The state has awarded a local addiction treatment agency a little over half a million dollars to expand its medication assisted treatment programs by offering methadone.
Huther Doyle was awarded $560,000 by the state. The agency was the only organization in the Finger Lakes region to receive a portion of the $5.8 million the state set aside for new addiction treatment programs.
The agency’s leaders say the methadone clinic will advance the agency’s comprehensive model.
“It's nice to be able to offer everything that's available in one spot to a client,” said Kelly Reed, Huther Doyle CEO and President. “This actually allows us to provide the trinity of different types of treatment for opioid addiction.”
Reed said the agency currently offers the medications suboxone and vivitrol to aid with addiction treatment, but methadone would generate more clientele.
“The current mix of fentanyl that they're using responds better to methadone,” Reed said. “So we may have more success in recovery with it.”
Since methadone is highly addictive and DEA regulated, the agency needs to establish a separate clinic with a high level of security to distribute the medicine. Reed said the money will go towards reconstructing the designated floor on East Avenue into the center and staffing it.
“We have a goal of serving between 30 and 40 people, and then we'll see where it goes from there,” Reed said.
Reed anticipates the project will be complete by late fall.
Her hope is to eventually take the clinic on the road with a mobile treatment van.
“It's not enough for us to be good. We really need to be excellent,” Reed said. “That's how we approach everything.”
