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Recovery Summit working group urges more treatment options, longer stays and Black‑led programs as DPH defends harm‑reduction approach
Summary
Members of the Recovery Summit Working Group told the Board of Supervisors committee that San Francisco needs to expand residential, abstinence‑based and culturally specific treatment, extend stays beyond Drug Medi‑Cal limits and create Black‑led programs in the Bayview; Department of Public Health said it is expanding low‑threshold access to medication and other supports and invited continued collaboration.
Vice Chair Catherine Stephanie convened a lengthy Feb. 11 hearing of the Board of Supervisors’ Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee to consider the San Francisco Recovery Summit Working Group’s report on gaps in the city’s addiction‑treatment system. The working group, made up largely of people in recovery, recommended expanding treatment options to include abstinence‑based, faith‑based and social‑model residential programs, extending lengths of stay, creating Black‑led facilities in the Bayview, increasing paid peer specialist opportunities and improving public awareness of services.
The working group and people with lived experience emphasized the urgency of the crisis. "The drug overdose crisis in our city has reached an unprecedented level," Vice Chair Stephanie said, citing 699 overdose deaths in 2020. Steve Adame, interim director of the Reentry Division at Adult Probation and a working‑group member, described local counts and trends — including syringe…
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