Case Management or Coaching? Start with Caring and Concern

By David H. Kerr                           

What may be missing in our system of help for people with addiction?

Here’s today’s equation:

degrees + certification = qualified to help a person with addiction. 

What's wrong with this equation?  Do we also measure caring or concern or understanding in our pursuit of quality and excellence?  Is addiction now a brain disease to be fixed by assessment, labeling (character disorder, socially maladjusted, co-occurring etc.), and prolonged medication, counseling and “case management?”  Should people be referred to as “cases?”  We used to call someone “a mental case” and I’m hoping that we’ve grown out of this phrase.  I suggest that we replace the cold phrase “case management” with a phrase like “soul coaching” or just plain “coaching.”  We’re working with people and their very lives are often at stake.  Let’s call them people or “souls” rather than cases as in a case of beer.   

Real caring though often needs a balance of confrontation when the truth of a person’s statement is suspect.  My standard approach to a person seeking my help:  “I can do nothing for you if you are not willing to help yourself i.e. you must be your own counselor.”  My next question is “so what have you done so far?”  “You have to learn to play the game of life, clean and sober.  If you understand this then I will be your “coach” and mentor, not your “counselor.”  Understand this as stated in the words of the great philosopher O. Hobart Mowrer, “you alone must do it but you can’t do it alone.”  You should understand that recovery is a lifestyle and its process will take time and dedication every day for the rest of your life to ‘become you – your best self’.  Do you understand this?” 

Addicts are not helpless and if you think they are, look at the ingenuity they need to have to maintain a $300/day habit.  While used on the “streets” for bad purposes, this trait can be put to good use as part of their new clean and sober lifestyle.

I want to talk today about the way to work with a person suffering from addiction. It's really not all that complicated.  Before getting to that let's look at the system of health care in place right now.  First a person wanting to help a person with addiction must have a master's degree in a related field.  Usually this means a degree in social work or a master's-level in counseling or PhD in Psychology.  You get the idea. Then after the degree is attained you must become certified.  In New Jersey this means obtaining CADC (Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor) followed by LCADC or Licensed CADC. With this and possibly no experience, you are ready to hang out the proverbial shingle and help someone suffering from drug addiction.

There is nothing wrong with degrees & certification and it’s laudable if not sometimes a challenge with the cost of higher education, to obtain this level of credential.  Most addicts in recovery have accumulated much debt and the tens of thousands of dollars for further education would make certification prohibitive.  It took me five years to obtain my MA since I was then, 1968, living with active addicts in Lincoln Park, Newark several months after the Newark rebellion and race riots in the summer of 1967.  During this time, I learned the hard way that my kindness was seen as weakness and I was mugged at knifepoint and gunpoint six times and lost all of my money.  My co-founder and cousin, Rich Grossklaus was mugged as well over 12 times and nearly lost his life on one occasion.  But in my experience in the field since 1965, I have clearly seen something else that is most effective in helping a person with addiction.  It’s so obvious that it’s sometimes neglected.

Far more important than a degree are the following traits: understanding, caring and concern.  Addexperience and common sense to these traits and the person with addiction will feel your help and will likely listen to you.  If you put these three traits + experience and common sense on one side of the scale and degrees and certification on the other side, the understanding, caring, concern and experience will tip the scales dramatically, far out weighing the degrees and certification.  Yet, what measures do we have for these essential traits?  One of the reasons that many if not most recovering addicts are successful in helping people is that they have much experience in the field and offer much compassion and understanding as well. They see themselves in the face of the person sitting in front of them looking for help and guidance. That person looking for help feels their concern, understanding and knowledge, expressed with sincerity and true caring.  Many of these people, often with no degrees, are highly capable and competent and have at least equal skills to help recovering people when compared to the graduate with an MA or MSW.  Why not allow them to present their knowledge to the certification board and qualify them with LCADC status based on their experience, knowledge and a recommendation from a qualified experienced professional?

