LYNN — A $100,000 state grant provided to the Lynn Community Health Center will be used to improve the cultural fluency of the staff, helping them understand the diverse community they serve.
Bilingual staff capacity and other staff members more reflective of impacted communities will be hired for the Lynn Moving Upstream Project, a prevention and recovery program that will partner therapists with first responders and schools to assist adolescents in the Lynn Public Schools who are at a high risk for opioid use disorder.
“The idea is if you can limit the impact of these events, you can diminish their future likelihood of engaging in behaviors like substance abuse,” said Lynn Community Health Center CEO Dr. Kiame Mahaniah at a virtual roundtable Tuesday. It was hosted by Attorney General Maura Healey and included a discussion of the grant program.
“We’re very intentional about hiring a diverse group of therapists,” he added. “And we want to make sure we match the language and race of our therapists with the populations we serve.”
Mahaniah said 80 percent of the patients treated at LCHC are minorities, and 66 percent prefer that their care be given in a language other than English.
The grant is part of a larger program — Promoting Cultural Humility in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment — sponsored by Healey’s office, which has provided $1.5 million to 16 organizations across the state to promote equity in treatment programs and recovery services for opioid use disorder (OUD) in Massachusetts.
The program supports treatment and recovery programs committed to standards that serve Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in Massachusetts.
“The opioid epidemic is far from over, and the COVID-19 crisis has only exacerbated barriers to care that have systemically and disproportionately harmed communities of color for far too long,” said Healey. “We have prioritized equity in our grant programs and awarded these funds to organizations that are committed to providing accessible recovery and treatment services to diverse patients across our state.”
This grant program is funded by an $11 million settlement that the AG’s office reached with Injured Workers Pharmacy (IWP) for unlawful and dangerous prescription drug dispensing practices.
In that investigation, Healey alleged that an Andover mail-order pharmacy failed to implement adequate safeguards against unlawful and dangerous dispensing, resulting in the shipment of thousands of potentially illegitimately-controlled substance prescriptions across the country.
Healey also awarded grants to the statewide organizations: MA Organization for Addiction Recovery and the Home Base Program, both of which are focused on providing more equitable substance abuse care to BIPOC communities.
Grants were also given to other more localized organizations, including Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Victory Programs, Boston Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, the city of Somerville, The Jewish Family & Children’s Service, The Charles River Community Health Center, Steppingstone Incorporated, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, River to Recovery, Opening the Word Peer Recovery Center, Gándara Mental Health Center, and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department/Opioid Task Force.
Mahaniah said at the roundtable that while he was disturbed by the racial and economic inequities presented during the pandemic, he was also impressed by the work being done to address those inequities as they were occurring.
“We live in a capitalistic society so the more money you have, the more access you have to anything. What was striking during the pandemic was just how naked that is,” said Mahaniah. “It has been very gratifying to see this introspection that makes us think — maybe we don’t want to live in a society where the discrimination and inequality is so stark.
“I’ve been cautiously optimistic because it is the first time that we’ve had a societal-level event where inequalities or racial inequities were recognized and addressed as they were happening.”
He was also impressed by the level of community involvement in the Lynn Moving Upstream Project.
“Every single institution we’ve reached out to participate has agreed to take part,” he said. “There’s great collaboration. We’re very hopeful that this is going to make a huge difference in our community.”
Guthrie Scrimgeour can be reached at [email protected].
