NEW MILFORD — Three grants will soon help one agency increase its staff to better combat the area’s growing heroin epidemic. The Midwestern Connecticut Council on Alcoholism’s New Milford outpatient clinic recently received $22,500 in grants to improve the facility’s opiate treatment. The New Milford facility comprises five staff members, including a program director, three clinicians and an administrative supervisor. The third clinician was recently hired, and a recovery support specialist will soon join the staff to collaborate with local hospitals in getting clients who have overdosed into treatment. Eight people died of opiate overdoses in 2013, including four where heroin was a factor, according to data provided by the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. “About 80 percent of our clients in intensive outpatient groups are opiate dependent, and 45 percent of our overall clients are being treated for opiates,” said Rick Dable, program director for MCCA’s New Milford outpatient clinic that serves 73 clients at its facility at 50 Bridge St.