A new methadone clinic in North Haven, Connecticut recently opened called APT. Lynn Madden, who is the acting CEO of APT Foundation, has made a concerted effort to connect with the local community in order to help citizens understand that methadone clinics can be operated safely and discreetly with no adverse effects to the surrounding neighborhood.
The clinic currently has about 800 patients. An article by the New Haven Register documents the comments of local residents and businesses who all report that the clinic has been good for local business and has resulted in no problems or increase in crime.
The article goes on to explain how the clinic is actually situated in close proximity to a large community development, but positioned such that neither is really aware of the other. This demonstrates how some clinics are expertly planned and managed.
At Methadone.US, we wrote two years ago about a New York City methadone clinic that is housed in a downtown church and serves many hundreds of clients per day. This clinic there is so private and quiet that local businesses did not even know it was in operation for years just across the street.
This type of well run facility and seamless community integration provides good evidence that the fears and criticisms of methadone naysayers are largely unfounded.
Lynn Madden of APT was quoted as saying that New England has a very high rate of addiction to opioids. We know that this phenomenon is increasing across the country, and consequently will demand more attention, and funding, in the years ahead if we are to adequately address the opioid addiction problem.
APT seem to have a good strategy for dealing with the unfortunate stigma that still exists around methadone. The key is education, outreach, and clinics staffed with professionals who are adept at explaining the benefit of drug treatment to the local community. Treatment solves problems. Treatment saves lives, reduces crime, and restores economic productivity on both a personal/familial level and a community level.
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