Portland Community Health Center

About Portland Community Health Center

Portland Community Health Center, operating as Greater Portland Health, is a federally funded community health center serving Portland, South Portland, and Westbrook, Maine, where substance use care is part of everyday primary medical, dental, and behavioral health services. Since 2009 they have focused on making care accessible regardless of insurance, accepting MaineCare, Medicare, and private plans and offering a sliding-fee scale for people without coverage. Their approach is trauma-informed and grounded in harm reduction, with a licensed clinical social worker on every patient’s care team. Treatment is outpatient, including counseling, recovery groups, and a daily medication-assisted treatment program, and they refer people who need residential or inpatient care to partner facilities.

Every patient is routinely screened for substance use, depression, and traumatic stress, and anyone who screens positive for a substance use disorder receives a brief intervention and may be enrolled in the Greater Pathways treatment program. Their clinicians use Motivational Interviewing, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Trauma-Focused CBT, EMDR, and grief counseling. For people experiencing homelessness, their Bayside site has offered a daily observed dosing program since 2017 that pairs medication with mental health counseling and intensive outpatient support, while partners at Preble Street help with case management, benefits, housing, and employment. Peer support specialists, community health workers, and social workers extend that support by doing street and shelter outreach, accompanying patients to appointments, and connecting them to programs like SNAP, and counseling is also available in many patients’ first languages for refugee and immigrant families.

About Portland Community Health Center

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