NEW TOWN, N.D. (KXNET) — The app AddMedPro was created by a company called Atadas, which means “lean on me” — and Kayla and William Johns were at a point in their life where they needed someone or something to lean on.
“I quit cold turkey because she went to treatment,” said William. “We were so far in our addiction that we lost our house and we lost our livelihood.”
Kayla and William live in New Town, North Dakota, and their doctor lives three hours away, so they needed something more to help
“It’s basically an all-day trip,” William continued. “It’s like a three-hour drive there. Appointment time and then time needed to get the medication. And then the drive back.”
Atadas saw that the need to keep patients and physicians connected is critical for addiction recovery.
“This app is, I don’t know,” Kayla said. “A lifesaver. Because like he said, having to take time off from work. You know, I want to save for vacation time.”
So, how does it work? In some cases, if a person is in a medical assistant treatment for addiction, doctors will monitor their patients to make sure they are taking their medications appropriately.
That means the doctor has to schedule a pharmacy visit with the patient, then the pharmacist counts the medication tablets and reports back to the doctor. The new app aims to bring down these hurdles.
“You could just be at home,” Kayla explained, “and you get a text message, and then your text message comes in. And it gives you 24 hours as well. So, if we are both doing something as soon as we get home, either one of us will take our medication out, count it all out, and take a picture of both of it.”
Now, the patient and the doctor can speak directly through the app.
“That’s important during recovery,” William stated, “because sometimes, you are going to go through rough times where you have given up and going back to doing what you were doing.”
“Like the app, if you are struggling or if you are having a bad moment,” Kayla said, “if you reach out on the app and ask questions, there is always a nurse. There’s always a nurse there. And they will call you back and talk with you to see what’s going on and if you are okay,” said Kayla.
Both Kayla and William say addiction recovery is hard.
“It’s going to be tough,” William stated. “Nothing in this world worth doing is easy. So, you just have to keep focused. For me, it was my children and the way I grew up. I didn’t want that for my kids.”
“You’ll know when you hit rock bottom,” Kayla concluded. “You’ll know when you want different. Everybody is afraid to detox. That was my biggest fear. The aches — I didn’t like those withdrawals. There is help out there. But you got to want it.”
However, both say that the rough path to healing is completely worth it — and this app is helping make the road to recovery just a little bit easier.
