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Reedley community members struggling with opioid addiction will have more healing resources in the Central Valley thanks to $205,000 grant that was awarded to the Adventist Health Reedley hospital.

The grant, which will fund prevention, treatment and recovery services, was awarded by The Center at Sierra Health Foundation through the Medicated Assisted Treatment (MAT) Access Points Project. MAT is the use of FDA-approved medications, in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies to provide a “whole-patient” approach to the treatment of substance abuse disorders. The goal of the grant is to ensure that this treatment supports positive outcomes, safe care transitions and long-term recovery for those with opioid and other substance use disorders.

“We are thrilled to receive this generous grant,” said Dr. John Zweifler, Adventist Health medical director of clinical integration and principal investigator of the grant. “This is a big step forward in providing competent and compassionate services that will help our patients and communities to heal. It’s what our mission to live God’s love calls us to do.”

The grant will enable Adventist Health Reedley to provide a program featuring mobile telehealth services to connect patients to emergency departments in Reedley and Selma, and Adventist Health clinics in Sanger and Fowler. Similar services were launched at Adventist Health Hanford in January.

Additionally, the grant will enable the training of future generations of family medicine residents in medication-assisted therapy for opioid use disorder.