A new addiction center is open in Buffalo, one that was made possible with the support of a $1.75 million state grant. Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul joined representatives of Lake Shore Behavioral Health to formally open the BestSelf Recovery Community and Outreach Center on Linwood Avenue.
The Linwood Avenue facility offers people battling addiction an opportunity to engage in intensive peer-driven counseling and educational opportunities, with the goal of further securing a successful recovery.
"There's a recognition that treatment is a necessary part of recovery but probably, for many people, not entirely sufficient," Dr. Hitzel said. "This program, the Recovery Community, will offer people support as they continue down the road of their personal recovery."
Lats summer, New York State Office of of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) Commissioner Arlene González-Sánchez appeared in Buffalo to announce grants to get more centers built. This facility was one of them.
Lieutenant Governor Hochul, who sits on Governor Andrew Cuomo's opioid addiction task force, says leaders acted on the feedback of those working closely in the ongoing addiction epidemic, taking their advice and investing accordingly.
"The State of New York will be watching what's going on here, in Buffalo, New York, as we will with the other facilities to find out how we can begin to start reversing the trend," she said. "Right now, it is still spiraling upward."
Hochul expressed hope, though, that one day the clinic would again be closed... because New York would be able to overcome addiction and make such clinics unnecessary.
