PROVIDENCE — Gov. Gina M. Raimondo and Care New England will announce a new Center of Excellence medication-assisted treatment program for opioid addiction at Butler Hospital on Thursday, adding to the state’s capacity to provide treatment for the substance abuse epidemic.
The program will be funded by grant monies administered by the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals. It will provide 24/7 access to opioid addiction treatment and six months or more of interdisciplinary outpatient services for recovery stabilization.
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The Centers of Excellence were established by the Governor’s Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task force. They provide assessments and treatment for opioid dependence, offer expedited access to care and serve as a resource for community-based providers.
“What’s exciting to me is it’s a level-one center of excellence,” said Rebecca Boss, director of BHDDH.
That means the facility can admit patients who need and want treatment within 24 hours of approval, she said. The requirement is a difficult one for many facilities to meet, since that demands physicians available 24 hours, nights and weekends, to prescribe the medications used to treat addiction.
The Butler program joins COEs CODAC Behavioral Healthcare with sites in Cranston, Newport, Wakefield and two in Providence; Community Care Alliance in Woonsocket and Continuum with sites in North Kingstown, Cranston and Providence.
With Care New England’s new effort, Boss said, the state will only need one more treatment program, in Westerly, to adequately address the opioid treatment problem in the state.
The federal grant process that is funding the new Butler program has approved the BHDDH to issue Requests for Proposals for two more COEs, Boss said. If a Westerly COE was established, “I think we’d be in a good place,” she said.
The next challenge will be finding enough doctors willing to accept patients exiting the programs at the end of the six-month treatment, after which they’ll need dedicated primary care physicians to take them on and continue their care.
“So, we really need the community to come together and that means the physician community,” Boss said.
The announcement is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at Ray Hall Conference Center, 345 Blackstone Blvd, Providence.
Rob Borkowski is PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
