addiction recovery

P.A.A.R.I. Announces New Partnership With Morris County Sheriff’s Hope One Program

⋅ Non-Profit News ⋅ , , , , , ⋅ 0 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

 

P.A.A.R.I. Announces New Partnership With Morris County Sheriff’s Hope One Program

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Executive Director Allie Hunter is pleased to announce that the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) has partnered with law enforcement agencies in Morris County, New Jersey.

The new partnership brings together P.A.A.R.I., The Morris County Sheriff’s and Prosecutor’s Offices and the Sheriff’s Hope One program. It will ultimately help expand services to those seeking recovery resources in Morris County. Working together, P.A.A.R.I. and Hope One will be positioned to connect individuals proactively seeking treatment for life-threatening substance use disorders with certified peer recovery specialists.

The Morris County Sheriff’s Office is the first law enforcement agency in Morris County to partner with P.A.A.R.I. It is also the only sheriff’s office in New Jersey to adopt P.A.A.R.I.’s model, which relies on close collaboration among police and nonprofit agencies to help ease the barriers to recovery for those seeking help overcoming their battle with opioids.

“We are delighted to be present as the Morris County Sheriff’s Office joins P.A.A.R.I. and launches the Hope One-P.A.A.R.I Program. They are joining a growing movement of nearly 500 law enforcement agencies nationwide that are using non-arrest strategies to address the mounting opioid epidemic,” said Hunter, who attended an event today formally announcing the partnership. “As we have seen with other P.A.A.R.I. initiatives across the country, this program will create a pathways to treatment and recovery, which will ultimately prevent overdose deaths and improve community safety and wellbeing. We are grateful to all the partners involved for the dedication and leadership, and we are thrilled to have the Morris County Sheriff’s Office as partners in this important effort.”

The Hope One-P.A.A.R.I. partnership was made possible through a $332,658 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice that was awarded to the Morris County Sheriff’s Office to expand its Hope One mobile substance recovery and resource vehicle program.

Under the initiative, individuals can come to a police station without fear of arrest or prosecution and they will be assisted into a recovery program. Separately, police officers can use their discretion in approaching individuals they encounter on the street to determine whether they are open to meeting with a peer recovery specialist.

“With opioid and heroin addiction consuming the lives of family members, neighbors, classmates and friends, and often leading them to break the law to finance their addictions, we all have a stake as human beings to try to stop the scourge,” Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon said. “Police officers who are familiar with vulnerable populations in their communities are well-suited to start the process of helping people connect with treatment services in a compassionate, non-judgmental style.”

On April 3, about 50 police chiefs and officers from 20 municipal police departments around Morris County participated in four hours of instruction and training for the new P.A.A.R.I. partnership, at Morris County’s Public Safety Training Academy in Parsippany, N.J.. Police chiefs and superior officers from the Butler, Mount Olive, Montville, Dover and Morristown Police Departments are part of an advisory group that met in February to plan the P.A.A.R.I. launch.

“The PAARI program helps local law enforcement tremendously because it delivers certified peer recovery specialists out to meet directly with the person who is suffering from addiction, either on the street or right in our municipal police stations. As a result, we can offer real help,” said Butler Police Chief Ciro Chimento.

About P.A.A.R.I.

The Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help law enforcement agencies nationwide create non-arrest pathways to treatment and recovery. Founded alongside the groundbreaking Gloucester Police Department Angel Initiative in June 2015, P.A.A.R.I. has been a driving force behind this rapidly expanding community policing movement. We provide technical assistance, coaching, grants, and other capacity-building resources to more than 440 police departments in 32 states.

We currently work with more than 100 law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts alone. P.A.A.R.I. and our law enforcement partners are working towards a collective vision where non-arrest diversion programs become a standard policing practice across the country, thereby reducing overdose deaths, expanding access to treatment, improving public safety, reducing crime, diverting people away from the criminal justice system, and increasing trust between law enforcement and their communities.

Our programs and partners have saved thousands of lives, changed police culture and reshaped the national conversation about the opioid epidemic. Learn more at www.paariusa.org.

 

###

 

Highland, Ind. Police Department Partners With P.A.A.R.I. to Renew its Approach to Addiction

⋅ City/Town News, Client News, Police News ⋅ , , , , ⋅ 0 Comments

 

For Immediate Release
Monday, Jan. 22, 2018

 

 

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

Highland, Ind. Police Department Partners With P.A.A.R.I. to Renew its Approach to Addiction

HIGHLAND, Ind. — Highland Police Chief Peter Hojnicki and Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) co-chairs John Rosenthal and Frederick Ryan and Executive Director Allie Hunter McDade are pleased to announce that the Highland Police Department has partnered with P.A.A.R.I. to better serve individuals and families impacted by the opioid epidemic.

