Most people with a substance problem also have a psychiatric one, and the usual system treats them in two places that do not talk to each other.
A program for the drinking, a clinic for the depression, each waiting for the other to go first. We do not separate them. Our addiction assessments are conducted by a psychiatrist board-certified in both Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, trained at Mayo Clinic; the substance use and the mood, anxiety or psychotic illness are evaluated in the same room, as one picture. The order of treatment follows from the picture, not from which door you happened to walk through.
The four perspectives matter here more than anywhere. Addiction is a behavior that has learned to sustain itself; it is also, often, the way a disease of mood or a wound in a life story has been managed. Treating only the behavior, or only the disease, is why so many people relapse. We use medication where it has evidence (for alcohol use disorder, and for the psychiatric illness underneath), and we work with your counselor, program or therapist rather than instead of them.
A 90-minute Addiction Diagnostic Assessment by video. We take a full substance history alongside a full psychiatric one, establish what is cause and what is consequence, look at the medical side (liver, sleep, nutrition, prior withdrawals), and decide the level of care you need now. You leave with a diagnosis for both problems, a written plan that says what is treated first and why, and the referrals, if any, already made.
Cost and insurance. Covered by the plans we accept, including Medicaid and MinnesotaCare; self-pay rates are on our insurance page.
No. We evaluate people where they are. If you need medically supervised withdrawal, we will say so and help arrange it; the psychiatric evaluation still goes ahead.
No. For opioid use disorder we help you find a maintenance program and treat the psychiatric illness alongside it.
Yes. With your consent we share the written plan with them and coordinate the psychiatric side of your care.