Hello Westfield – hope you all had a great Fourth of July holiday a few weeks ago and hopefully a little well-earned vacation.
This week, I wanted to touch on something that I’m positive many of you have been affected by in some way: the opioid crisis. I’m willing to bet that in this day and age, most of us have dealt with a loved one or a friend who has struggled with some form of addition. The sad fact is that in 2018, Massachusetts had more than 2,000 deaths from opioid overdose. Hampden County had the highest per capita overdose rate in the state, at around 44 deaths per 100,000 residents, or about twice the national average. Long story short, we need as many treatment beds as we can get here in Western Mass.
In Massachusetts, one of the last resort methods we have to help people struggling with substance abuse is called Section 35 Civil Commitment, where a judge can order someone to mandatory treatment at the request of family or law enforcement if they are believed to be a danger to themselves or others. For Men involuntarily committed to a treatment program in Massachusetts, there are only 3 facilities that handle these cases and only 1 is in the western part of the state. As a matter of circumstance, two of these programs, including ours, are housed in County Houses of Correction, a situation that has raised some controversy lately.
Many of my fellow lawmakers have taken issue with locating these treatment programs in prisons. They contend, and I think rightly so, that the men who are committed should not undergo the additional trauma of being treated like a prisoner while attempting to rehabilitate themselves. As our view of addiction evolves from a criminal justice matter to one of mental health, so should too our treatment of addicts. Therefore, in a report released this week, they recommend that the practice of housing Section 35 Commitments in jail or prison should be eliminated.
I had the opportunity this past week to visit the Stonybrook Treatment and Stabilization Center, the Section 35 program run by Sherriff Cocchi in Ludlow, and I have to say that after my experience there, I cannot support the findings of that report. The Ludlow Section 35 facility has been open only a year, but already the outcomes are extremely promising. Of the 770 patients that have gone through the program, 98% have finished their treatment and only about 5% have been recommitted. The Stonybrook Center does not treat their patients like prisoners; they are treated with dignity and respect while they undergo detox and rehabilitation. The staff working at the centers are chosen with care to provide evidence-based and trauma-informed treatment.
This program is an asset to Western Mass – our most vulnerable residents can get the treatment they need in a facility close to home. Currently, they are the only Section 35 beds in our part of the state. If we lose them, patients may be sent to facilities hours away from loved ones. While I cannot speak about other Section 35 programs, shutting this one down would be a step backwards, not forwards, in solving the opioid crisis.
That’s it for this week, folks. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, my office can be reached at [email protected] or (413) 572-3920. Have a wonderful week.
