Treatment program retooled

Pharmacists suffering from addiction are being turned away from the state’s recovery program, which hasn’t accepted new members for the last six months — a blow to a group already hesitant to seek help.

“There’s a big shame aspect and a big punitive aspect that are keeping professionals out of treatment,” said Jake Nichols, a Natick pharmacist who completed the program in 2015. “When someone calls and isn’t able to get into the program, we may have lost an opportunity there.”

The Massachusetts Professional Recovery System, established in 1993, provides help for health professionals, including dentists and pharmacists.

But the program stopped accepting participants in July, and enrollment won’t resume until at least this spring, state authorities said.

Authorities familiar with the program say there are nine people enrolled, but new admissions have been suspended while the program is restructured to comply with the state opioid bill signed into law in March. The new program will have more confidentiality safeguards, and it will serve as an alternative to discipline.

The state Department of Public Health, in a statement, said: “We are committed to improving the monitoring and recovery program for pharmacists who need help with substance use disorders. The staff of the Board of Registration in Pharmacy will soon present policies and guidelines to the Board that comply with a requirement for a new program serving pharmacists that was part of the groundbreaking” law passed last year.