Mapping for Healthy Communities

New York, NY

By Tori Gruber
mental health, accessibility, sud treatment

The purpose of this project is to map medically assisted treatment (MAT) facilities in New York City.

Methadone clinics treat medicine as a labor rather than a social science or a practice of healthy living. Methadone clinics and protocols are not designed as part of a healthy community. They’re designed as a bridge to a healthy community, but unless you need the methadone no one wants to be on that bridge. It’s a lonely road, one that by normal standards other citizens wouldn’t dream of walking. I don’t think addicts should have a bridge of their own that no one else wants as part of their healthy community. Healthy communities consider the whole, and MAT programs for SUD should be designed with access to health care beyond the clinical model in mind, especially considering the other health implications addiction has on the person struggling for recovery. Clinics attract drug dealers and addicts still using like moths to a flame. Standard spaces of medical access include reproductive health care, dental care, and other necessary services that people with SUD require. The spaces consider the person, meaning they also imply degradation upon the body, upon the community, upon the patient. Medical maintenance must still be used as a protocol for addicts in recovery, as it considers long-term care, but it could be better integrated and welcomed in hospitals, doctor’s offices, pharmacies–anywhere every other citizen goes.

For my final project, I created a simple map that begins laying out the spaces people with SUD might want to consider for seeking treatment. This is a “healthy community landscape” as it is today, not necessarily as it should be. The points on CARTO are broken down by color into facility type, and although not all are complete, each dot has a phone number and website linked to it for people to get more information about the site. This is an experimental map, meaning it isn’t really for use because there are other implications to consider in looking at treatment facilities. Although at some point, it could be for use. Going forward, I would like to add a photograph of the physical structures themselves, as well as complete the information for the facilities (phone number, website, etc.)