Nonprofit Outreach adding new opioid treatment program at outpatient facility in Brentwood

Bobby Lloyd of Wheatley Heights has been clean for more than two years. Formerly addicted to heroin, he attributes his recovery in part to methadone, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.

But a monthslong waitlist for treatment at Long Island clinics that offer methadone, which reduces opioid craving and withdrawal, forced him to travel to Manhattan every morning for treatment, Lloyd said.

“If I missed it, I was screwed,” Lloyd, 36, said. “I had to pray to God that I got there with enough time to see my counselor and get OK to get my dosage, because no methadone means I’m going to be sick.”

Lloyd now works as a certified recovery peer advocate at Sherpa with the Garden City-based Family and Children’s Association to help others on their journey toward recovery. Sherpa operates out of the building for THRIVE, or Center for Transformation, Healing, Recovery, Inspiration, Validation and Empowerment, an FCA affiliate.

Long Islanders seeking drug addiction treatment can now access another facility closer to home. The nonprofit Outreach, which offers teen drug and alcohol residential program and other services, on Jan. 4 is adding a new integrated opioid treatment program at its outpatient facility at the state-run Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood. The center, which serves around 150 people per day, will operate the program six days a week, CEO and president Debra Pantin told Newsday.

The program, funded through a government grant totaling more than $200,000, will offer assessments, methadone maintenance, trauma-informed clinical counseling, psychiatric evaluations, peer services, case management and vocational assessments, and counseling. Pantin said patients may pay through Medicare or Medicaid. 

“We have seen the need for both mental health and addiction services increase since the pandemic,” Pantin said. “It created a lot of isolation. I think also there’s the mere fact that the pandemic itself created anxieties and different kinds of stressors for folks.”

Drug overdose deaths in New York involving opioids increased to 85% in both 2020 and 2021, from 69% in 2010, according to the state comptroller’s office. In 2021, opioid overdose deaths in New York exceeded national rates, at 25 per 100,000.

The Outreach expansion has been planned since 2019 and is not related to recent settlements that have made $46.9 million available in 2022 on Long Island to combat the opioid epidemic, according to the attorney general's office. 

“Methadone just hasn’t been all that available in this region. You see a lot more of it in New York City, but here, it’s been a challenge,” said Jeffrey Reynolds, president and CEO at Family and Children’s Association. “One of the biggest challenges really are people who start methadone treatment in New York City and then come out here to rejoin family or come out here to live and then have a really hard time being maintained on methadone.”

The Suffolk County Opioid Treatment Program currently has a waitlist of about 175 people, said spokesperson Marykate Guilfoyle. That’s a decline from more than 200 in 2016, as previously reported in Newsday. The county has partnered with newly certified community-based providers to increase access, Guilfoyle said.

Opioid treatment experts say individuals who use medication-assisted treatment programs often face stigma. Such treatments, however, can keep individuals alive long enough to “do their psychosocial work," said Linda Ventura, executive director of nonprofit Thomas’ Hope Foundation.

Lloyd, who worked with an Outreach program during his recovery process, has switched to suboxone, another medication to fight opioid addiction, and still attends meetings to continue with his own journey.

“Opening a methadone clinic is going to free up more people to get their life back on track,” he said. “There should be no barriers for anybody to get any sort of treatment that they need. Drug addiction is a battle — it shouldn’t be such a struggle to find a safe and substance free life.”

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com

Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.