CANTON — St. Lawrence County officials continue to deliberate over three bids to establish an opioid treatment program facility.
St. Lawrence Health System, St. Joseph’s Addiction Treatment & Recovery Centers and the county-run Community Services Department have submitted plans to establish an outpatient center that would primarily focus on medication-assisted treatment for patients grappling with opioid use disorder. At the board of legislators services committee meeting Monday, the three groups made an oral presentation and fielded questions on their plans.
The county had originally been in the running to receive a $245,000 grant that would pass through to the agency chosen to provide startup cash for the new facility, but that cash fell through. All the agencies had to make plans to either build a new facility or renovate existing facilities to some degree to meet the rather rigorous standards set forth by state and federal regulators. This includes safe storage and handling of medication, rooms and hallways that would protect patient identities and staff, and requirements on education and certification of employees.
Each of the contenders presented plans to base the facility in Massena. St. Joseph’s and county Community Services would renovate existing spaces to one of their other facilities. St. Lawrence Health System plans to renovate the old Sears location in the mall, but, unlike the other contenders, Director of Behavioral Health Jayme Smith said the hospital put a hold on drawing up a floor plan after finding out the $245,000 grant wasn’t coming.
“We had to, just to be fiscally responsible, we just needed a time-out. That certainly doesn’t speak to our enthusiasm, willingness, motivation, drive to do this,” Dr. Smith said.
All three entities also faced questions as to the level of care they could provide to patients. Several legislators asked whether the providers would turn away uninsured people. All assured they would not.
Community Services Chemical Dependency Program Director Sheena T. Smith said if her department ran the program, they would not administratively discharge patients like she said some other existing programs in the area do, though she didn’t name any specifically.
“There are some agencies in our area that administratively discharge folks for missing too many appointments, for not complying with treatment recommendations for level of care, maybe they’re continuing to use drug, very commonly meth. They get asked to leave essentially and we end up with those clients,” Ms. Smith said. The representatives for St. Joseph’s and SLHS both said those discharges are rare.
The presentations and discussions occupied almost three hours of Monday’s board meetings and covered various other portions of the proposed plans. The board is scheduled to resume discussing the projects at its next meeting.
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September 26, 2020 at 07:43AM
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St. Lawrence County legislators hear proposals for new opioid treatment facility - NNY360
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