While
Maine has earned prestigious distinction from the National Safety Council for
addressing opiate addiction, the crisis continues to keep pace with efforts to
subdue the effects by law enforcement. While the introduction of Narcan has
potentially made an impact on the lives of 21 individuals in 2016, there is
much more to be done. Thankfully municipalities like Windham are on the front
lines meeting the challenge of users, abusers and addiction head on.
To
help address the crisis, aggressive steps have been taken through
collaboration. “What we’ve done in the last two summers locally and what we
hope to do again this time, is augment our drug investigations, by teaming up
with other departments and having officers work with various state and federal
task forces of southern Maine and focus on drug investigations in Gorham and
Maine collaboratively,” stated Windham Police Chief Kevin Schofield.
In
addition to this, his department has received a grant for a substance abuse
liaison. “The grant is geared toward identifying people who have suffered from
opiate abuse disorder, while in treatment or coming out of treatment or perhaps
from jail; and then helping to identify services that may be needed to become
clean. These can include, but are not limited to: housing, employment and
health benefits,” explained Schofield.
Another
element of the grant is the training for what is called the recovery coaches.
“My goal is to get two or three of my officers trained, not necessarily to ask
them to be coaches but to follow up on a one to one base to see how they are
progressing with treatment. This has come out of the cooperation of an approved
relationship between our law enforcement and our community in terms of
partnership with them. Our goal is to get officers trained so we understand the
process and theories behind that a little better. But we are also trying to get
citizens from each community trained as a recovery coach,” said Schofield. The
grant encompasses four communities totally - 50,000 residents in this region of
the state. “That’s a big step; a positive step,” expressed Schofield.
This
is where Westbrook Recovery Liaison comes into the picture. Making services
available to residents of Westbrook, Windham, Gorham and Buxton - they are in
partnership with the police departments, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s
Department, plus the Probation and Parole and Grace Street Recovery.
As
substance abuse liaison Danielle Rideout explained, “Opioid use disorder is a
community problem. It affects everyone whether they realize it or not. A person
who is suffering with an opioid use disorder is someone’s son, daughter,
mother, father, sister, brother. There isn’t any walk of life that is exempt
from this disorder. One of the biggest challenges for people entering recovery
is feeling as though they belong and are a part of a community.”
Understandably,
when someone is viewed as less, than they have a lesser chance of connecting
with healthy people and changing their lives because they don’t feel they are
worth the effort. “If someone is suffering with an opioid use disorder, he/she
needs to be connected to treatment and positive support, in order to make the
necessary changes to be able to sustain long term recovery. We can’t change
someone’s past, but by offering support and hope, we can change their future,”
continued Rideout.
“The
Westbrook Recovery Liaison Program is designed to help citizens of Westbrook,
Windham, Gorham and Buxton get connected to services that will help them have a
feeling of self-worth, such as: Education, career training, mental health
provider, primary care provider, substance use treatment, etc. Once a person
feels they can make one small change, it opens the door for the major changes,”
concluded Rideout.
In
the meantime, when it comes to identifying signs that someone has or is
becoming a user of opiates, “A broad statement would be that an indicator, with
any substance abuse problem, is when social groups change or people become more
withdrawn from a social group,” stated Schofield. Switching doctors is another
indicator and so is an abnormal amount of empty prescription bottles lying
around. “Opiate abuse disorder takes over one’s life. Weight loss is not
uncommon and not being well kept (hygiene). These changes can be gradual and
therefore not easily detected,” continued Schofield.
On
a positive note, Project Hope, another key resource in recovery which is
located in Scarborough, saw eight residents from Windham enter their doors and
placed in acute treatment facilities in state and across the country. According
to Schofield, “What does this tell me? We definitely have a problem and are
trying to mitigate here. I don’t think it is any worse than other communities
within southern Maine. We are only as strong as our eyes in the community.”
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