Welcome to the fourth installment of our multi-part blog series that is providing our readers an inside look into the New Season organization, specifically how we provide top-notch treatment to our patients by administering medication-assisted treatment and professional counseling services across the 72 methadone clinics throughout the nation.

The blog series format follows suit with the previous posts — “three questions in three minutes” with key and essential personnel in the New Season organization.

In this post, we’ll talk with Bambi Cummings, a nurse from the New Season Manchester Metro Treatment Center in Manchester, N.H. She will answer some of the most frequently asked questions we receive about methadone treatment.

Q & A with Bambi Cummings, a New Season Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN)

Question: Are patients given methadone when they are impaired?

Answer: We will not administer methadone to a patient who is under the influence of drugs, alcohol, prescription painkillers, heroin or a synthetic drug like fentanyl. As a result, every clinical member of our staff is trained and responsible for recognizing a patient who is impaired.

When a patient is impaired, our staff immediately alerts our nursing staff. Our nurses are trained to ask questions of patients that appear impaired to determine whether they should be permitted to get treatment medication. If a patient is impaired, they will not receive methadone or another treatment medication.

Continual training and education tools, including a poster at each nursing station, ensures our staff does its due diligence to guarantee an impaired patient does not receive a treatment medication for their own personal safety and wellbeing.

Question: Does methadone impair patients?

Answer: Methadone is a medication used to treat addiction to opioids and works by reducing withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Methadone also blocks the high caused by other opioids. It takes away the craving. When methadone is taken as ordered by our licensed and trained addiction recovery physicians, it will not impair a patient.

We ensure the proper dosage of methadone is taken by each individual patient because they are required to take the medication on-site under the surveillance of our clinical staff.

As a result, our patients can drive, go to work, return home to their families and lead normal lives.

Question: Is methadone addictive?

Answer: Methadone maintenance is not an addiction. It is a physical dependence that is required to maintain physical stability similar to a diabetic patient that is dependent on insulin. Methadone does not produce the addictive behaviors of compulsion where cravings and withdrawal symptoms lead to perpetual drug use.

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Thank you for taking an inside look into the nation’s leading methadone clinic, New Season.

If you are a member of the news media or general public requesting further information, please contact our marketing team at media-relations@cmglp.com. If you are interested in learning more about our treatment options for opioid use disorder, speak with one of our trained professionals 24/7 at 1-877-284-7074.