A pilot program for opioid addicts helped 17 people in the Fox Valley turn their lives around.
ThedaCare’s Appleton hospital hosted a ceremony this morning to celebrate.
Forty-six-year-old Douglas Sell of Appleton says he spent years in and out of prison, before the program came along. It offers people an anti-craving drug called Vivitrol, and intensive treatment. The state Department of Corrections runs it, in partnership with local health care providers.
Sell says he’s been clean for 15 months, and he’s held a job for the past year. And instead of running a drug house, he has a recovery house where he’s helping four roommates.
Sell says for years, he though the corrections department was his enemy, and now leaders are trying to do more to help people than incarcerate them.
