Interviewee: Patrick J. Gallus, DO of Gallus Detox Centers
What keeps you in this work day after day?
I really don’t feel like I go to work most days. I am surrounded by truly amazing people that I learn a great deal from on a daily basis. It’s a team atmosphere, which includes our patients, so there is boundless positive energy.
As far as the patients are concerned most are a complete joy. In general they are lost and scared.
It’s rewarding to see mostly hopeless people come through the door and have a positive transformation in a short amount of time.
Patients in general are so grateful for our kindness and guidance that they in turn treat us very well. This environment makes for extremely rewarding work. I won’t be trading my job in anytime soon!!!
What is your detox philosophy?
Our philosophy differs from virtually every other facility in that we view detoxification as a potentially serious medical condition, not a psychiatric condition. This is a very important distinction and it guides virtually everything we do from critical care doctors and nurses, to the use of IV medications performed in a monitored environment.
We also changed the culture of how patients are treated. Our position on this is simple; if you ask for our help we will treat you with the utmost kindness and respect. This has been shown to be very effective. We want to help our patients see the positive side of recovery and live a happy fulfilled life.
What tools would you like your patients to get?
Most of our patients at this point are at the lowest point in their lives. They are depressed, humiliated, and don’t see a way out of their situation. We believe that regardless of the situation there is hope in their world. Just as they had a hand in their destruction, they can equally participate in their recovery.
We, as a team, begin working with our patients to change this mind set. We build hope, and sincerely believe that if people are willing to make some changes everything will fall into place.
All in all, our goal is to provide our patients with a safe, comfortable detox. This gives them a foundation to build a positive future.
What do you believe the future of detox will be?
Our hope is to pave the detox way as this: Safety first! A safe medical detox saves lives. State of the art medical care should be important to patients as they are choosing a facility to go to.
Along those lines, patients will be treated with dignity and respect during the worst point of their lives.
Since the Gallus Detox method was developed, people no longer have to subject themselves to unsafe non-medical detox practices
What drew you to the field of addiction medicine/detox?
I first became interested in this field while working as an Emergency Room physician. I couldn’t help notice the amount of patients with drug and alcohol issues and how inadequately they were being treated.
Specifically, over the last 5 years of my career I noticed a significant upswing in opiate use mostly regarding prescription pain medication. From there, we saw a resurgence of heroin use and its devastating results as national overdose rates skyrocketed. Our small town in Arizona was not spared. Regardless, if patients started using these medications for recreational use or for pain management they all had the same problem; How do I stop?
Their options were extremely limited. The hospital systems neither knew how to or wanted to care for them. Patients had virtually no options but to seek antiquated care within psychiatric facilities. I believed this dilemma could be solved and we feel we have done just that.
The opinions and views of our guest contributors are shared to provide a broad perspective of addiction. These are not necessarily the views of Addiction Hope, but an effort to offer discussion of various issues by different concerned individuals.
Last Updated & Reviewed By: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC on January 1st, 2015
Published on AddictionHope.com