Quality Care
In addition to our CCIR mobile addiction van and Supportive Place for Observation and Treatment, BHCHP offers specialized programs:
Office-Based Addiction Treatment (OBAT): Patients receive treatment on an outpatient basis, with intensive care management for medication for opioid use disorder, and engagement and prescribing to help people with other substance use disorders. A nurse care manager model (known as “the Massachusetts Model”) allows for intensive and flexible access to medication. Nurses, therapists, case managers, recovery coaches, and prescribers specialized in addiction medicine, support a holistic approach to recovery as our patients define it. For opioid use disorder, we prescribe buprenorphine (both as Suboxone and its long-acting form Sublocade) and naltrexone (in short acting pills and long-acting Vivitrol), and facilitate connections to methadone programs. We also support other medications for other substance use disorders both within OBAT, and through our primary care and outreach efforts.
RISE Project: Data from Massachusetts shows that people released from incarceration are 125 times more likely to die of overdose than the general population—with most of the overdoses occurring in the first few weeks after release. In response to that dire risk, as well as the vicious cycles that too often arise between incarceration, homelessness, opioid use, and overdose, BHCHP created the RISE Project, in which case managers connect with incarcerated or detained individuals who are living with opioid use disorder and approaching their release date. Working with people in Suffolk County jails, patients begin receiving case management and support groups months before release, and are assessed by clinicians over secure confidential phone lines to plan for the transition to outpatient care. When they walk out of jail, care—including medication for addiction treatment, as well as Hepatitis C treatment, support for obtaining identification, rapid mental health assessment and treatment access, legal case management, and applications for housing—can continue seamlessly amid a notoriously vulnerable time.
Support groups: Facilitated by therapists and recovery coaches specialized in working with people with substance use disorders, BHCHP holds daily support groups for both inpatients and outpatients at our home at 780 Albany Street—providing a safe, nurturing space for patients to share, connect, and offer and receive support among staff and peers.
