Opinion » Guest Opinion

SECHC: Please embrace our services

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Thursday Sep 15, 2016

By Bill Walczak, CEO, South End Health Center

I would like to head off a misunderstanding of the intent of the South End Community Health Center regarding our plan to add substance abuse programming to our medical, dental, eye care, and behavioral health programs. The South End Health Center serves nearly 20,000 patients annually (yes, 20,000 individuals). Most of these patients come in for clinical services, for which we have about 200 employees. As the opioid crisis has gripped our country, a crisis that has affected every racial and ethnic group, every class and nearly every neighborhood, we have become aware that some of our patients have also been affected.

Looking into the array of programs available in this community, it is clear that counseling services, detox beds and suboxone services are not sufficient to meet the needs of our patients. To that end, we have decided to create a counseling and suboxone program. Please remember that our plan is for 30 patients (a bit more than one tenth of one percent of our patients), going to a maximum of 200 patients (1%) once we have ensured high quality services.

Please also know that I have led organizations with very successful suboxone programs in the past. Suboxone is a pharmaceutical that prevents craving for opioids. It doesn't get you high. Our goal is that the patients who use this service are just part of the mainstream of services and patients.

The fact is that there are people with addictions hanging out in front of buildings, including ours, without any substance abuse program in the building. Offering these services will not create more opioid dependent people; they are already here. We want to offer opportunities to deal with addiction. Our program will actually help.

I am asking the South End community to embrace all the services that are offered at the South End Health Center, with our great physicians and nurse practitioners, dentists, eyecare staff, psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, and others. We have a vested interest in ensuring that our programs are well run and provide the highest quality. I'd appreciate your support.