The Highland Police Department and P.A.A.R.I. formally began their partnership last July and, in the months since, Detective Brian Stanley has worked to forge strong partnerships with area recovery groups that have proved instrumental in the program’s early success.

Detective Stanley and his department first learned of the initiative last year after reading about the neighboring Griffith Police Department’s membership in a Northwest Indiana Times story.

Upon reading about it, he knew that a renewed approach was something that Highland Police needed to pursue, as it could make a lifesaving difference for the Highland community.

“We understand that this is an epidemic that is plaguing our community, and that we need to become further engaged and do more to meet the challenge,” Detective Stanley said. “The goal is to proactively seek out those individuals and families that could benefit from a changed approach to let them know that we are here to help them and — just as importantly — we want to help them.”

Through its partnership with P.A.A.R.I., the Highland Police Department will open its doors to those suffering from addiction, and their families, by referring them to treatment and recovery options in lieu of arrest and prosecution.

“As law enforcement officers, we realize that we cannot arrest our way out of this opioid epidemic,” Highland Police Commander John Banasiak said. “We’re committed to attacking this problem in another way, and we’re grateful for P.A.A.R.I. and the local organizations we’ve partnered with that have made that possible.”

Since partnering with P.A.A.R.I., Highland Police have built connections with several area recovery organizations to ease access to recovery options:

  • Edgewater Health of Gary
  • Recovery Works of Merrillville
  • Heartland Recovery of Lowell
  • Big Book Legacy Group of Griffith

“Recovery is a lifelong journey that begins by simply asking for help, and I am so glad that the Highland Police Department has made itself available as a resource for those ready to ask for help,” P.A.A.R.I. Executive Director Allie Hunter McDade said. “They have done tremendous work to build a strong recovery network in a very short period of time, and their efforts will no doubt help save lives in their community.”

Highland Police responded to 36 overdoses in 2017 and administered the overdose reversal drug naloxone in 13 of those cases.

Since launching its recovery initiative, the Highland Police Department has placed a strong emphasis on proactive outreach to individuals they know could benefit from recovery resources and has so far directed two people into treatment.

About P.A.A.R.I.:

The Police Assisted Addiction & Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.) is a 501c3 nonprofit with a mission to help law enforcement agencies establish pre-arrest programs that create immediate and stigma-free entry points to treatment and recovery programs. P.A.A.R.I. works across sectors to provide training, coaching, and support; program models, policies and procedures, and templates; seed grants; connections to over 300 vetted treatment centers; a network of like-minded law enforcement agencies; a unified voice with media and legislators; and capacity building through AmeriCorps. P.A.A.R.I. is free to join and open to any law enforcement agency that believes in treatment over arrest and views addiction as a disease not a crime. Since June 2015, P.A.A.R.I. has launched more than 375 law enforcement programs in 32 states, distributed 10,000 4mg doses of life-saving nasal naloxone, and helped over 12,000 people into treatment.

 

###

Advocates Joins White House’s Data-Driven Justice Initiative

⋅ Client News, Non-Profit News ⋅ , , , , , , , , , ⋅ 0 Comments

Advocates
Dr. Sarah Abbott
Jail Diversion Programs Coordinator
1881 Worcester Road
Framingham, MA 01701

For Immediate Release

Friday, Oct. 21, 2016

 

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-9003
Email: [email protected]

Advocates Joins White House’s Data-Driven Justice Initiative

FRAMINGHAM — Dr. Sarah Abbott, PhD, Director for Advocates Jail Diversion Programs, is pleased to announce that Advocates and its seven corresponding police departments have formally joined the White House-led Data-Driven Justice (DDJ) Initiative, focused on reducing the number of individuals with mental health and addiction challenges who are awaiting trial in local jails.

DDJ seeks to reduce unnecessary pre-trial incarceration by enhancing the use of new and existing data, and by helping spread best practices. Nationwide, 64 percent of those being held in local jails suffer from mental illness, while 68 percent have a substance use disorder.

“In June 2016, we launched the Data-Driven Justice Initiative to support communities who want to use data to be smarter about diverting people with mental illness away from the criminal justice system and into community based treatment,” said U.S. Chief Data Scientist DJ Patil. “We are excited that DDJ has grown to include over 120 diverse communities across the country, reaching more than 90 million individuals.”

