Sweetser launches Brunswick recovery program offering structure and hope

Tommy Monat said sobriety gave him back eight months he once could not imagine having, after addiction pushed nearly everything out of reach. His story sits at the center of Sweetser’s new Substance Use Intensive Outpatient Program in Brunswick, a six-week option meant for adults 18 and older who need support but do not require inpatient care.

The program runs at the Brunswick Hope and Healing Center at 329 Bath Road. Participants meet four days a week for three hours at a time and take part in group therapy, psychoeducation, family education, weekly check-ins with a substance use counselor and harm-reduction strategies. They can also access medication-assisted treatment through Sweetser’s Brunswick clinic. Sweetser says the model is intended to reduce barriers to care while offering structure, dignity and hope.

That matters in a county where treatment often arrives too late, or not at all. Sweetser allows self-referrals and referrals from others, and it offers a free prescreen by phone, email or in person, an approach aimed at getting people connected before crisis becomes an overdose, an arrest or a job loss. For families trying to keep someone in recovery, or employers trying to help a worker stay on the job, the difference can be a scheduled, short-term start instead of a long wait for a bed.

Joey Rossignol, Sweetser’s senior director of community-based services for Cumberland County and the clinical director overseeing Brunswick’s Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, has described the Brunswick effort as part of a broader effort to meet people where they are. Sweetser expanded that clinic with a $4 million federal grant in 2025, and the clinic now serves around 600 people, with capacity to serve up to 200 more each year for the next four years.

The need is plain in Maine’s overdose toll. The state recorded 490 overdose deaths in 2024, down from 607 in 2023 and 723 in 2022, but the crisis continues to touch towns across Sagadahoc County and the Midcoast. WMTW reported that about two out of every ten Mainers are living with a substance use disorder, while most never get help.

Sweetser later opened a free SupportME Peer Center next door at the same Bath Road location, adding walk-in peer support for mental health, substance use challenges, life stress and trauma. Together, the clinic, the intensive outpatient program and the peer center give Brunswick a sharper local safety net, one built for people who need help before the system loses them.