The Basics
Since 1997, Maintenance and Recovery Services (MARS) has been providing outpatient Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) using methadone. MARS currently has three clinics: in North and South Austin and Cedar Park, Texas. It provides clients with group and individual therapy as well as several other supportive services, in addition to methadone.
Treatment and Staff
After a phone screening, clients are given an intake appointment during which time they must demonstrate their opiate addiction. They can do this either through physical evidence (such as track marks), records of prescriptions or letters from family, friends and co-workers that “can attest to the chaos and damage that addiction to opioids has wrought.”
Upon admission, clients usually start treatment with a daily dose of methadone and are required to attend an orientation session within their first month of treatment which includes addiction education and how to best use services at MARS. Clients also see their primary counselor each week to have their progress monitored.
After their orientation, clients are asked to attend a weekly relapse prevention/stability group that uses CBT and other evidence-based methods to help clients handle triggers and improve problem-solving skills.
Additionally, MARS offers financial incentives for attending groups, giving clients $30 off their weekly fee for attending the orientation group and $5 off for each relapse prevention/stability group they attend.
The counseling team at MARS includes LPCs and LCDCs. The prescribing physician is an addictionologist who aims to help clients stabilize on methadone for three years and then supports them as they taper off, if the client chooses to do so (clients are not pressured to taper). MARS also employs two psychiatric nurse practitioners who can screen clients for mental health disorders and provide referrals to nearby mental health clinics for dual diagnosis support.
For the first 90 days of treatment clients come to the clinic every day (except Sundays) for their dose. After 90 days of successful treatment, they can apply to for take-home doses every other day. After the next 90 days, they can apply for take-home doses twice a week. Clients can remain in treatment at MARS for as long as they’d like.
Extras
MARS has recently partnered with an area clinic to provide Hepatitis C treatment at no or low-cost. It also has a clean needle truck that makes weekly trips into different Austin-area communities.
Families of clients are encouraged to visit MARS and learn more about treatment. They are also welcome to attend the orientation session and weekly groups. MARS also offers Auricular Acupuncture as part of a client’s weekly treatment fees.
In Summary
Maintenance and Recovery Services has been providing methadone MAT to treat opiate addiction for nearly 20 years. With its comprehensive therapy options and family-inclusive programming, clients of MARS have the opportunity to learn much about their own behavior and how to build a strong support system as they find stability in their life after opiate addiction.
North Austin
305 Ferguson Dr
Austin, TX 78753
South Austin
2627 Jones Rd
Austin, TX 78745
Cedar Park
1101 Arrow Point Dr. #214
Cedar Park, TX 78613
Maintenance and Recovery Services Outpatient Cost: $280 (30 days). Reach Maintenance and Recovery Services at (512) 339-9757. Find Maintenance and Recovery Services on Facebook
Do you have a complaint or review of Maintenance and Recovery Services? Use the comments area below to add to your review of Maintenance and Recovery Services.
Photo courtesy of User:Argash [GFDL (https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons (resized and cropped)
Sponsored DISCLAIMER: This is a paid advertisement for California Behavioral Health, LLC, a CA licensed substance abuse treatment provider and not a service provided by The Fix. Calls to this number are answered by CBH, free and without obligation to the consumer. No one who answers the call receives a fee based upon the consumer’s choice to enter treatment. For additional info on other treatment providers and options visit www.samhsa.gov.
