Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, as well as John McGahan, CEO and president of the Gavin Foundation, and Marty Martinez, chief of the Boston's Health and Human Services Department, joined Boston Public Radio on Friday for an opioid crisis forum.
Boston has a shortage on drug treatment beds available for people struggling with opioid addiction who are ready for treatment, McGahan said.
"There are different levels of beds. The first entry for most people, not all, is detox or acute treatment services, and that's a 24/7 medical unit," he said. "We now have enough of those beds in the commonwealth, but what we don't have is the long-term stepdown, and a lot of folks feel that the stepdown beds are too expensive to have out there."
Long Island will be a place where people in need of long-term treatment will be able to find help, Walsh said.
"We are building a comprehensive campus on Long Island, but it is about long-term beds as well, and that's where Long Island comes in," he said. "I view Long Island as an opportunity to be a therapeutic community. It's on the water, people would go to work, and we want to build a bridge to allow people the opportunity to have that long-term care."
Walsh gave an update on the progress of Long Island development.
"We're working through the DEP to get permits. We're also working through, I think, one court case still left, and I'm hopeful we're going to be successful," he said. "We are planning the bridge, the money is in the budget, and we're designing the bridge."
