FEATURE
New Haven on the Mend Connecticut’s Methadone Clinic Conflict and Battle Against the Opioid Crisis BY IDONE RHODES Photos by Sam Feibel
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n Dixwell Avenue in New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood, a large billboard reads: “STOP THE APT FOUNDATION FROM RELOCATING TO NEWHALLVILLE.” When the APT Foundation, a Connecticut not-for-profit organization that provides addiction treatment services, purchased 794 Dixwell, a building at the corner of Dixwell Avenue and Elizabeth Street, in January of this year, they planned to use the space as their new foundation headquarters as well as a substance use disorder treatment facility and methadone clinic. The foundation’s intention to purchase the building was not disclosed to community leaders beforehand, and massive pushback from the Newhallville community has complicated the foundation’s plans to move into the neighborhood. Newhallville, a neighborhood on the New Haven-Hamden border, is home to longtime residents who care deeply about their community. The neighborhood is battling a variety of systemic issues: poverty, violence and lack of access to healthy foods, amongst others. The area’s residents view the APT Foundation’s move into the neighborhood as yet another roadblock to progress. “We are looking to move forward … in a more posi-
24 | May 2022
tive community … with things that can help us and support us … and not stress our community where it’s going to go backwards,” said Jeanette Sykes, chairwoman of the Newhallville-Hamden Strong movement.
“Methadone is an inexpensive, long-acting opioid that, when administered properly and consistently, can allow those recovering from opioid use disorder to stabilize and resume daily life with a decreased risk of overdose should they relapse.”
The APT Foundation, founded in 1970 by Herb Kleber, a former faculty member of the Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, is one of the oldest addiction treatment programs in the United States. The foundation
uses a holistic treatment approach and provides mental health counseling, primary care, housing assistance and vocational training to its patients, in addition to the implementation of pharmacological treatment methods such as methadone maintenance. “At the APT Foundation, we have a very integrated care model,” shared Jeanette Tetrault, a Yale professor of medicine and public health and a staff physician at the foundation. “We provide on-site primary care … as well as having a distinct role in the management of substance use disorder with our patients. We also provide integrated care for things we commonly see in patients with substance use disorder, like HIV and hepatitis C treatment.” Opioid use disorder is not an illness with a wholesale treatment, and the foundation combines a variety of methods to best suit their patients’ needs. Medication treatment for substance use disorder has proven to be one of the most effective rehabilitation methods for opioid use disorder. Methadone is an inexpensive, long-acting opioid that, when administered properly and consistently, can allow those recovering from opioid use disorder to stabilize and resume daily life with a decreased risk of overdose should they relapse. Robert
