FortHelpMethadone.com
Title
Fort Help Methadone Program
Description
In 1969, a small group led by Dr. Joel Fort founded Fort Help as a non-profit, non-governmental treatment program. The founders envisioned the clinic as a democratic and self-governing alternative to the conventional bureaucracies. The most obvious example of this was the emphasis made in removing staffing hierarchies. Clinically, the mission was to help people with social and health issues, including problematic drug and alcohol use. Fort Help was also one of the first places where those struggling with their sexual identity could come for non-judgmental counseling.
The largest single component of Fort Help was the Methadone Maintenance Program which, alongside the other services offered, aimed to avoid the stigmatizing of those seeking treatment. Thus, the aim has always been to offer the person seeking treatment an alternative experience.
As the years passed, the methadone program eventually became autonomous and, with changes in the treatment climate, increasingly fell under the regulation of state and federal agencies.