Ashland, Sherborn, Holliston, Hopkinton, Marlborough, Watertown and Framingham Police Departments are participating in the initiative. Collaborating with Advocates’ Jail Diversion Programs, these seven departments have embedded a full-time clinician in their departments to co-respond to calls for service involving individuals in a behavioral health crisis. In addition to diverting low-level offenders away from the criminal justice system and into appropriate treatment, a co-responding clinician working side-by-side with the police can be a powerful intervention tool for people with opioid addiction. Upon learning of an opioid related overdose, where Narcan was administered to save the person, the clinician will initiate contact with that individual and/or the family to offer immediate access to treatment and associated resources.

“At Advocates, we strive to provide care to the whole person and ensure that those experiencing a mental health emergency get the care they need, when they need it most,” Abbott said. “Joining the DDJ allows our police departments to further incorporate data-driven activities into their community policing initiatives. We have high hopes for the DDJ Initiative and applaud the White House for its creation.”

About Advocates

Advocates provides a broad range of services for people facing life challenges such as addiction, aging, autism, brain injury, intellectual disabilities and mental health challenges. With Advocates’ help, thousands of individuals and families living in Massachusetts are finding the supports they need to lead healthy, productive and rewarding lives.

###

EB HOPE Receives Grant from Bridgewater Savings Bank

⋅ Client News, Non-Profit News, Police News ⋅ , , , , , , , , , ⋅ 0 Comments

East Bridgewater Police Department
Chief Scott Allen, Chief of Police
153 Central St.
East Bridgewater, MA 02333

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: [email protected]

EB HOPE Receives Grant from Bridgewater Savings Bank

Left to right: Peter Dello Russo, Bridgewater Savings President and COO, John E. Cowan, EB HOPE Board of Directors member, Sean Varano, Professor at Roger Williams University, Susan J. Silva, EB HOPE President and Executive Director, Scott Allen, East Bridgewater Police Chief and James C. Lively, Bridgewater Savings CEO.
Left to right: Peter Dello Russo, Bridgewater Savings President and COO, John E. Cowan, EB HOPE Board of Directors member, Sean Varano, Professor at Roger Williams University, Susan J. Silva, EB HOPE President and Executive Director, Scott Allen, East Bridgewater Police Chief and James C. Lively, Bridgewater Savings CEO.

EAST BRIDGEWATER – Police Chief Scott Allen is pleased to announce that East Bridgewater Help Outreach Prevention Education initiative (EB HOPE) has received a $2,310 grant from the Bridgewater Savings Bank Charitable Foundation to fund research and evaluation tools for the nonprofit.

The grant will allow EB HOPE to purchase three tablet computers that will be used during Drop In Center Hours to gather data about the program’s participants and follow up with those that seek help. Two professors from Roger Williams University will assist EB HOPE in data analysis and program assessment, a goal of the program since its inception last November.

“We are incredibly thankful to Bridgewater Savings Bank for their generosity and support of EB HOPE, both now and in past years,” Chief Allen said. “Because of their gifts, we are currently helping families that Bridgewater Savings Bank serves, creating a mutually beneficial partnership centered around the well-being of our community.”

In November 2015, EB HOPE began the first of its bi-monthly drop-in center sessions, which were created to proactively assist people suffering from substance use disorders and their family and friends.

The next drop-in center will be held this Thursday, July 21, from 5-9 p.m. at the East Bridgewater Community Covenant Church, 400 Pleasant St.

Since the first meeting on Nov. 5, a total of 324 people have been assisted through the drop-in sessions or non drop-in hours. Of that number, 68 individuals have seen a licensed clinician and 101 have received Narcan training from licensed professionals during drop-in hours. Nearly 250 family members and/or loved ones of persons suffering from substance user disorders have also been assisted by EB HOPE.

“An astounding number of people in our communities are suffering from substance use disorder,” said Bridgewater Savings CEO James C. Lively. “The work that Susan Silva, EB HOPE President and Executive Director, and the East Bridgewater Police Department provide is invaluable to those in need. We at Bridgewater Savings strive to help our communities by supporting programs such as this that help those suffering from opioid addiction and their families and friends that share their burden.”

About EB HOPE:

EB HOPE is a nonprofit volunteer organization that launched in 2011. It is a collaboration of members from the community, including police, school department personnel, town government, drug treatment and recovery members, the clergy and residents suffering from substance abuse and/or their family members.

Substance abuse assistance and resources provided by the program include bi-monthly meetings, information on the availability of mental health services, training on the use of nasal Naloxone (Narcan), referral and access to treatment services, family education and support, and faith-based intervention and support.

###

1 2 3