Published: May 30, 2024 / 2:06 PM MDT
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9News spoke with Porch Light Health’s Steve Carleton about the importance of treating substance use disorder (SUD) with both medication and counseling to achieve long-term recovery.
9News
We wrap up Mental Health Awareness Month. We want to end with talking why treating substance use also requires treating mental health. Joining us today is Steve Carlton. He’s a licensed clinical social worker and certified addiction specialist. We so appreciate you coming out and talking today. We know it’s the end of the Awareness Month, but it’s not the end of the work that we’re doing. Can you talk about substance use and mental health treatment going hand in hand and how that changes the outcome for a person?
Steve Carleton
Absolutely. So substance use is a mental health issue, and that’s how we should think about it. They go hand in hand because when people suffer from things like depression or anxiety or they’ve experienced a traumatic event, substance use becomes the way that they medicate or the way that they start to manage that. And it works really well in the beginning. And so they really do go hand in hand.
9News
Is that a change in philosophy? Was it being treated separately before or what was happening?
Steve Carleton
It’s been really siloed over the years. You go here for your mental health treatment, you go here for your substance use, here for your trauma. Now we’ve really integrated them. We talk about the intersections of mental health, substance use, and trauma. That’s a really important change.
9News
It reminds me of how we used to silo physical health and mental health and trying to bring the two under the same roof, essentially. I can imagine that it changes for a person who is coming out of treatment what their future looks like.
Steve Carleton
Yeah. And one of the most important things to figure out if you’re working with a therapist or working with a professional, is what came first, the chicken or the egg. When you have mental health and substance use, one typically fuels the other. And so part of the process is untangling that web and figuring out where you need to start.
9News
Would you say that when a person reaches out for substance use help or for mental health help, are things more under the same roof now? Is it easier for people to connect to the right people on all of those fronts?
Steve Carleton
Yeah, I think it is. I think, generally, when I’m teaching at DU, we talk about these things all under the same umbrella. If you’re working with a professional, they should, at least, if they’re not specialized in that type of care, be able to connect you with somebody that is competent in that area.
9News
Of course, it’s this Awareness Month, so we have a lot of people talking about it, but you don’t want it to drop off June first, right? So what would you say you would want people to focus on in this coming month? When maybe it’s not as a part of the mainstream conversation on news articles and things like that.
Steve Carleton
I mean, so we’re heading in the summer, right? So people are spending more time by the pool. People are consuming more alcohol, consuming more substances. And I think it’s a really important time to always consider, what’s my relationship with substances? How much am I drinking? Am I comfortable with this? Do I need to make adjustments? Do I need to be thinking about this? But thinking about mental health and your relationship with substances as your health as a part of it.
9News
100 %. And what are first steps for a person who says, Yeah, maybe I do want to talk to someone? Where do you direct them to?
Steve Carleton
Absolutely. I mean, calling Front Range Clinic. I mean, what we do, what you really want to focus on is evidence-based practices. So medications for addiction treatment. If you’re struggling with opiates or alcohol, there’s medications that can really help you, even if your goal is just to reduce your use. And then things like intensive outpatient that we offer, like different groups, especially for substance use and mental health, are really important. You want to be around other people that are going through the same problems, and you want to be with a professional that knows how to treat those things and give you some coping skills.
9News
All right. Well, good things to keep in mind as we head in the summer. We really appreciate it.Thank you.Thank you.
