Report on Massachusetts - November 2005

Report

December 8, 2005

Paul Bowman, CMA
Director, Boston NAMA
Massachusetts NAMA

Report on Massachusetts

November 2005

This author as a member of the Massachusetts Dept of Public Heath Consumer Advisory Board gave a presentation on methadone treatment to the board. Sharon Dembinski,RN, MSN, PNP, CMA NENAMAMOM and Dana Moulton, CMA MA NAMA helped by taking questions about MAT treatment after the presentation. It went very well and many members stated they never knew about the science behind methadone treatment and thought it made patients high. Hopefully this will begin to educate the the recovery community about methadone treatment and begin to change attitudes.

Other recent accomplishment include:

1. Paul Bowman and Maureen Neville, CMA MA NAMA after several years have finally got a commitment from the state methadone authority to meet with the group of Massachusetts NAMA advocates. This includes quarterly meetings between the department and MA NAMA to continue dialogue regarding important issues. This is a tremendous accomplishment and has the potential for having a real impact on methadone treatment.


2. Paul Bowman has become certified as a First Responders for people with addiction issues from the states emergency response center. In this capacity he would be called upon by the Massachusetts FEMA if they needed to counsel people after a disaster or crisis. The course was taught by a doctor who counseled 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina responders. Massachusetts NAMA through Paul Bowman have requested that methadone patients be included in the states disaster planning units.

3. Maureen Neville and Paul Bowman after a year of discussion with HMI regarding a brochure to be given to patients who need help with problems they may have with their clinic. The brochure is designed to guide patients to resources that will help them in resolving a problem that they can not do on their own.

4. MA NAMA is going to be meeting with Jan Kaufman who is president of the providers association and represents AATOD in the state. MS Kaufman agreed to meet with Dana Moulton and Paul Bowman about clinics having a more uniform fair approach to take home medication and fee tox policy.

5. This month four (4) patient grievances were resolved to a favorable outcome for the patients and involved all of the Massachusetts NAMA team handling different cases.