Center is Open 24/7 to Evaluate Individuals Seeking Immediate Help for Substance Use Disorders

Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare’s Integrated Outpatient Clinic is opening a Regional Open Access Center for Addiction, providing open access assessments and evaluations 24 hours a day, seven days a week to individuals seeking immediate assistance for substance use disorder.

The ROACA provides individuals in Onondaga, Cayuga, Madison, Cortland, Oneida and Oswego counties with screening and assessment to determine an appropriate treatment recommendation, as well as community recovery service options in their home county.

Treatment recommendations are determined using the Level of Care for Alcohol and Drug Treatment Referral instrument, known as the LOCADTR 3.0, which incorporates the need for detox, risk of relapse and social determinants of health, in order to provide the best approach for treatment options.

Central New York residents have had limited access to timely addiction treatment services in the past. The ROACA’s 24/7 operation is unique and its central location in Syracuse is close to hospitals, a Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program, community-based treatment providers, and the area’s only medically supervised withdrawal and stabilization program.

“In our many discussions with individuals, families and groups in our region who have seen or experienced a substance use disorder, it is clear that an urgent response is what’s missing from the system,” said Jeremy Klemanski, President and CEO of Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare. “Outpatient, inpatient, and detox services all exist both locally and regionally, but there was no one place for a person to go and get an assessment for treatment options at any time. Our 24/7 Regional Open Access Center for Addiction will lead to a low cost, effective and transformational solution for access to substance use treatments and recovery supports.”

“The Central New York Directors’ Planning Group, Inc., consisting of the Directors of Community Services from the Counties of Oneida, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, Oswego, and Cayuga, in partnership with NYS OASAS, has worked to develop and fund the addition of a crisis capacity that has been missing from the treatment system for youth and adults with addictions,” said Ray Bizzari, chairman of the CNYDPG. “The Regional Open Access Center for Addiction is the place we’ve been waiting for.”

By martha

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