Beacon Health Options Awards Four Grants for MAT-Related Initiatives

Beacon Health Options announced this week that it is distributing $128,800 in grants to four community-based behavioral health organizations in Massachusetts to help facilitate medication-assisted treatment-based initiatives for treating opioid use disorder.

“We know that medication-assisted treatment works to treat opioid use disorder, and we also know that many clients experience barriers to accessing it,” Susan Coakley, president of Beacon’s Northeast region, said in a news release. “Our goal with this grant program is to help providers improve services and create sustainable ways to connect clients to MAT – linking them to life-saving treatment.”

The four grant recipients and their technology-focused projects which will be funded:

• Boston Health Care for the Homeless – Integrating the remote services of a licensed clinical social worker to the medical and harm reduction services provided by the company’s CareZONE mobile clinic to target high-risk areas for opioid overdose in Boston.
• Bournewood Health Systems – Developing an outpatient MAT program that incorporates the use of smartphone technology
• Lowell House – Funding the use of Uber Health, the ridesharing giant’s B2B service healthcare, to transport patients to MAT-related appointments
• North Suffolk Mental Health – Funding the adoption of Opioid Addiction Recovery Support (OARS) into North Suffolk Mental Health Association’s MAT program. OARS is software designed to increase access and engagement in MAT services while facilitating care coordination between the patient and the healthcare team.

Recipients will receive funding for one year, with a potential for a second year based on program outcomes.