Dr. Rebecca Linn-Walton knows firsthand that finding the right treatment during addiction can change the trajectory of someone’s life. She went through it herself.
Linn-Walton, who oversees substance-use programs at the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, began her battle with addiction when she was a 20-year-old undergraduate student at New York University who spiraled into IV drug use.
“I was dying,” she said. “I was struggling with opioids, alcohol and all sorts of traumatic things that lots of people we love experience.”
She briefly took a break from classes and entered an addiction treatment program, where her life “really took off,” Linn-Walton said. “That is a privilege that really shouldn’t be a privilege.”
Linn-Walton has made it her life’s work to help individuals with substance-use disorders access the same level of care that she received. She oversees a staff of more than 200 at the Health Department, developing overdose response programs in emergency rooms, educating New Yorkers on how to use the lifesaving medication naloxone and working with syringe-exchange providers to reduce rates of infection. Her team also coordinates health services for those who use drugs.
The work is an uphill battle. The number of overdose deaths and rates of binge drinking both escalated during the Covid-19 pandemic, fueled by extended periods of isolation and disruptions to medical services. Although overdose deaths have started to decline, fatalities are still higher now than they were in 2019, and deaths are increasing in Black and brown communities.
“These are family members and friends that people are losing,” Linn-Walton said. “We can’t afford to lose anyone.”
Linn-Walton has spent the bulk of her career examining why prevention and treatment programs fail some people who struggle with addiction. After she stopped using drugs, she pursued a degree in social work, propelling her to ask questions about whether someone’s insurance coverage or access to housing influenced how they responded to substance-use treatment.
She got a doctorate in social work and went on to roles mostly in city government. Linn-Walton researched and planned behavioral health programs in the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, and then went on to lead substance-use initiatives at New York City Health + Hospitals for four years.
During her stint at Health + Hospitals, Linn-Walton worked with patients at the city’s 11 public hospitals to get them into clinical care. Now at the Health Department, where she has been for just under a year, she takes a broader view to combat the city’s substance-use crisis by helping contracted nonprofits obtain resources for programs and helping decide how the agency spends its share of the $154 million in settlement funds the city has received from lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors over their role in the epidemic.
Linn-Walton said the most important part of her job is making sure the programs she oversees actually reach New Yorkers. She has tried to bridge the gap between traditional treatment programs and harm-reduction initiatives, which allow people who use drugs to use them in a safer way. For example, forging partnerships between clinicians and syringe-service providers, who give out clean drug equipment and connect individuals to counseling, could help medical professionals better serve individuals struggling with addiction, Linn-Walton said.
“How do you treat the whole individual with respect and recognition of their real circumstances?” she said. “That’s really going to make the difference that will help them live another day.”
