About Northport VA – East Meadow Clinic – East Meadow
The East Meadow VA Clinic is part of the Veterans Administration healthcare system serving active military, Veterans, and their families. The East Meadow Clinic is on Hempstead Turnpike in East Meadow, New York. This is an outpatient clinic that offers mental health services as well as primary care, nutrition and dietary care, and podiatry. They can also refer you within the VA system for targeted addiction treatment. The VA accepts VA coverage or private insurance depending on whether or not your care is service connected.
Substance use among active military and Veterans is a common issue, and the services offered by the VA address many types of addiction and mental health disorders. They offer evidence based treatments including medication assisted treatment (MAT), counseling, and harm reduction services.
Harm reduction doesn’t replace treatment but can keep you safe and alive while working toward abstinence. If you’re injecting drugs, you can get sterile needles to prevent infection. The VA also offers naloxone, a drug that reverses an opioid overdose. If you’re worried about xylazine or fentanyl mixed into your drugs, the VA offers test strips to help you identify whether you’re drugs contain those substances. The test strips reduce the chances of fatal overdose.
Once you choose an addiction treatment program, you’ll be given evidence based treatments to effectively treat your substance use. This may include MAT if you’re using opioids or alcohol, and they can also address tobacco use with nicotine replacement therapy.
Addiction treatment therapies include motivational interviewing (MI), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), contingency management (CM), and motivational enhancement therapy (MET). CBT has been shown to help people with addiction manage their urges to use drugs or drink by developing better, more positive thought patterns. CBT works with the other therapies to strengthen your ability to abstain through goal setting, incentives, behavioral changes, and enhanced problem solving skills. You’ll be introduced to mutual support programs with the 12 Step model of care to continue your sobriety after treatment.
