WORCESTER, Mass. - A research team at UMass Chan Medical School earned a four-year grant to study treatment programs for adults with opioid use disorders and co-occurring mental illness.

The $12.3 million grant is from the National Institutes of Health. The school has a program called “Mission.”

It includes recovery therapy, integrated group therapy, peer support and critical time intervention. 

Dr. David Smelson runs the program and says it’s been shown to be effective. The grant will allow them to assess whether less-intensive community intervention combined with medication can also work.

"One of the important parts of Mission is we go into the community and provide support for people in the community as opposed to waiting for them to come to the hospital to receive their services,” Dr. Smelson said. “The big reason why we do that is because many times people with opiate addiction and mental health problems don't necessarily come to treatment and when they do come they often come inconsistently so we want to bring treatment to them.”

The study starts in December and will be done across Central and Western Massachusetts. Clients will be offered six months of Mission treatment.