Drug Rehab Clinic Serves Mostly Local Patients

New Haven residents make up three-quarters of the patients served by a substance use disorder treatment center that currently operates out of a rented Whalley Avenue office building — and that plans on moving to the former CVS site at the corner of Whalley and Orchard. 

That drug rehab clinic is called Midwestern Connecticut Council of Alcoholism, or MCCA.

Leaders from the organization shared that statistic about its patients among many others in a Tuesday email to Whalley, Dwight, Beaver Hills, Dixwell, and Edgewood neighbors following a recent community meeting about the organization’s recent purchase of and upcoming move to the former pharmacy site.

MCCA purchased the former CVS building at 215 Whalley Ave. in September for $2.5 million with the goal of moving its ​“abstinence”-focused operations from its current rental office space at 419 Whalley. At the late October community meeting about the move, community leaders who live near the recently-purchased property raised questions about whom exactly MCCA serves — New Haveners, or patients from out of town?

During Tuesday night’s latest regular monthly meeting of the Dwight Community Management Team, which was held online via Zoom, Greater Dwight Development Corporation Executive Director Linda Townsend Maier.reiterated one of those questions when she asked: ​“I am interested in finding out how many of those clients are from New Haven.” She expressed the concern that MCCA’s presence might have ​“some negative impact” on the Dwight neighborhood. 

Townsend and other neighbors’ concerns spoke to a perception that many New Haven treatment centers primarily draw suburban clients rather than directly serving the residents of New Haven neighborhoods. 

MCCA rebutted this sentiment with a host of demographic data about its current 419 Whalley Ave. clinic that it sent by email on Tuesday. 

Included in that data-heavy email, which can be read in full here, were the following stats:

• 139 of MCCA’s 177 ​“intensive outpatients” are from New Haven, and 180 of its 249 ​“regular outpatients” are from New Haven, meaning that 75 percent of its total clientele for its current Whalley Avenue office are from New Haven;
• 50 percent of MCCA’s patients are Black, while 28 percent are white, and 18 percent identify as Hispanic;
• Throughout September, the number of clients who came in and out of the current Whalley Avenue building per day ranged from 1 to 134;
• The times of day with the highest traffic in and out of the center are between 9 and 9:15 a.m. as well as between 12:35 and 12:45 p.m., right before and after the Intensive Outpatient Program meetings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

The organization also responded to a question about the coordination of traffic flow: ​“MCCA will be hiring a traffic engineer to evaluate this and will work with the City when applying for a site plan approval.”

These conversations come on the heels of an ongoing movement to stop the APT Foundation’s planned new methadone clinic and healthcare facility in Newhallville, which — like MCCA’s plans to move into the former CVS building — neighbors learned about from an Independent news article and which generated concern about possible drug dealing and substance use that might rise in the neighborhood as a result. Opponents of the APT Foundation have argued that in New Haven and across the country, majority Black and low-income neighborhoods like Newhallville — and like the Dwight/Dixwell area — are home to a disproportionate amount of treatment centers and other ​“locally unwanted land uses” that arrive without neighborhood engagement or input. 

At last week’s community meeting, MCCA representatives distanced their organization from APT​’s low-barrier-to-entry model, saying they take a more restrictive ​“abstinence” approach to treatment. 

Pharmacy Losses Lamented

Also on Tuesday, members of the Dwight/West River Community Management Team raised a separate set of concerns sparked in part by the new fate of 215 Whalley: a decline in the number of pharmacies serving the neighborhood.

Dwight resident Jane Comins noted to the management team that in addition to the closure of the Whalley Avenue CVS, the Rite Aid located in West River on Legion and Orchard has also shut down recently, along with a small Walgreens at Chapel and Beers. 

“If other people are concerned if there’s no pharmacy in our neighborhood,” Comins suggested they could try ​“mounting a campaign to ask Stop and Shop to bring a pharmacy” to its location on Whalley Avenue. 

In response, a couple of residents expressed interest in advocating for more pharmacies.

Sheila Shanklin said that historically the neighborhood’s pharmacies have shifted from being independently owned to large chain branches. ​“There used to be a lot of little pharmacies along Whalley Avenue — not like a CVS or Rite Aid.”

Other attendees brought up the Chapel Street Pharmacy, an independent pharmacy at Howe and Chapel. 

“I have been going to Chapel Pharmacy for about 5 years now,” wrote Verna Norman in the Zoom room chat. ​“I prefer over Walgreens.”

Patricia Wallace said she’s had ​“a nice experience going to the pharmacy on Chapel and Howe Street — it’s small though.”

At the remaining Walgreens location at 55 York St., Wallace said she loves the staff there, but that she’s disappointed that ​“everything has locks on it. … If you want to buy Tylenol, you have to get a store clerk to unlock that whole area.”