Here is my formal suggestion to the Certification Board: 

Offer an equivalent recognition to the LCADC for a person in recovery and urine tested clean and sober for 10 years.  A person who’s coaching and advice to addicts has been monitored and guided by a counselor with an LCADC, for ten or more years.

In this way, we would bring back into the field competent and caring outstanding experienced role models in recovery.  These are the very people who have stood tall in the face of great personal loss and have come back to dedicate their lives and effectively help others like themselves.     

This spirit of caring is the same motivation that recently caused a perfect stranger, with no mental health credentials, to help another person avoid taking his own life by way of jumping off a bridge.  These two men are now friends as seen in the article below published in the Washington Post, May 8, 2017.  Please read the powerful true story below!  This same story has worked with addicts and alcoholics who are helped to stay on the road to recovery by the caring of another human being, often a perfect stranger.  In AA they call this person a “sponsor;” a sponsor to the one trying to change his/her lifestyle of steady personal destruction that often leads to overdose, liver disease, loss of family and friends and early death. 

Today we have begun to use the word “coach” which I believe is a better and more accurate term to describe the self-help process of regaining self-respect, self-esteem, family and friends and finally, long term recovery.

*******

Here’s the article from the Washington Post:

MENTAL HEALTH

The simple words from this stranger convinced a suicidal man to keep living

May 8, 2017, the Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2017/05/08/the-unlikely-friendship-between-two-strangers-after-one-saved-the-other-from-taking-his-own-life/?utm_term=.3da29379c380

Colby Itkowitz Washington Post

Meanwhile, the beat goes on….

NEWARK

Police make 27 drug arrests, seize guns over the weekend

Steve Strunsky For The Star-Ledger May 16, 2017

Police made 27 drug arrests in Newark over the weekend as part of crackdown in response to residents’ complaints, the city’s public safety director announced Monday.

The director, Anthony F. Ambrose, said that in addition to the arrests, police also recovered three firearms, 787 bags of heroin, 109 vials or bags of cocaine, 40 bags of marijuana and $4,694 in cash. The street value of the drugs totaled $11,120, Ambrose said.

“We are pleased to announce that this operation, which came about as a result of reports from concerned citizens, is producing tangible results that reduce crime,” Ambrose said in a statement.

On Saturday, Ambrose said, officers arrested Stephone Cook, 45, of Newark, on weapons and drug possession charges after stopping a vehicle at Nye Avenue and Clinton Place, based on an outstanding warrant, and then smelled marijuana and spotted a .45 caliber handgun inside the vehicle.

Siddiq Hooper, 38, and Paris J. Armwood, 21, both of Newark, were arrested on similar charges Sunday, Ambrose said, after they fled from police responding to a report of suspicious activity near Chelsea and Tremont avenues.

The two dozen people arrested on drug charges were from Newark, Belleville, East Orange, Nutley and Hamburg, Ambrose said. The tally was for arrests and seizures between Friday and Sunday, Ambrose said.

