HOULTON, Maine — Nearly 70 people attended the Community Conversation held on Feb. 29, at the Community Arts Center at Houlton High School. This event was sponsored by The Link for Hope Coalition in partnership with The Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and Healthy Aroostook.
Attendees represented various sectors of our community; medical, law enforcement, education, business owners, recovering individuals and concerned citizens.
The evening began with a viewing of the documentary entitled, “The Anonymous People.” According to the film’s website, the movie “is about the 23.5 million Americans living in long-term recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs. Deeply entrenched social stigma and discrimination have kept recovery voices silent and faces hidden for decades.”
Following the film, those attending participated in focus groups to discuss the barriers to recovery and the strategies could be implemented to overcome those barriers. The answers were very thoughtful and obviously varied. They were tallied and the results were distributed to those who attended the follow-up meeting held on March 3 at the Community Education Center at Houlton Regional Hospital.
Through conversation, it became clear that people who have begun their journey on the road to recovery felt isolated. The need for a Recovery Center in Houlton was at the top of the list of strategies to overcome the barriers to recovery. On Wednesday, March 16th at 1:30 p.m. at the Community Education Center of Houlton Regional Hospital, Darrin Ripley of Augusta, director of Maine Association for Addiction Recovery will be in Houlton to discuss the possibility of opening a recovery center. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend this very important meeting.
According to the special section of the Bangor Daily News entitled “Garrett” (Feb. 27, 2016), Pat Kimball, executive director of Wellspring, a substance use treatment center in Bangor said, “it is a brain disorder. It’s not simply ‘I want to change’. We don’t treat substance use disorders like we do other diseases. We blame the client. We gave you all these opportunities, and you blew them all. And (Garrett) really didn’t blow them all. They just didn’t match what his need was, and he wasn’t ready.”
Doctors understand the threat of cancer and know to treat it immediately. If one treatment approach doesn’t work, they try another, “We don’t blame the patient and say, ‘You didn’t try hard enough,’” Kimball added.
“We are dealing with a public health issue and in order to conquer this we need as many people involved as possible,” Houlton Police Chief Joe McKenna said. “This community, like all communities around the country, definitely has a serious drug problem. Drugs are everywhere, in our homes, schools, businesses and even our churches. Denial is just keeping us sick. We need to open our eyes, hold people accountable and support those who are willing and attempting to live a clean and sober life. This epidemic has reached across our country, state and towns. It’s a community problem and it will take the community to solve it, but we have to work together.”
The goal of the Link for Hope Coalition is to focus on the three areas that were determined necessary by Governor LePage and Senator King’s summits which were held last fall; prevention, treatment/recovery and law enforcement. The group encourages anyone interested in helping reclaim the community and create a safe environment for our citizens, to join them on Wednesday, at 1:30 p.m. at the Houlton Regional Hospital, Community Education Center.
