntarily committing mental health patients deemed at risk of harming themselves or others in light of a recent ruling by the state’s highest court.
Last month, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court concluded that MaineHealth, the parent company of LincolnHealth Miles Hospital in Damariscotta, violated state law when it held a man for nearly a month last year without first getting judicial approval, and also that it failed to apply the proper standard when denying his petition for release.