The Boston City Council adopted a resolution Aug. 29 designating September as National Recovery Month to celebrate the city’s progress in substance abuse treatment and prevention while acknowledging disparities in care, according to a press release from the City of Boston.
City officials, in partnership with the Boston Public Health Commission and other organizations, plan to host several events to celebrate recovery and raise awareness for mental health resources.
Some of those events include a cookout in Franklin Park’s Shattuck picnic area on Sept. 19, Nubian Square Recovery Day in the Boston Public Library’s Roxbury branch on Sept. 25 and Recovery Month Celebration Day at the Boston Common on Sept. 26.
Yalika Cardenas Forty, bureau director of recovery services at the BPHC, has worked with people recovering from addiction for over two decades.
“I’ve seen beautiful things, people get their children back, reunite with family, get jobs,” Forty said. “I know so many clients who are managers, who have businesses, who are so successful, and I think we don’t share that enough.”
She said National Recovery Month will show people how recovery works and spur encouragement for people dealing with addiction hoping to get clean.
The city saw a 38% decrease in opioid overdose mortality in 2024 compared to the previous year, a new low since 2015, according to data from BPHC.
“This progress is attributed to the ongoing efforts of advocates and providers working to expand access to recovery services,” according to the City’s press release.
“There’s pretty much not a neighborhood that I’ve been to in Boston that doesn’t have a recovery community center,” said Noel Vest, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Public Health.
Despite a fall in the number of overdoses, racial disparities in treatment remain.
The press release acknowledges that some predominantly Black and Latino communities, including neighborhoods like Dorchester, Roxbury and the South End, endure disproportionately higher rates of opioid-related and substance abuse mortality.
“It points to a problem that we need to make sure that we focus on,” said Jake Morgan, a research assistant professor at BU School of Public Health. “It also is an opportunity that can tell us the most effective ways to allocate our resources.”
BPHC strives to focus on improving access to care in communities of color, Forty said.
Forty said by increasing distribution of naloxone, an overdose-reversing medication, through access points or “kiosks” in these neighborhoods, the commission aims to decrease the gap in care.
“We really need to create systems that are both more equitable and systems that really get to the heart of this issue,” Vest said.
