Heroin Addiction Treatment in Colorado

The most dangerous moment in heroin treatment is not the withdrawal. It is the weeks afterwards. Withdrawal reduces a person’s tolerance, so someone who has just been through it can overdose on a much smaller dose than they used before [2]. Any Colorado plan worth following is built around that fact.

We run two sites in the state. Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village, in Highlands Ranch, lists outpatient care, an intensive outpatient program and dual diagnosis treatment [8]. The Recovery Village Palmer Lake lists medical detox, inpatient treatment, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient care, outpatient care and aftercare planning [9]. Below: how the state route works, when supervision is needed, what medication does, and how coverage is arranged. The wider picture is in our overview of treatment across Colorado.

Heroin Use in Colorado: What the State Data Shows

You will not find a Colorado overdose count printed here. Any figure typed into a page is out of date the following quarter.

Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration runs a Performance Hub, and its Data and reports section covers substance use [4]. That is the right place to read a current state number.

What holds steady is the shape of the problem. NIDA describes heroin as a highly addictive opioid drug, with consequences that reach well past the person using it — hepatitis, HIV, effects during pregnancy, and disruption to families, workplaces and schools [1]. It also notes that the number of people starting to use heroin has been rising since 2007, partly as a shift away from misuse of prescription pain relievers toward a cheaper and more available alternative [1].

That last point explains a lot of the Colorado caseload. People rarely start with heroin. Our heroin addiction overview covers the substance itself, and our page on withdrawal symptoms covers what stopping feels like.

Where Colorado Residents Can Get Heroin Treatment: Denver Mental Health & Counseling

Highlands Ranch is the outpatient end of what we run. The site is at 630 Plaza Drive, Suite 101, in Douglas County, south of Denver. Its page lists outpatient care, an intensive outpatient program and dual diagnosis treatment [8].

For heroin that is the second half of the path more often than the first. Someone who has completed supervised withdrawal and is stable on medication can do the real work here, close to home, while keeping a job.

The first half usually happens at The Recovery Village Palmer Lake, whose page lists medical detox and inpatient treatment along with the step-down levels [9]. Ask admissions on the first call how the two connect: who does the assessment, where the first days happen, and how the move to outpatient care gets arranged. The campus page for The Recovery Village at Palmer Lake carries the detail. Our levels of care explainer describes each tier.

Does Heroin Use Need Medical Detox First?

If someone is having a seizure, is unresponsive or has trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental-health crisis call or text 988.

Usually, and for reasons that are easy to state wrongly.

Start with what federal guidance actually says. Unlike alcohol and sedative withdrawal, uncomplicated opioid withdrawal is not life-threatening [3]. That sentence gets misread in both directions. It does not mean heroin withdrawal is safe to do alone.

Here is why. Symptoms usually begin within 12 hours of the last heroin use [2]. Going through opioid withdrawal without support is described as very hard and possibly dangerous [2]. Complications come from vomiting, diarrhea and refusing fluids in someone whose health is already poor.

And then the real risk, the one at the top of this page. Withdrawal reduces the person’s tolerance, so those who have just gone through withdrawal can overdose on a much smaller dose [2]. That is why a plan that ends at detox is worse than no plan. Most people need long-term treatment after detox [2], and federal guidance is explicit that detoxification alone generally leads back to drug use [7].

Naloxone belongs in this section too. NIDA describes it as a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, and says families with loved ones who struggle with opioid addiction should have naloxone nearby, ask their family member to carry it, and let friends know where it is [10]. People should still call 911 immediately in the event of an overdose [10]. Our explainer on medical detox covers what supervision adds; inpatient rehab covers what follows.

Levels of Care at Denver Mental Health and Counseling in Highlands Ranch: Outpatient, IOP, Dual Diagnosis

Three levels run at Highlands Ranch. For heroin, each has a distinct job.

The intensive outpatient program is where structure comes back. Several sessions a week, group and individual, arranged so a job survives. For someone newly stable on medication, this is the level that carries the highest risk of dropping out and the highest value in not doing so.

Dual diagnosis treatment handles what sits underneath. Depression, trauma and anxiety histories are common alongside opioid use, and a plan that treats the drug while ignoring the rest tends to hold for a season rather than a year.

Standard outpatient care is the long stretch: regular appointments while ordinary life carries on. With opioids this often runs alongside medication for a long time, and that is normal rather than a sign of failure.

Highlands Ranch publishes outpatient care, an intensive outpatient program and dual diagnosis treatment [8]. Where the assessment calls for supervised withdrawal, that happens at Palmer Lake, whose page lists medical detox and inpatient treatment along with the step-down levels [9]; admissions will confirm which site a plan starts at, and the plan comes back down this ladder afterwards.

