CANTON — The St. Lawrence County Community Services Department has announced that the Chemical Dependency Clinic has changed its name to St. Lawrence County Addiction Services as part of an organization-wide revitalization.

Community Services operates a mental health clinic in Canton and addiction clinics located in Canton, Ogdensburg, Massena and Gouverneur.

The mission of St. Lawrence County Community Services is to provide individuals and families confidential and professional outpatient mental health and addiction services promoting wellness and recovery, said a press release from the organization.

Addiction Services provides quality substance abuse prevention, intervention, and treatment services leading to improved health, wellness, and security.

The new name reflects the organization’s mission to be a patient-centric and innovative bright spot in the recovery landscape with a continuum of care patients need to reach their full potential, the press release said.

The name change also includes new logos.

The decision to rename the organization was to reduce stigma and harmful stereotypes about addiction and mental illness, improving access to care, and support for people affected by these diseases, the press release said.

“Removing the stigma that surrounds addiction is an important step in getting more people into treatment. Our name change isn’t just representative of a shift in the way in which we view addictive disorders, it also is a reflection of our approach to treatment and recovery efforts here in St. Lawrence County. Building on this new approach, we are committed to utilizing our resources to help combat addiction and overdoses, while also utilizing evidence-based approaches to prevention, treatment and recovery,” said Sheena Smith, the St. Lawrence County Addiction Services Program Director.

“The renaming and new logos represent the culmination of many innovative and positive changes the clinics have accomplished over the past several years. Community Services’ treatment philosophy is to provide the least restrictive level of care necessary to effectively address patient need. It is an integrated system of care, allowing patients to move between service levels based upon a person’s need. Ongoing assessments of strengths inform the development of plans of care to addresses individual social, emotional, physical, vocational, educational, employment, family and spiritual needs,” said Jay Ulrich, the Director of Community Services.

The organization plans to add a mobile treatment vehicle late this fall. This was made possible by State Opioid Response (SOR) funds awarded to St. Lawrence County Addiction Services to increase access to treatment for Opioid use disorder. The goal of this initiative is to expand the availability and access to addiction treatment services in underserved areas of the county, the press release said. This mobile clinic will have two treatment rooms and will be custom outfitted with video conferencing equipment and software to deliver two-way real-time interactive services to individuals in need of medication assisted treatment and other health services.

The name change to St. Lawrence County Addiction Services will not alter any services currently offered and relationships with referral partners will remain intact. To learn more, please visit www.stlawco.org/Departments/CommunityServices.