Steve Strunsky, NJ Advance Media,

Nine Suggestions designed to Help Hard Core Criminal Addicts

By David H. Kerr              

1. Continue to promote and encourage law enforcement to use the drug court for relapse prone addicts with a criminal background. The weight of the court and a pending prison sentence is enough pressure for many criminal addicts to enter and complete treatment.
2. Try new approaches such as have been suggested in Scranton, PA. See article below. Once an addict is apprehended, allow the option of treatment even before any criminal charges are filed. This would be a real incentive for many if not most chronic addict offenders since the charge would not be filed if treatment was completed.
3. I have noticed that regular visits with the addict in treatment by the criminal justice referring agent will have a positive impact on prolonged recovery. Addicts in treatment tend to forget that they're on Probation or Parole or Drug Court etc. The brief "legal" visits should be once every three to four weeks and must be face-to-face or virtual via Skype.
4. The recovery process begins upon entering treatment. Legal video referral visits between the referring agent and the recovering addict in treatment must begin {or continue} for a minimum of once every three weeks.
5. Random urine testing must be done and certified by the authorized same sex treatment staff member, occurring every two to five weeks based on the client's treatment plan.
6. *There must be continuing face-to-face or video coaching after treatment for a minimum of four years. This is the most critical point to understand considering the relapse nature of the disease. The fear of the {observed} positive urine test along with the encouragement of the coach are essential to ensure long-term recovery, legal compliance and success. {This new protocol is well worth State funding.}
7. The treatment coach and the legal referring agent should also maintain video contact while the client is in treatment and thereafter. 
8. All treatment programs know the relapse prone nature of the disease of addiction and should stick to the protocol of maintaining regular virtual contact with their client for many years thereafter. If the legal referring agent mandates regular observed urine testing for several years after treatment, I encourage the treatment programs to comply provided there is State financial support. A very minimal investment for considering the relapse nature of the disease.
9. It is my suggestion that the State Department of Human Services fund the coached recovery of each client during and continuing for several years after treatment, until recovery stabilizes as demonstrated by the client's new drug free lifestyle. More and more data shows that addiction is a lifetime disease similar to that of diabetes. Think of the need for an addiction treatment coach for a recovering person just as critical as the need for insulin for a diabetic. Based on my experience with thousands of recovering addicts over nearly 50 years, long-term coached recovery may be the missing piece in our present day protocols for treatment. This process is more likely to result in a durable long-term recovery. Credentials for a recovery coach should only require a signed approval letter by the treatment program director. Certification and degrees should not be a mandatory requirement for a recovery coach. Positive experience and the recommendation of the treatment director are more critical. If the recovery coach is in recovery as well, he/she must also submit to random urine testing by the State or by the treatment program.

*****************************************************

       The Proposed Scranton Project:

The department is preparing to apply for a federal grant of about $730,000 to fund a three-year program that would offer a treatment option to low-level offenders and others suffering from opioid addictions, before any criminal charges are filed police Chief Carl Graziano said.

If a person successfully completes the treatment program, no charges would be filed for what otherwise could have been a crime, such as simple possession of heroin, he said. That person won't have a criminal record and, hopefully, will have a better chance at full recovery, he said. If a person facing arrest does not complete the treatment program, charges would move forward.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/scranton-eyes-pilot-pre-arrest-drug-treatment-program-1.2149722

Scranton        eyes pilot pre-arrest drug treatment program

Jim Lockwood, Staff writer/published: February 2, 2017

The Scranton Police Department hopes to offer certain opioid addicts a chance for treatment that, if successfully completed, won't result in any charges filed for potential crimes, authorities said.

The department is preparing to apply for a federal grant of about $730,000 to fund a three-year program that would offer a treatment option to low-level offenders and others suffering from opioid addictions, before any criminal charges are filed police Chief Carl Graziano said.

If a person successfully completes the treatment program, no charges would be filed for what otherwise could have been a crime, such as simple possession of heroin, he said. That person won't have a criminal record and, hopefully, will have a better chance at full recovery, he said. If a person facing arrest does not complete the treatment program, charges would move forward.

"Rather than get photographed and arrested, they would essentially sign what we're calling a 'Contract for Recovery,' " Chief Graziano told Scranton City Council during an informal caucus on Jan. 26.

He told council that the grant application would come before it soon for its consideration. City endorsement of the application is a required precursor of its ﮋling, he said.

The grant would come from a federal smart policing initiative seeking effective prevention and response approaches to prescription and/or illegal drug overdose and deaths, the tentative application says. The programs aim to help an addict get treatment before he or she has a criminal record, "to give them a real shot at turning their life around, of getting a job and having a future," the application says. It estimates the program over three years could help about 100 people, though the numbers could vary depending on lengths of treatments.

