Between 2015 and 2017, drug overdose deaths in NH continued to rise, reaching 490 in 2017, according to the NH office of the chief medical examiner. Adam Groff and Steve Kelly founded Better Life Partners in 2018 to address the crisis. Groff, an internist with Dartmouth-Hitchcock, and Kelly, then a business student at Dartmouth College who served in the Navy, believed a new approach to treatment was needed.
Kelly says starting a healthcare organization focused on substance use is personal. “I have family members who are in various stages of recovery, ” he says. “And coming out of the Navy, I needed a mission that benefited others.”
Better Life serves thousands of people each week across New England. “We’ve raised about $39 million and this has allowed us to be a large provider of medication assisted treatment services in New Hampshire,” he says.
Better Life, based in Manchester, specializes in medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders, including opioids and alcohol use disorder. The company operates across NH, offering in-person and telehealth treatment options, including same-day access to Suboxone and individual and group therapy.
Better Life’s approach emphasizes compassionate, judgment-free care and collaboration with community organizations. Better Life partners with a few hundred community organizations in NHand New England including churches, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and recovery centers.
Better Life has a staff of about 200 medical personnel, licensed behavioral therapists, counselors and operational staff. Its primary NH office is located at 1269 Café in Manchester, a large faith-based organization across from Families in Transition and New Horizons shelter. “We embed and we provide care on site and then we also provide care via telehealth,” Kelly says.