ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Lori Abrams Berry, CEO of the Lynn Community Health Center, is congratulated by Rep Seth Moulton during a ceremony announcing federal grants for opiate addiction held at the North Shore Community Health Center in Salem on Thursday.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
LYNN — Community health centers are on the front lines for battling opioid addiction, an issue that has become a public health crisis.
On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton said the Lynn Community Health Center received a $325,000 grant to expand narcotics dependence treatment services. The Massachusetts Democrat delivered the good news at Salem’s North Shore Community Center, which received $352,083. The center also has locations in Gloucester and Peabody.
Nationwide, 271 health centers received cash from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to combat the problem.
Lori Abrams Berry, CEO of the Lynn Community Health Center, said she sees Lynn as the epicenter of drug addiction. Since March, 10 deaths and 63 overdoses have been reported to the Lynn Police Department. Last year, there were 54 deaths from opioid overdoses, up from 38 in 2014.
“We were already thinking it was a crisis,” Berry said. “It seems to be getting worse, not better. These funds really are a godsend.”
The funds will expand the number of patients the center can serve through its Integrated Primary Care, Behavioral Health and Addictions Treatment Program. Currently, she said, the center treats 375 people suffering from addiction. Of that number, 350 are being treated with Suboxone, a drug used to treat addiction, while the remaining 25 are being treated with Vivitrol, an alternative opioid blocker taken as a monthly injection.
Berry said the goal is to treat 1,000 patients suffering from addiction. She said the funds would also be used to hire more nurses and therapists.
Moulton said the opioid problem should be treated as a health crisis and should not be solved by putting addicts in prison.
“The opioid epidemic is cutting lives short, tearing families apart and draining the resources our law enforcement and health care professionals have to treat addiction,” he said.
Margaret Brennan, director of the North Shore Community Health Center, said their funds would be focused on Gloucester, which she said is one of the hardest hit communities in the state’s opioid epidemic.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.