The Contract for Recovery initiative would complement Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition and drug court programs already in existence, but differ from them in a key way. That's because people in ARD or drug court have been charged with crimes that, even if expunged, could remain on the internet and hinder them from getting or keeping jobs and staying clean, the chief said.

"The difference (with the proposed Contract for Recovery) is they never actually enter the criminal justice system, so they don't get a criminal record," the chief said. "It's going to be a pre-booking intervention program. It will target the heroin and opioid addiction problem in our area."

This effort would take two approaches:

Pre-offense diversions, in which police would spread the word on the streets about the Contract for Recovery to entice those who want to seek treatment immediately.
Pre-arrest diversions of people involved in "minor criminal acts," such as simple possession, and in which officers could offer the contract option.

The Gloucester, Massachusetts Police Department has a similar program that relies upon citizens going to police seeking help for addiction. The United Kingdom has a "test on arrest" program that results in mandatory treatment assessment for those testing positive for drugs. Scranton's proposed approach would fall between these other two methods.

Scranton's initiative would involve two treatment centers: A Better Today and Drug and Alcohol Treatment Service of Lackawanna County.

Results of the program also would be empirically tracked by the University of Scranton's Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Crime.

Lackawanna County District Attorney Shane Scanlon praised the city police department for "thinking out of the box" to try to stem the opioid epidemic. Early intervention hopefully would prevent what otherwise could become a downward spiral of addiction and recurring crime and jail time, Mr. Scanlon said.

"I think it's an outstanding idea," Mr. Scanlon said of the proposal. "If we can get a person on the right path — the sooner the better."

Parents Role in the Prevention or Spread of Opioid Abuse

Does our 2017 culture at home and work “acknowledge the realities and priority of parenthood?”  

By  David H. Kerr  

Founder, Integrity House             

  

Here are two problems today:

1)   Not enough parent to child time

2)   Negative role modeling by some parents even including parents who abuse of addictive substances

According to the New York Times editorial board, 1-16-17:

“Opioid overdoses have claimed more than 300,000 lives in the last 15 years, including some 33,000 in 2015 alone. But those numbers do not tell the full horror of this epidemic, which has devastated the lives of countless children whose parents have succumbed to addiction to prescription painkillers and other opiates. In one terrible case last month, a Pennsylvania couple died of apparent overdoses, and their baby perished from starvation a few days later.”

Parents should understand that when they have children, their actions as adults are heard and mimicked by those children, far more than their words.  Parenting by one’s own positive attitude and behavior often serves as the best predictor for children to grow up in a like manner – not what you say but what you do.  This article goes on to say that “the number of foster care children jumped 8% nationally between fiscal years 2012 and 2015. Experts say that opiate abuse accounts for a lot of that increase."[1]  {See complete article below.}  David Leonhardt, Op-Ed Columnist for the New York Times makes a key point about a balance between the workplace culture and parenting:  “I should make clear that I find The New York Times to have an excellent workplace culture.  Yet even here, there’s clearly a large demand for a new approach to designing career paths that acknowledge the realities of parenthood.”

Does our 2017 culture at home and work “acknowledge the realities and priority of parenthood?”  Linda and I live in a beautiful suburban community, not far from Newark where I worked for 47 years.  We’ve seen a change in values in suburban communities since March, 1970 when we moved into town.  Then, Moms’ stayed home with the children and Dads’ went to work.  Moms were always with the kids and they learned about their child’s needs and sensitivities, usually offering clear guidelines and rules for them.  Parents often exchanged experiences, good and bad, while watching kids play in a soccer game.  We worked together with other young folks in town to create a fun social group called “Friendship.”  There was a real sense of community in the 1970’s and parenting was a full time job for Moms and a number one priority for both parents. 

