Shadow Mountain Recovery is Releasing Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Programs

Shadow Mountain Recovery Centers are officially adding a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) option for opioid use. Shadow Mountain will be one of only three facilities in New Mexico offering MAT for opioid use, and will also be offering it at their Texas facility.

This new treatment utilizes Sublocade®, a monthly injection that curbs cravings and helps clients in recovery maintain their trajectory toward long-term sobriety. Sublocade is a form of buprenorphine only available with a prescription and must be administered by a medical professional.

Director of Clinical Outreach Sarah Skoterro spoke about the new treatment and its benefits for clients at Shadow Mountain Recovery Centers.

"We know from the research that trying to buckle down and just stop opioid use does not work for the vast majority of people,” she said. Although MAT is divisive within the treatment world, Skoterro looks at the facts as a guidepost for this treatment saving lives.

"It sets the stage for a better, more tapered, and long-term recovery from this drug that kills people every day,” she said.

Sublocade is an injection given under the skin and is not a treatment that is used lightly or without considerable planning and dedication, particularly from the client in recovery. Shadow Mountain staff will determine if the client is motivated for long-term treatment and ready to utilize MAT exactly as it must be. It is a commitment to their health and recovery that can help them maintain a feeling of normalcy while detoxing from opioids.

In order to utilize Sublocade, the client will need to take Suboxone orally for seven days while at Shadow Mountain, maintaining 8mg of the medication in their system before the first injection of Sublocade is given.

After the first injection, further evidence-based treatments are utilized, including activity-based therapy (ABT), cognitive behavioral therapy (ABT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), along with other methods bringing confirmed results. Before checking out of Shadow Mountain Sublocade is administered again, never earlier than 26 days since the previous injection.

Skoterro further explained why the treatment is going to offer much-needed aid in situations that can often be dire, focusing on Sublocade as one piece of a comprehensive treatment involving dedicated work by Shadow Mountain professionals and the client in recovery.

“Instead of someone struggling physically and mentally with the symptoms of detox and addiction, we can lessen those effects so the client can attend therapy as well. And if they know when they leave they’ll keep feeling this way, it will be sustained, then they are in a very different place [and more prepared for recovery,” Skoterro said.

Each Shadow Mountain location focuses on evidence-based treatments to achieve and sustain lifelong healing from addiction and mental health struggles. The three New Mexico locations—in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos—offer life-changing settings for recovering from difficult struggles.

Similarly, the Texas location, known as Ripple Ranch, supplies a calm setting surrounded by the gorgeous views of Spring Branch. All four of Shadow Mountain’s treatment centers have dedicated staff ready 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

All Shadow Mountain locations are set up to help at every stage of a client’s recovery. Inpatient services offer medically-supervised detox and outpatient recovery services will prepare a client for returning to day-to-day life, ready for the challenges ahead.

Shadow Mountain largely focuses on alternatives to 12-step programs which allows clients to heal in ways that address their lives as a whole, rather than trying to use one method for everyone. This means if someone is best served by a 12-step program Shadow Mountain will accommodate that need. Read more about their many evidence-based treatments on their website.