During your first visit, your addiction medicine provider will assess your past and current substance use, likely severity of withdrawal, and explain your personalized treatment plan.

Stage 1: Initiation – During the first 1-2 weeks you will manage your withdrawal at home using a conventional, low dose, or high dose initiation method to transition from opioids to your prescribed medications. A registered nurse will check in with you daily and you will return to the clinic to see your provider every few days.

Stage 2: Stabilization – Over the next 4-6 weeks you will fully transition from opioids and be consistently taking your prescribed medications. Once you are stable, we will reduce the frequency of your visits to weekly or every other week.

Stage 3: Maintenance – Once you are making consistent progress in your recovery, you will see your provider monthly to ensure your medication is still working for you and any physical cravings, social needs, or behavioral health concerns are being addressed.

During the first 1-2 weeks you will manage your withdrawal at home using a conventional or micro-initiation dosing method to transition from opioids to your prescribed medications. A registered nurse will check in with you daily by phone or text to make sure you are comfortable and following your dosing instructions. You will return to the clinic to see your provider every few days to ensure your medications are working as intended. 

You do not have to be in withdrawal for your first appointment, but you do need to be off opioids for 24-36 hours before starting buprenorphine. If you take buprenorphine too soon after your last dose of opioids, intense withdrawal symptoms can be triggered (known as precipitated withdrawal). Your provider will speak with you about these time frames.  However, some typical time frames are as follows: 

• Suboxone®/buprenorphine can be started 24-36 hours after your last opioid use as long as that opioid is not methadone. Transitioning from methadone to buprenorphine requires a longer duration of time before starting buprenorphine.   
• Vivitrol® cannot be administered until you’ve been off all opioids for at least 7 to 14 days, depending on the opioid used.
• You do not need to be in alcohol withdrawal for Vivitrol® to be effective.
• If you cannot abstain from opioids for 24-36 hours, your provider will talk to you about our low dose and high dose initiation protocols.

"Evidence-based" means our treatment protocols are based on published scientific evidence and when we are faced with decisions about treatment, we look to the scientific evidence for guidance. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) has been shown in peer-reviewed, published research to be highly effective for opioid use disorder. Treatments that rely on tradition, intuition, or other unproven methods cannot be called evidence-based. 

Ideal Balance recovery care coordinators are licensed substance use disorder professionals co-located in several Ideal Option clinics. Recovery care coordinators provide individualized behavioral health services and referrals to therapy, housing, food, transport, job placement services, training programs, and other social services. Costs are covered by insurance, including Medicaid. Where we don't yet offer Ideal Balance services, our providers and staff make referrals as appropriate to other facilities and services in the local community.

We are not a pain clinic. However, many patients in our practice have a combination of chronic pain and opioid use disorder. If your main objective is to stop using pure opioids, we can help.  

Ideal Option does not treat mental health conditions other than addiction, but we do offer referrals to primary care providers, psychiatric care providers, and a wide network of other providers and organizations that may be able to help manage these conditions.

Typically insurance providers will not pay for medication-assisted treatment for people under the age of 16. Depending on the situation, we may treat people under 18, but their admission must be approved by one of our medical directors. We do currently provide treatment to a handful of minors.

We absolutely treat pregnant women, and encourage you to seek treatment as soon as you know you are pregnant. Visit frequency will increase near the end of your pregnancy to make sure we are providing the best care for you and your baby.