Now it’s 2017, and no surprise, things are different.  Now it’s likely that both parents leave home in the morning for work, not returning until 6pmor well-after.  The daytime surrogate parent is often a paid “baby-sitter.”  The high cost of taxes may be one reason for both parents working and when they return at night to their children, they are happy and caring but exhausted!  Then there are often activities at night that parents are part of and the children are sometimes again left with a babysitter.  Are our children getting the kind of strong foundational love, caring and discipline coming from their loving and caring birth parents?  Do we as parents understand the responsibility we have in our own lives, our actions and attitudes and feelings that are absorbed by our children when we least expect it? Here are three suggestions of mine:  1) Make an effort to eat together as a family, 2) Spend some time every night with your spouse and children – leave for your meetings after this, 3) Encourage listening.  These three suggested points, if practiced regularly may help to build a responsible and caring family.  There is no guarantee of course, but why not try it for a while and keep a record what happens?

Good parenting can be a trying experience at times but for the most part it can be fun and rewarding.  Bottom line, it’s an awesome responsibility.  Parents who use and abuse legal and illegal substances day in and day out are gambling with their children’s future.  If you are one of these parents, you might want to contact the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services for help:

http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/dmhas/home/

1-800-382-6717. Or you can mail to the following address:
Mailing Address:
DMHAS
Capital Place One
P.O. Box 700
Trenton, NJ 08625

Or send me an email at

 dkerr.recoveryadvisorygroup@gmail.com

Finally to restate, make a priority of what you do since your children will be far more likely to learn from that as opposed to what you say.

Misdirected Help?

We often offer Help To and For people in need, 

but what we should do is to offer help With those in need.

This approach works especially well with addicts and others whose goal is to build self-esteem and self-worth

By David H. Kerr               

Many people and agencies have been providing services to and for addicts, inmates and/or those with mental health issues, and this includes those with all of these issues combined.  In fact, when an issue is found, a label will be pronounced and this is in line with the psychoanalytic approach and a way to secure funding to help “a client.”  In my experience, this is exactly the wrong approach for many, but especially for addicts who must learn to take charge of their life, their families and their recovery.  They need to be encouraged to know their own strengths, even their greatness as well as the contribution that they can and will make not only to themselves but to others, i.e. their family and the community.  You might call this inspirational help and coaching.

In my experience, it is better to learn how to offer help with those in need than to those in need.  It is simple if you can truly care for the person whom we inappropriately call “client[1].”  This doesn’t mean babbling sympathy but some empathy, concern and understanding is critical.  Also, our present approach is often to fire many questions at a person coming for help, so that we can put together an appropriate (fundable) state &/or insurance approved "Initial Assessment," complete with an approved label - i.e. "emotionally disturbed" or "addicted with co-occurring issues," etc., etc.  Also, be very aware of the temptation to prescribe help via drugs.  I recommend working for six months with a person with addiction before offering a prescription even for drugs like suboxone.  In many cases, this dulls the interest by the person with addiction in making any substantive personal change, and with those addicted, a substantial personal change is usually essential.

We shouldn’t be throwing help at a client.  Rather we should be drawing strengths and direction from the person asking for help.  We should be creating an equal or one to one relationship with a person so that information is shared with, not dumped on the person in need of help, guidance and direction.  All of this information must come from the person with addiction.  We help a person by developing a relationship; by demonstrating caring; by coaching and by encouraging and promoting what he/she has that is positive.  Self-esteem and self-worth should be the goal.  The “what can you do and what have you done to help yourself” approach is most effective with addictsand also with the co-occurring recovering people with whom I have worked.  No inflicted labels but rather a caring, guided and sometimes necessarily confrontive[2] approach that puts you in the role of friend and coach rather than counselor.  More importantly, it allows them to better understand the role they must take in their own self-improvement.  Remember that addicts are not helpless or stupid.  In fact national tests show them to have above average intelligence[3].

Work together with the person with addiction showing empathy, not sympathy.  Promote truth in your relationship, and encourage self-learning and self-worth.  Recovery is a long road, and treatment, engagement and coaching will help the person with addiction learn to climb and feel more secure, especially during the first five years of lifestyle change.

