Brookline Resident Runs for Addiction Treatment

BROOKLINE, MA – A Brookline doctor completed the Boston Triathlon over the weekend to raise money for substance abuse treatment in teens and young adults.

Katherine Gergen Barnett, a family medicine physician at Boston Medical Center, placed fourth in her division for Team BMC. The event raised approximately $15,000 for BMC's Catalyst Clinic, a primary care clinic for teens and young adults with or at risk of substance abuse disorders.

Gergen Barnett has been a primary care physician, researcher and educator at BMC for 11 years. She now serves as the vice chair of primary care innovation and transformation in the Department of Family Medicine.

"Working full time with three young kids hardly allows for all of the training needed for this kind of race, but I have found time in my life for exercise and training for various races early in the morning, running or biking to work and on the weekends," she said in a press release. "In my experience, though, more than half of any endurance sport is mental. I get that strength from the work that I, and so many of us, do every day and the inspiration that I find in my colleagues and the lives of my patients."

BMC has a tradition of providing quality addiction services for adults, including clinical care, education and research. The new adolescent program aims to build upon this history and expand the scope of care to teens, young adults and their families.

Photos submitted by Boston Medical Center