New York State To Unleash $4 Million For Substance Abuse Treatment Centers

ALBANY – More than $4 million has been awarded by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to develop 10 Open Access Centers to deliver immediate engagement, assessment and referral service options to New Yorkers seeking treatment for substance abuse. Horizon Village near Buffalo will receive $450,000 to offer services to local counties, including Chautauqua County.
The centers, to be located statewide, further advance the Governor’s efforts to combat addiction in New York State and proactively address the public health problem of addiction to prescription opioids and heroin.

“Substance abuse knows no age, knows no income and knows no zip code in New York or across the nation,” Cuomo said“With these around-the-clock Open Access Centers, we can provide critical services night and day to New Yorkers when they need it most.”

The primary goal of Open Access Centers is to ensure that anyone in need of substance use disorder services has immediate access to addiction treatment services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Staff will be on-hand to help people, family members and law enforcement with addiction treatment services. Staff will also be available or on-call to provide an immediate assessment and referral to the appropriate level of care.

The new centers will be in nine of the state’s 10 economic development regions, apart from Central New York, where Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare recently opened a center in October 2017 through a locally issued, state-funded procurement.

Horizon Village will serve Erie, Niagara, Allegany, Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties.

New Yorkers struggling with an addiction, or whose loved ones are struggling, can find help and hope by calling the state’s toll-free, 24-hour, 7-day-a-week HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY or by texting HOPENY (Short Code 467369).

Available addiction treatment including crisis/detox, inpatient, community residence, or outpatient care can be found using the NYS OASAS Treatment Availability Dashboard at FindAddictionTreatment.ny.gov or through the NYS OASAS website.

Visit CombatAddiction.ny.gov to learn more about the warning signs of addiction, review information on how to get help, and access resources on how to facilitate conversations with loved ones and communities about addiction. For tools to use in talking to a young person about preventing alcohol or drug use, visit the state’s Talk2Prevent website.