---

[1] I do not like the names (labels) we call people with addiction.  Use their first names instead.  Talk to the person with addiction as a friend/colleague and reason with him/her in normal conversation.  You’re not there to do for him what he must do for himself.

[2] People with the disease of addiction have often had to learn to “stretch the truth” or to flat out lie to receive your money for their drugs.  Criminal addicts have perfected “the language of the lie,” often to the point of believing their lies as truth.

[3] {http://www.cnsproductions.com/drugeducationblog/dr-darryl-inaba/1198}

INTELLIGENCE AND ITS RELATION TO ADDICTION

Posted on November 28, 2011

“A new longitudinal study into the relationship between measured levels of intelligence, and addiction shows a marked tendency toward more addiction behavior among those with higher IQs -- twice as much for men, and a three times greater likelihood among women. Also a look at new research on brain physiology and its relation to pain.”

Call Us: (800) 888-0617  CNS Productions inc a leader in drug education since 1980.   Paul J. Steinbroner was born March 18, 1949 in Los Angeles. In 1983, he founded CNS Productions, a publishing and distribution company specializing in topics related to addiction, neuropharmacology, and brain chemistry. He is the publisher of Uppers, Downers, All Arounders, a textbook on theneurochemistry and neuropharmacology of psychoactive drugs. Paul Steinbroner has also produced over fifty films and videos on this subject.

Kerr to Speak at Lyons Vet. Administration Event in N.J.

Popular Chronicles contributor David Kerr, the founder of Integrity House, in Newark, New Jersey will be speaking at the Lyons VA Campus, Bldg. 143, Lyons, New Jersey on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016.

The purpose of the event, which is hosted by MTI, is to provide career information to veterans in recovery from drugs and/or alcohol. Veterans of all military services, and/or their family members are invited to this free event.

This program is specific to veterans and veterans' families from the North Jersey Area of the state.

Refreshments will be served. For more information, call Jim Purcell at (973) 224-6667.

A Law is in Place to Expand Help for Substance Abusers

{President Obama Visited Integrity House One Year Ago Today.

http://player.pbs.org/partnerplayer/MyhBxk1iLbPPDIFZ13Z_xw====/?autoplay=false}

By David H. Kerr                  

“Governor Chris Christie has signed legislation into law that will expand drug addiction treatment programs throughout the state.

The bill, A-3744/S-2330, provides for the establishment of law enforcement-assisted addiction and recovery programs in law enforcement departments throughout the state.”

http://patch.com/new-jersey/tomsriver/gov-christie-signs-drug-treatment-expansion-law

This legislation appears to have excellent potential and maybe long overdue.  There's no "middle man" required as I read this proposal.  Police can take direct action and help can be immediately available.  No extensive calling around for a bed or getting in line with a two month waiting list in order to get help.  Naturally I would expect that if police found a street addict needing help, any other connected legal jurisdiction such as probation, parole or drug court would be notified as to what would be done for the addict, beginning at that time.  Instead of waiting in jail for a treatment bed to become available, help can start immediately and when a bed does become available, the referral can be made.  While it is an expedient solution, it is far better than incarceration with no help.

Why for many, law enforcement should be the first step to help, followed by Sister Mary L., Father Pete and I.

I have met many savvy and understanding law enforcement officers in my 50+ years of work with addicts beginning in 1965 as a state parole officer in Newark.  For the most part, those with whom I have worked have had a positive influence on the law breaking addicts they had found on the streets.  In the 60’s we developed first name communication where help for an addict was just a phone call away.  Unfortunately, there were only a handful of residential treatment programs or referral sources in the mid to late 60’s but the Mt. Carmel Guild, Sister Mary L., Father Pete, and I were in daily contact with addicts coming to us for help.  We often sent them to a farm type facility in Garrison NY for detox and treatment.  The three of us did the critical follow up and support when they returned.  The police, prosecutor and probation departments were all part of our team as well.  Through our continued close communications we became an effective team, caring enough about our recovering addict referrals to know their names and even some of their family members.

