Daily Methadone Dosing Helps Twin Cities Residents Break Cycle of Opioid Use
Alliance Wellness Center provides daily methadone dosing for people struggling with fentanyl and other opioid use, helping reduce withdrawal symptoms that often keep individuals trapped in cycles of addiction. Funded largely through Medicaid and county-based insurance programs, the clinic focuses exclusively on opioid use disorder and connects patients to additional treatment and counseling when needed.
Opioid Use disorder doesn’t discriminate.
Alliance Wellness Center offers daily methadone dosing to help Twin Cities residents break the cycle of fentanyl and other opioid use, according to a counselor at the clinic, which focuses exclusively on opioid use disorder.
Alliance Wellness Center operates as a methadone maintenance program, providing a prescribed medication designed to prevent withdrawal symptoms — a key driver that often keeps people using illicit opioids, the counselor said.
“We give them a prescribed medication that helps them deal with withdrawal symptoms,” the counselor said. “Ninety percent of the clients that come in here continue their use because of withdrawals. When you’re given prescribed methadone, it helps them be withdrawal free, which, in turn, helps them stay away from using fentanyl.”
Methadone is a long-established medication used in opioid treatment programs. At Alliance Wellness Center, the counselor said, patients typically visit the clinic once per day to receive their dose, then continue with their lives in a normal way like working, caring for family members, attending school.
The clinic’s model is designed to stabilize patients and reduce the risk of overdose and other harms associated with illicit opioid use. While Alliance Wellness Center’s core service is methadone maintenance, the counselor said the clinic also works to connect clients to additional levels of care when needed.
If patients feel they require more support than medication management alone, the clinic can help coordinate placements in residential treatment programs or connect them with outpatient programs in the area, the counselor said.
“If they feel they need extra help, or need to go into treatment, we’ll get them set up with a treatment program — residential treatment,” the counselor said. “If they feel that they just need outpatient program, we can line them up with local outpatient program here in the area.”
“Typically, I’d say 99% of our clients are funded through the state,” the counselor said when asked whether patients must bear significant out-of-pocket costs.
Coverage commonly comes through Medicaid or other county-based insurance programs, the counselor said, including plans such as UCare, Blue Plus and HealthPartners. People seeking coverage generally apply through their county, which then helps establish eligibility and enroll them in an insurance program that can fund treatment.
“Medicaid — there’s different programs,” the counselor said. “UCare, Blue Plus, HealthPartners — whatever the county that they apply to for insurance will get them set up with that.”
“The counselor emphasized that opioid addiction reaches across racial, religious and economic lines.” He said the clinic does not restrict access based on demographic categories. While the counselor said Alliance Wellness Center does not deny treatment to anyone seeking help, he described the clinic’s patient population as diverse.
“If you know addiction, you know that it is not specific to any demographic,” the counselor said. “It is not socioeconomic specific. It is not specific to race [or] religion. It gets everybody — every, all, everywhere.”
For those seeking services, the counselor said patients often find Alliance Wellness Center through online searches that list opioid treatment options across the metro area. Once a potential patient makes contact, the first step is an intake process that involves multiple clinical touchpoints.
The counselor said, the Twin Cities has several treatment options. After contacting the clinic, patients schedule an intake date, meet with a physician and nurse, and are paired with a counselor before beginning daily dosing.
“They set up an intake date, they meet with a physician, they meet with a nurse, they meet with their counselor, then they begin their daily dosing routine,” the counselor said.
The counselor described opioid dependence as a narrowing of life possibilities, especially when a person’s day becomes structured around avoiding withdrawal and securing the next dose of illicit drugs.
“If we’re stuck on a narcotic, our options are pretty limited,” he said. “It’s to just basically get more drugs — that’s what their life is kind of based on.”
Alliance Wellness Center’s approach, the counselor said, is intended to interrupt that cycle by helping people reach a therapeutic dose that allows them to function and focus on the responsibilities and relationships that addiction often disrupts.
Residents seeking information about methadone treatment and opioid use disorder services can search for licensed methadone programs in the Twin Cities metro and inquire about intake requirements, insurance enrollment, and counseling support options.
Beyond reducing withdrawal symptoms, the counselor said the goal is to help patients reach stability — and, for some, achieve substance-free living. When patients are no longer driven by withdrawal and the relentless pursuit of drugs, he said, they can begin rebuilding their lives and expanding their options.
“Hopefully they become substance free,” the counselor said. “And when you’re substance free, the doors of opportunity kick wide open for these people.”
