We need help!!

[scott18]

Not sure if this will help but we don't know where else to turn. To make this short...My brother is 32 years old and has a chronic kidney disease. He is also a raging drug addict. He has been in need of a transplant for the past 5 years. The problem is that they (his doctors) took him off of the transplant list (rightfully so) because of the drug use. We CANNOT find a rehabilitation facility willing to take him because of his medical condition. It's a catch 22 situation he can't get on the transplant list without being off of drugs and he can't get into a rehab facility without a kidney transplant. We are desperate, he is dying and we need to find some help soon. He wants help but is not motivated to seek it out for himself he has basically lost all motivation to live. My parents and I have been doing everything we can. His doctors are working as hard as they can as well. There must be some type of rehabilitation facility that works with people with medical conditions?? If anybody has ANY information at all please let me know. We are desperate and I'm afraid we are running out of time.

[Beth Witten MSW ACSW]

Drug abuse harms kidneys--natural ones or those that are transplanted. It is standard protocol to screen someone for drugs and to require that they be "clean and sober" for a certain amount of time. The length of time may vary from program to program.

You don't say whether your brother has kidney failure and is on dialysis, but I assume because programs aren't willing to accept him, that dialysis may be the issue. If he's not on dialysis, I don't know what the objection might be to accepting him as long as the program has a doctor who is willing to communicate with his kidney doctor in case any questions arise.

Not knowing what you have done so far to find a program, I'm going to suggest a few things.

1) Have you enlisted the help of your brother's dialysis social worker? Part of a social worker's responsibilities to his/her dialysis patients is to find community resources to help them. He or she may not know of a drug treatment setting that will take dialysis patients, but through community contacts may be able to locate one.

2) I attended a meeting in Kansas City last year on helping dialysis patients who have drug or alcohol problems. The speaker was from the local affiliate of the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency (www.ncadd.org/). She had surveyed local programs and had a list of several that would accept dialysis patients. You (or he) might want to call the national organization to to see if they can do the same thing for you in your area. Here's a link to a map showing where they have affiliates
(www.ncadd.org/affiliates/affil.html).

3) I suspect a barrier to finding a treatment setting willing to accept him is that many treatment settings want to keep people away from situations where they might get drugs. If he must leave the program to go to dialysis, they might see this as an opportunity to get drugs. If these is a hospital-based drug treatment setting that has a dialysis clinic in the hospital or nearby, this might help to reduce this barrier. If he is on dialysis, the clinic staff probably know where other clinics are, including ones in hospitals or you can search for dialysis clinics on the Dialysis Facility Compare website (www.medicare.gov/dialysis/home.asp)

It's good that your brother is willing to admit that he has a problem and is willing to ask for help. I hope that you're able to find a setting for him so he can get the help he needs to get off drugs....and eventually get a transplant. In the meantime, if he is on dialysis, I hope he is getting all the dialysis that the doctor prescribes. Some people with alcohol or drug problems skip or shorten treatments, don't eat properly and don't get the exercise that they need to do their best on dialysis.