James W. Berry, MD, FASAM
Candidate for Regional Director
Region III - Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont
James W. Berry, MD, FASAM. I am a physician specializing in Family Practice and Addiction Medicine.
I graduated from Temple University Medical School and did postgraduate training at the University of Arkansas Medical Center and the University of Southern California.
I worked in family practice in rural Maine from 1975 through 2008. I then spent 3 years on the faculty of the Eastern Maine Medical Center Family Practice Residency. From 1990 through 2009 addiction medicine took over an ever-expanding proportion of my practice.
From 2009 through 2022 I worked full-time in addiction medicine primarily in the Mercy Hospital system in Portland Maine. I have been in semi-retirement for the past 2 years, continuing with a small private addiction medicine practice, work in several county jails, and as medical director for two mental health agencies. As I cut back on remunerative employment, I have been increasing involvement with NNESAM, ASAM, advocacy in the Maine legislature, giving talks, and volunteering.
Candidate Questionnaire Responses
1. What have been your greatest contributions to ASAM or to the field of addiction medicine over the last 10 years?
- I have led and participated in a number of clinical initiatives in substance use disorder care here in Maine:
- While a family practitioner in rural Maine, I wrote and piloted a protocol for treatment of alcohol withdrawal in a rural hospital setting in my own hospital, and with grant funding disseminated this protocol to rural hospitals across northern Maine.
- I was an early adopter of buprenorphine treatment beginning in 2003, the only provider covering a large area of Maine, and worked to expand the provider network over the subsequent decade. To this end I facilitated MOUD treatment support groups for 12 years up to the time of Covid.
- From 1995 to 2010 I participated in the Maine Benzodiazepine Study Group where I wrote and disseminated a protocol for safe benzodiazepine prescribing and withdrawal. I continue to engage with benzodiazepine withdrawal support groups.
- I have been a leader in introducing and expanding MOUD treatment in Maine’s county jails over the past 6 years.
- I helped get the local ASAM chapter off the ground and to its present level of activity, serving on the NNESAM Board of Directors for six years including a term as President from 2019 to 2021.
- Both as NNESAM officer and president, and in my employment embedded in a primary care practice, I have worked to engage the primary care community in addiction treatment.
- I have provided clinical input into ASAM, presenting workshops at the national conference on three occasions, providing commentary on proposed guidelines, actively participating in two Special Interest Groups and the SALC.
- I am active in political advocacy, supporting bills and testifying before the Maine legislature. I have twice attended ASAM’s Advocacy Conference, communicated with Maine’s Senator Collins on several occasions both in person and via correspondence. I am an active participant in two Maine state government advisory committees: Maine’s Opioid Clinical Advisory Committee and Medication for Opioid Use Disorder in County Jails.
- I have given presentations at local and regional educational events: community events, local hospitals and clinics, annual NNESAM meetings, and the Cape Cod Symposium on Addictive Disorders.
2. How would your election to the ASAM Board of Directors benefit ASAM and the field of addiction medicine?
As Region III Director, I would like to continue the active level of engagement exemplified by the current director Audrey Kern who is a longtime colleague.
On the local level, I want to enhance communication between the three northern New England states represented by NNESAM and the more urban southern New England states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and RI. We share similar issues and have developed differing approaches and emphases and have a lot to learn from each other.
In Maine there are several areas needing attention, which our professional organizations can address to a varying degree:
Along with declining fentanyl deaths there is a surge in problematic stimulant use which agencies are not yet attending to (or lack the tools to do so). Primary care access and counseling availability are in a state of crisis: although primary care doesn’t relate directly to SUD treatment, it is difficult to forge treatment plans with limited access to counseling and primary care. In a time of increasing mental health issues in children, school counseling programs are being eliminated due to budget constraints and lack of counselor availability. While MOUD is more available, many programs have constraining rules and are not client-friendly. I have worked to remove barriers to options for MOUD, such as prior authorization requirements, dose limitations, and restrictions on monobuprenorphine. Cost will continue to be a barrier to injectable buprenorphine but if cost of insulin and apixaban can be lowered by action at the federal level then so can cost of Sublocade. OTPs have spread across rural Maine, making methadone on option for most Mainers, but we can go further1 and make methadone available outside of OTPs. a Treatment in criminal justice settings is improving but is a long way from where it should be. Combating stigma is an ever-present challenge. Tobacco, cannabis, and alcohol often fall under the radar. Improving public awareness, knowledge, and engagement always deserves our attention. We are doing better with harm reduction, but public awareness and support are needed to improve acceptability of harm reduction approaches.
As Regional Director I will explore which of these are shared with the other New England states (and the rest of the nation) and what other concerns are prominent, but this list provides a starting point.
With the exception of the time I spent as a member of the Chapter Council, I felt that as a NNESAM member (even when on the NNESAM Board) I was not fully in touch with what was going on at ASAM. As Regional Director I will work to promote two-way communication between ASAM and its state chapter components and individual members.
I will continue to be involved with advocacy in the Maine legislature. . Political issues around substance use differ greatly even among our neighboring states, but I believe we can coordinate our efforts, learn from our fellow New England chapters, and thereby enhance our effectiveness.
Having been involved in addiction medicine and ASAM for a number of years, I have observed how perspectives on the disease of addiction and its treatment have evolved over time; this provides me insight in approaching today’s issues. I remain passionate about engaging with patients with substance use issues, their families, and members of my community and my own family with these concerns. Serving on the regional and national level in ASAM is a way I can continue to contribute.