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The Many Faces of Meth: |
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(Source: Multnomah County Sheriff's Office - Faces of Meth™) |
Mass. Methadone Providers Unprepared for Snow Storm
National Alliance of Methadone Advocates
Massachusetts Chapter
Email: danamoulton@comcast.net
Phone: 774.249.2608
Many Massachusetts residents on Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid addictionwere left in the snow drifts as a seeming breakdown in the Emergency Weather Policy impacted the ability to ensure patents received their medication during a snow emergency. Although clinics may have made good faith efforts to ensure their clients were able to receive their medication, it appears some failed in this goal. Mobile dosing vans were unable to drive to designated dosing sites but failed to see the irony in asking their patients to drive twice and even three times the distance to an alternate site to be dosed. Other clinics did not extend their hours to allow extra time for travel while others did not manage to open at all, this when it was predicted and obvious that a major storm was bearing down on Massachusetts.
The state has a Severe Weather Policy that allows clinics to apply for waivers in the event of a weather emergency so that this need not happen.
In order for wavers to be granted, clinics need to submit clearly stated contingency plans for dosing during a severe weather emergency, (extended hours, alternate sites, or other options that may be available) to then be signed by both the medical and executive director and submitted to the state for approval. In the event that such contingency plans can not be implemented and facility closure is unavoidable or prudent, they are then allowed to provide take home medication, regardless of an individuals take home status, by stating the criteria (declared snow emergency, anticipated large snowfall, etc.) that will be used to close the clinic and notify state officials.
It is important to understand that these waivers are in effect for the season, so they can be implemented in a timely fashion when necessary once approved by state authorities. To state what the cause of the breakdown in this policy is would be conjecture. What we do know is that people went without proper medical care because the system did not meet their needs. The system failed them, and not in just an isolated incidents, but on a broad scale that demands explaining and fixing, with the view that it is important that we look forward rather than back to point fingers.
Unfortunately, many who suffered the indignity and fear from this breakdown of the system, the many who were not medicated, believe that no one cares to fix it. We at NAMA choose not to believe this, as we believe there are many dedicated to providing quality care for those who require it. But we understand and empathize with those feelings, and hope that a review of the circumstances will resolve this problem so that it need never be repeated. The task at hand is for all concerned parties to make expeditious efforts to fix the cause of this breakdown.
Would such treatment for people who suffered from the disease of diabetes, or any other chronic treatable disease, be tolerated or not rectified?
The breakdown of the Weather Emergency Policy goes beyond those immediately impacted as clients, acting as a deterrent for those in need of treatment seeking it out. This during an epidemic of opioid use in Massachusetts is counterproductive to say the least. We urge all concerned, as opioid use ravages our commonwealth, to come together and resolve the problems that left potentially thousands literally stuck in the snow.
Dana Moulton CMA
Maureen Neville CMA
Mass Chapter Directors
Sharon Dembinski MS, PNP, CMA
New England NAMA-Mothers on Methadone Chapter Paul Bowman CMA Director, Boston NAMA National Alliance of Methadone Advocates
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