WGBH News: Lecturer Deborah Goldfarb Advocates to Divert Funding from Prisons to Healthcare Settings for Substance Use Treatment
At a recent press conference, BUSSW lecturer Deborah Goldfarb and other medical experts testified to change a Massachusetts law that civilly commits people seeking treatment for substance use disorders to prison. While other states allow “qualified petitioners” (i.e. spouses, doctors, or police officers) to commit someone to treatment, Massachusetts is the only state that can incarcerate patients. Advocates are calling for the state to shift their funding for committed patients from prisons to other treatment options, which is reflected in two proposed amendments filed by Rep. Ruth Balser of Middlesex.
Excerpt from “Advocates Call for End to Men Being Sent to Correctional Facilities for Substance Abuse Treatment,” by Esteban Bustillos, originally published on WGBH News:
Deborah Goldfarb, the director of behavioral within population health at Boston Medical Center, said it can be traumatizing for patients and community members to be involuntarily committed in any setting.
‘That can be amplified when they’re put into a correctional setting, right?’ she said. ‘And I think it can really erode trust in the healthcare professionals when they think they are going someplace for help, and then they end up in a place that traumatizes them or harms them.’
‘In the healthcare setting, we sort of use the example of: if you had diabetes and you went to your healthcare provider and said you were struggling to manage your diabetes, you couldn’t manage your sugars, you were having issues with exercise and diet and you were sent to a prison to fix that, that would seem ludicrous.’”