As a nurse working in a busy emergency room I can’t begin to count the number of times that I helped treat people with addictions who had either come into the ER on their own, or who were brought in by the police, often for some type of “Public nuisance” complaint.
Believe it or not the majority of the people suffering from one form of addiction or another that I’ve cared for in the ER wanted help. They knew they had a problem. They knew the drugs or alcohol abuse was messing up their life, or worse had already done a lot of damage to their life and relationships. They wanted help but they didn’t know where to turn in order to get the kind of help that they needed.
Unfortunately we can’t help them all that much in the ER. Oh sure, we do have a rehab clinic that’s associated with our hospital, but 4 times out of 5 when we’d call them to tell them we wanted to send someone over to them they’d tell us that they were booked up.
So when I came across 1800nodrugs.com’s site earlier today I was very pleased. You see, I can use that number myself, give it to a doctor treating a patient with addiction problems, or even give it directly to the patient so that they can get some help and advice about drug rehab. 1800nodrugs.com is an addiction treatment referral service.
It’s a non-profit organization that accepts toll free phone calls from people who are seeking drug rehab. People who want help but have no idea where they can go to get the help that they need. Much like many of the patients that I’ve seen come through our ER.
Check out the site for yourself. If you know someone that suffers from drug or alcohol addiction please give them the site address and phone number. You might help them get on the right track if you do.
I just thought of one other way that you might help others with drug addictions through this service – give the site address and number to your family doctor too. Your doctor might not be aware that such a service exists and he or she can give information about this non-profit service to patients that might be looking for drug rehab services.