Medication Options for Heroin Use Disorder

Medication is not a sideshow here. It is where the evidence is strongest.

Research points to medication as the first line of treatment for opioid use disorder, usually combined with behavioral therapy or counseling [7]. NIDA states plainly that medications are available to treat heroin use disorder [1].

Three are used. Methadone and buprenorphine both relieve withdrawal symptoms and are also used as long-term maintenance treatments [2]. Naltrexone can help prevent a return to use [2]. One caution is worth stating exactly: naltrexone can cause sudden, severe withdrawal if it is taken while opioids are still in the body [2]. That is a prescriber’s judgment and a timing question, not something to arrange alone.

We publish no doses and no schedules. Which medication fits, and for how long, is decided with a clinician who knows the full history. Our overview of medication assisted treatment explains how it sits beside therapy.

Finally, the number people ask about. NIDA gives relapse for substance use disorders as 40 to 60 percent, and 50 to 70 percent for hypertension and asthma [7]. The chronic illnesses relapse more often, which is the point of the comparison. A return to use is read as a signal to resume or adjust treatment [7] — and with opioids it is also the moment tolerance loss makes an overdose likelier, which is why a plan names what happens on a bad day.

Paying for Heroin Rehab in Colorado: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Colorado, Health First Colorado

Three payment routes exist, and parity law shapes the first one. Where a plan covers mental health and substance use care, it may not hold that care to harsher limits than it holds medical and surgical care [6]. Limits here means prior authorization and step therapy too, not merely a ceiling on days or visits [6].

Read the scope carefully, because it is narrower than the reputation suggests. Non-federal governmental plans with more than 50 employees are in. Group health plans of private employers with more than 50 employees are in. Individual-market coverage is in [6]. Small-employer plans are not directly in, and instead draw comparable protection from the Affordable Care Act’s essential health benefits requirement. Nor does the Act compel any plan to offer this coverage to begin with [6].

Being in network is a separate matter entirely. An Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Colorado product may or may not contract with either of our sites, depending on the product line and the employer group behind it. A verification call answers that; a web page cannot. Our guide to whether insurance covers rehab explains what one establishes.

Route two is Health First Colorado, the state Medicaid program run by the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing alongside Child Health Plan Plus [5]. Members reach behavioral health through regional bodies, not one statewide plan, so the useful question is which body signs off on the level of care you were recommended. Route three is paying directly, where the price follows intensity rather than the number of weeks — our breakdown of what rehab costs sets out the ranges.

Traveling Within Colorado and From Neighboring States

Geography does some of the deciding. Highlands Ranch sits on Denver’s southern edge; Palmer Lake is further down I-25, roughly between Denver and Colorado Springs. Neither is on the Western Slope, and pretending otherwise helps nobody planning from Grand Junction or Durango.

Opioid treatment makes travel a sharper question than it first appears, because medication tends to mean steady contact rather than occasional appointments. Do the weekday run once before you agree to an intensive outpatient plan. If it will not hold, say so during the assessment rather than in week three. Inpatient care asks for the journey twice, and after that the mileage stops counting.

Readers arrive from Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and New Mexico too. What stops them is almost never the miles — it is whether an out-of-state policy treats a Colorado site the way it treats a local one. Settle that before anyone gets in a car. Our page on how admission to rehab works lays out the order of events, and our directory of treatment centers shows which of our campuses is in which state.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

1. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Heroin Research Report: Overview. National Institutes of Health. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/heroin/overview
2. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. Opiate and opioid withdrawal. U.S. National Library of Medicine. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000949.htm
3. SAMHSA. Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment (TIP 45), Chapter 4: Physical Detoxification Services for Withdrawal From Specific Substances. National Center for Biotechnology Information. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK64116/
4. Colorado Behavioral Health Administration. Behavioral Health Administration. State of Colorado. https://bha.colorado.gov/
5. Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing. Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. State of Colorado. https://hcpf.colorado.gov/
6. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). https://www.cms.gov/marketplace/private-health-insurance/mental-health-parity-addiction-equity
7. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction — Treatment and Recovery. National Institutes of Health. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/treatment-recovery
8. The Recovery Village. Denver Mental Health & Counseling by The Recovery Village — Levels of Care. Advanced Recovery Systems. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/denver/
9. The Recovery Village. The Recovery Village Palmer Lake — Levels of Care. Advanced Recovery Systems. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/locations/palmer-lake/
10. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Naloxone DrugFacts. National Institutes of Health. https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/naloxone

This page is for general information and is not medical advice. Only a licensed clinician who knows your history can tell you what is right for you. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 911. For free, confidential support 24/7, call or text 988.

Author

Kevin Wandler, MD

Chief Medical Officer, The Recovery Village