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Substance Use Disorder Bridge Clinics

Mass General Brigham’s Bridge Clinics offer immediate access to compassionate, non-judgmental, and personalized care for patients with substance use disorders. We value diversity and aim to create an inclusive environment that welcomes people of all races, ethnicities, languages, gender and sexual identities, abilities, and walks of life.

Linda and Eddie, Bridge Clinic recovery coaches
L to R: Bridge Clinic team members Dinah Applewhite, MD; Lovelee Harvey; Monique Horton; Eugene Lambert, MD; Karla Chamorro Garcia; and Oswaldo Gil in front of the community care van
L to R: Bridge Clinic team members Dinah Applewhite, MD; Lovelee Harvey; Monique Horton; Eugene Lambert, MD; Karla Chamorro Garcia; and Oswaldo Gil in front of the community care van

Our services

The Mass General Brigham Bridge Clinics are dedicated to supporting individuals on their journey to self-defined recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs). Our clinics offer on-demand care for all types of alcohol and drug use, addressing the unique  needs of patients at every stage of addiction. Bridge Clinics provide transitional care and, as patients stabilize, our team will ensure they are connected to ongoing, community-based care for long-term treatment. 

All of our Bridge Clinics locations accept walk-ins and appointments. Services include medication for addiction treatment, peer support and groups, counseling, coordination of treatment and care resources, mental health care, and harm reduction services. Specifically, we offer: 

  • Treatment of all substance use disorders (alcohol, stimulants, opioids, cocaine, benzodiazepines, cannabis, etc.)
  • Medication for treatment of substance use disorders 
  • Counseling for individuals and groups and behavioral treatment 
  • Peer support services, such as recovery coaching 
  • Referrals to community resources, such as housing, transportation, food, employment, identification cards, and mobile phones 
  • Co-treatment of other medical and psychiatric conditions, such as depression and anxiety, and infection related to substance use 
  • Overdose education and access to naloxone 
  • Bridge to long-term providers and resources 

Bridge Clinic locations

To get care for substance use, please visit one of the locations listed below.

Recovery coaches provide peer support

A recovery coach is a person who themselves is in recovery from a substance use disorder. They have a shared lived experience with a person who's trying to access care. They are an essential nonclinical member of the Mass General Brigham Bridge Clinics care team.

An icon that includes four people in a circle, symbolizing community

United Against Racism

Through our United Against Racism initiative, we’ve increased access to SUD care by 47 percent among Black patients, 111 percent among Hispanic patients and 90 percent among non-English speaking patients.

We need to challenge the ideology that if you are continuing to struggle with SUDs, it’s because you’re weak or unmotivated. This leads to people staying disconnected and dying from a preventable health condition. We would never expect a patient with cancer to will themselves into remission.

Sarah Wakeman, MD

Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder

Mass General Brigham

Sarah Wakeman, MD
Sarah Wakeman, MD, Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder at Mass General Brigham

Individual, human-centered care

Historically, patients battling substance use disorders (SUDs) have faced punishment and stigma. “There’s a very racist approach to drug use when it’s happened in communities of color, with mass incarceration and mandatory minimum sentences,” explains Sarah Wakeman, MD, Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder at Mass General Brigham. While the public discourse around addiction is changing, many still view SUDs as bad behavior or a moral failing. Instead, Dr. Wakeman clarifies, it’s a disease that requires medical treatment. “We need to challenge the ideology that if you are continuing to struggle with SUDs, it’s because you’re weak or unmotivated. This leads to people staying disconnected and dying from a preventable health condition. We would never expect a patient with cancer to will themselves into remission,” she says.  

Instead, evidence-based SUDs treatment is a multidisciplinary, collaborative effort. “Our goals are to support individuals on their own self-defined recovery journey. It depends on the individual person. And fortunately, we do have effective medication therapy for both opioid and alcohol use disorder. It’s the one thing that’s been shown to save people’s lives and it improves recovery rates far and away higher than any other type of treatment,” says Dr. Wakeman.