With this new law, police will be allowed and encouraged to take addicts right from the "streets," offer them help and advice and see that they enter treatment.  Police officers now have little option but to place an addict in jail for crimes related to the disease of addiction while awaiting an open treatment bed.  Adding police to the network of addiction help is not a new concept and in fact, it has been practiced informally for decades.  With this new law however, the essential but informal liaison between police and the treatment networks can be formalized offering more opportunity for help for those on long waiting lists.  Linking law enforcement with treatment programs is also not new, but giving front line police officers a more direct connection with treatment is an idea that can now become a reality.

The consequences of this law working effectively could ultimately place an even greater demand on drug treatment and our Governor and legislators must prepare for this reality now.  Here is a summary of the proposed legislation:

“This new law allows police officers —often the first people to discover nonviolent drug offenders in their worst state — to become a point of access for help and recovery," Christie said. "This law improves upon access and assistance for those suffering from addiction, helping them to obtain treatment and re-enter society as productive members.”

The law also provides for:

·    Supporting and facilitating the linkage of law enforcement-assisted addiction and recovery programs to facilities and programs that provide appropriate substance abuse recovery services and health care services

·    Coordinating with law enforcement officials and program volunteers to ensure that individuals seeking to participate in the program are treated with respect, care and compassion, and are reassured that assistance will be provided

·    Establishing requirements for an individual to be eligible for participation in the program, and develop and implement procedures for determining eligibility requirements for the program.

The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Richard J. Codey and Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee chairman Joseph F. Vitale.

Law enforcement will also help a treatment completer to maintain contacts with his/her treatment coach and mentor for the essential five years after treatment completion.

*********************************************************

Governor Christie Signs Legislation Strengthening State’s Fight Against Addiction

For Immediate Release                        Contact:  Brian Murray

Wednesday, October 26, 2016                        609-777-2600

Trenton, NJ – Governor Chris Christie today signed legislation to enhance and expand addiction treatment opportunities and improve relationships between law enforcement officers and those suffering from addiction.

“All too often people afflicted with the disease of addiction have negative, counterproductive and repeated interactions with the criminal justice system,” Governor Christie said. “This new law allows police officers —often the first people to discover nonviolent drug offenders in their worst state — to become a point of access for help and recovery. This law improves upon access and assistance for those suffering from addiction, helping them to obtain treatment and re-enter society as productive members.”

Drug overdose death rates in New Jersey have been reported this year as multiple times higher than increasing national rates.

A-3744/S-2330 (McKeon, Vainieri Huttle, Caputo, Jasey, Downey/Codey, Vitale), with the governor’s recommendations from an August conditional veto, provides for the establishment of these law enforcement-assisted addiction and recovery programs in law enforcement departments throughout the State. Under this new law, the Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services, in consultation with the Attorney General, will prescribe by regulation requirements for county and municipal law enforcement departments to establish a program within their departments; develop and implement guidelines for the recruitment and training of law enforcement officers, volunteers, and treatment providers to participate in the program; support and facilitate the linkage of law enforcement assisted addiction and recovery programs to facilities and programs that provide appropriate substance abuse recovery services and health care services; coordinate with law enforcement officials and program volunteers to ensure that individuals seeking to participate in the program are treated with respect, care, and compassion, and are reassured that assistance will be provided; establish requirements for an individual to be eligible for participation in the program; and develop and implement procedures for determining eligibility requirements for the program.

This reform is the latest lifesaving action taken by Governor Christie’s administration, to go along with drug court expansion; statewide Narcan and recovery coach program implementation; new legal protections for those helping drug overdose victims; criminal justice reform to put nonviolent offenders on a path to recovery and productivity; the conversion of a correctional facility into a drug treatment center for inmates with addictions; and increased participation in the multistate Prescription Monitoring Program to prevent doctor shopping.