Battle Creek VA Medical Center Claimed

About Battle Creek VA Medical Center

The VA Medical Center in Battle Creek, Michigan, can help you overcome your issues surrounding substance use, whether it be problem drinking or a life-threatening opioid addiction. They offer outpatient programs that enable you to address your addiction and co-occurring mental health concerns while maintaining work and family commitments. While a referral is usually needed for this location, same-day help is available if you’re in need of urgent care.

You don’t need to be free of drugs and alcohol to access substance use treatment at the Battle Creek VA Medical Center. In fact, they will help you wean off substances using evidence-based medication that helps manage withdrawal symptoms and reduce cravings, boosting your chances of disrupting the addiction cycle. They offer maintenance drugs for opioid use disorder, alcohol use disorder, and tobacco use disorder and these medications are often used in conjunction with therapy to provide a whole-person approach to treatment.

Therapeutic approaches used in group and individual counseling for substance use at the VA are always evidence based. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps you change your thoughts and behaviors so you can better manage your triggers to substance use; motivational interviewing (MI) reinforces your personal motivations for change; and contingency management sees you receive incentives for completing recovery behaviors, such as a clear drug test.

If you need more support and structure than the VA outpatient substance use program provides, you’ll be referred to one of the residential programs where you’ll undergo more intensive treatment in a secure facility.

Additional substance use services at this location include gender-specific care, drug and alcohol monitoring, psychiatric treatment for additional mental health disorders like PTSD, and referrals for housing resources and financial assistance.

I like that they also have a harm protection program that can help you limit your risk if you’re not at the point where you can abstain from substances. Harm protection strategies include overdose prevention education, naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses, sterile needles to prevent blood-borne viruses, and test strips to identify drugs laced with xylazine or fentanyl.