NORWAY — One of Maine’s U.S. senators met some of Oxford Hills’ most important tools in the fight against drug addiction fueled by synthetic drugs and veterinary tranquilizers last week when Angus King visited The HILLS Recovery Center during a road trip through Western Maine.

King stopped by the center to meet with community advocates, board members and employees of the Western Maine Addiction Recovery Initiative and learn about the work being done to fight the substance use disorder crisis.

WMARI’s board is composed of medical and behavioral health professionals, counselors, law enforcement and others who have SUD or have loved ones with the disease. A larger group that includes lawmakers, public officials and advocates from other areas of Maine meets the first Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. The meetings have been held via Zoom since the pandemic, however, the community center has made it possible for people to participate in person as well.

Friday, current and past members of WMARI’s board joined Director Kari Taylor in welcoming King on his first visit to The HILLS: Jennifer Small, owner and agency director of Common Ground Counseling in Norway, Glenn Gordon, OPTIONS liaison Oxford County, Oxford County Mental Health Services in Rumford, Brendan Schauffler of MaineHealth and program manager for Healthy Oxford Hills in Norway, Kathie Williams, executive director, Larry Labonte Recovery Center in Rumford, Christina Booth, RN, nurse director emergency services at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, Lynda Hebert, a family liaison to families learning about SUD who lives in Peru.

Two new WMARI employees, Tina Jones, peer support specialist and Aaron Ryder, intervention and peer support specialist, recovery coach coordinator for The HILLS Recovery Center, also participated in the luncheon meeting to discuss their roles at the center and their own recovery journeys.

Booth told King that of patients admitted to SMH’s emergency department, an estimated 10% are related to SUD, whether as the primary issue or co-morbid conditions.

“It becomes the de facto mental health institute,” King said. Booth agreed, citing instances in which admitted patients have had to stay for days or weeks because no other inpatient facilities are able to treat them.

“Pediatric and geriatric patients are the hardest to place,” Booth said. “There are no beds, and we have to look at ‘wraparound’ services for them at home. We don’t have enough inpatient treatment beds and we don’t have enough sober housing.

“But we’ve gone from a veritable desert of addiction resources three years ago, to a place where people will come [for help] because we have Dr. Miller, who just opened a comprehensive addiction medicine program through MaineHealth and this recovery center, and WMARI. We are now becoming a recovery-ready community. We still don’t have sober living options here and we don’t have supports close to home for people coming out of rehab. Rehab gets you sober, but it doesn’t provide the strength to remain sober.”

“There are zero treatment beds, detox beds, residential beds in Oxford County,” Taylor added. “And the wait to get into places like St. Mary’s in Lewiston can be months.”

Small spoke about the shortage of qualified treatment professionals from counselors and social workers to psychiatrists, even with career education programs available at public and private universities in Maine.

“But looking around this room, recovery works,” King said.

At times it can be peers or family who  save someone from overdosing, using Narcan. Both The HILLS and the Labonte centers provide free training on using it to anyone who requests it. Williams noted that the impact of making it available was immediate in her community, relaying an incident where two women received training and were able to save another from overdosing with Narcan they had just gotten from the center.

Sgt. Baker shared that the Oxford County Sheriff’s Office was the first police department in Maine to carry supplies of Narcan in all vehicles.

“The number of overdoses, we are not seeing a decrease in Oxford County,” Small told King. “There are more people using, and the drugs are more dangerous because of fentanyl.”

Talk then turned to prevention, which is most effective when started at home but also becoming necessary in public schools.

“Prevention is one of our strategic goals,” Small told King. “So many kids that I treat, home is not safe, and school is not safe for them. Social and emotional learning is an important component.”

Hebert, whose son is in recovery, said he has addressed kids at his alma mater Dirigo High School in Dixfield about his struggles. Gordon is also working with western Maine school districts on prevention presentations; he will address students at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School on May 22.

“You are doing irreplaceable work,” King commended the group. “The government can supply some money, but you are doing the work.

“Matthew 25: ‘What you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'”

 

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