Crossroad

The state has chosen Granite Pathways to operate a new substance use disorder treatment facility for teenagers on the grounds of the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester.

The Executive Council approved a four-year contract with the group during its meeting on Wednesday, with services expected to begin in early November.

The 36-bed facility will be open to children ages 12-18 who are in need of inpatient treatment, making it the first residential program for minors in the state.

The U.S. Senate passed bipartisan legislation last night targeting the misuse of opioids and other addictive drugs.

The measure would increase scrutiny of arriving international mail that may include illegal drugs. It would also make it easier for the National Institutes of Health to approve research on finding nonaddictive painkillers.

Researchers at Dartmouth have completed a months-long study of Manchester's Safe Station program.

The city’s fire department started the effort about two and a half years ago as way to open their doors to those struggling with addiction.

Since then, they’ve logged more than 4,000 intakes, according to Chief Dan Goonan.

The National Institutes of Health was interested in formally documenting how the program works, as cities across the country are looking to replicate the model, said Lisa Marsch, with Dartmouth.

Plymouth State University has received a grant from the federal government to train its clinical mental health students in treating substance abuse.

The $400,000 will go towards two things: paying students a $10,000 stipend when they intern at a partner health center, and providing training and conference funding for students and faculty.

Robin Hausheer is an assistant professor at Plymouth State. She says there's a shortage of mental health care workers across the state. And those folks are key in meeting the needs of people struggling with substance abuse.

Businesses that have signed on to Governor Chris Sununu's Recovery Friendly Workplace initiative will be attending regional orientations this month. 

The goal of the initiative is to get the private sector involved in addressing the opioid crisis, namely by hiring and supporting workers who are struggling with addiction.

The plan's been in the works for months, but so far details of how it'll actually work have been slim. Still, about 30 businesses have signed on, according to Jill Burke, with the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Hope for New Hampshire – an operator of drug recovery centers that received $600,000 in last-minute state funds this spring to maintain two locations outside its base in Manchester – has now closed one of those locations, in Franklin.

The national pharmaceutical trade group PhRMA is joining New Hampshire organizations to combat the opioid crisis. The new effort is called the Rx Abuse Leadership Initiative (RALI) New Hampshire.

Berlin is the latest city to join a massive lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies for their alleged role in the opioid crisis.

Lawyers representing Berlin filed a 284-page petition in federal court on Friday accusing a group of pharmaceutical companies of stoking the opioid crisis by misleading doctors and patients about the risks of addiction posed by drugs including OxyContin.

Governor Chris Sununu and state Health Commissioner Jeff Meyers on Wednesday announced a major overhaul of New Hampshire's addiction treatment infrastructure.

The state will funnel tens of millions in newly available federal funds into a coordinated system of care that tracks patients for months, if not years, through their recovery. The funds, expected to total roughly $46 million over a two-year period, were made available through the federal budget deal earlier this year.

Federal prosecutors are focusing their efforts on Hillsborough County, including the cities of Manchester and Nashua, in a new crackdown on synthetic opioid dealers.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the effort, called Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge (SOS for short), during a stop in Concord last week.

It’s a nationwide push, targeting a single county in each of 10 districts in the U.S. -- areas that have been hardest hit by the drug crisis.

The state health department is hosting a public meeting in Concord a week from today for input on how to allocate a big increase in federal funds toward the opioid crisis. 

The money is coming to the state as part of the most recent Congressional budget deal.

Local officials now have less than a month to decide how it will be spent.

Members of the public can submit feedback by email through July 27. 

Speaking at the U.S. District Court in Concord on Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a surge in federal enforcement efforts around synthetic opioids. 

The Executive Council green-lighted additional state funds for drug recovery centers Wednesday.

In February, one of the state's largest operators of such facilities, Hope for New Hampshire Recovery announced it needed to roll-back its services across the state to stabilize its balance sheet. That included closing centers in Claremont and Concord.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is coming to New Hampshire to speak about the opioid and fentanyl crisis.

Sessions will deliver his remarks Thursday afternoon at the federal building in Concord.

Governor Chris Sununu’s office is pushing forward with his Recovery Friendly Workforce initiative despite roadblocks in the state legislature this spring.

The goal of the initiative is to get the private sector more involved in preventing addiction and supporting workers struggling with drug and alcohol abuse.

State health officials have released two more audits of local addiction treatment providers as part of an ongoing review of all such organizations receiving state funds. 

The audits highlight concerns with the organizations’ financial and human resource operations, particularly around proper record-keeping.

One year after New Hampshire moved to expand access to acupuncture for those struggling with addiction and mental health, the new law has yet to be rolled out.

The legislation allows licensed recovery coaches, peer counselors and health care professionals to offer a specific type of acupuncture, what’s known as acu-detox or ear acupuncture, after going through a standard training.

Governor Chris Sununu’s advisor on addiction and behavioral health, David Mara, visited with physicians and chiropractors at a Dartmouth-Hitchcock facility in Lebanon Tuesday.

They met to discuss chiropractic care as an alternative to opioids for management of back pain, a common condition.

A recent study found New Hampshire patients who were treated by chiropractors for non-cancer-related back pain were significantly less likely to fill a prescription for an opioid-based medication.

State officials have less than two months to detail their plans to spend a major increase in federal opioid dollars.

This is the money Congress made available through the budget deal in March. It's a major boost for New Hampshire -  up to nearly $23 million from just $3 million last year.

A much-awaited vote on public funds for addiction recovery efforts in Claremont and Concord was tabled at the Executive Council meeting Wednesday.

Health Commissioner Jeffrey Meyers said it’s for the sake of transparency around Harbor Homes, the organization that will facilitate those funds.