One thing is becoming clearer, though: Recovery is possible, to a person and for any community, if we commit to the track we’re on.
Much has happened during this time I’ve been down, some of which I’ll be able to share with the world shortly. One thing is that I’ve had meals with six (6) (VI) of the 14 folks I named on New Year’s Day as people I wanted to reconnect with. The resolution continues.
2017 was a year of significant progress in reducing deaths and continuing to provide rapid single point access to people seeking recovery services. That progress was a direct result of many, many individuals and entities working tirelessly and without pause.
I long for a day when the recovery community in New Hampshire and beyond can work together to agree on some simple interests. And yes, I said interests – not positions, stances, or opinions. We must get past all these if we are to work together in implementing solutions to the current crisis.
The $4 million Manchester Recovery and Treatment Center, at 293 Wilson St., will occupy the second and third floors of the former Hoitt Furniture building. Construction is expected to begin in March.
The Manchester Monarchs, proud ECHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, announced the first round of hockey personalities scheduled to attend the Hockey for Hope event that will take place on June 12 at the Verizon Wireless Arena.
The full-featured website, www.hopeforNHrecovery.org, has been completely redesigned to be a “one stop shop” for individuals and loved ones touched by addiction. It includes information about the disease of addiction, the process of getting well, links to resources and details about the organization’s recovery centers opening across the state.
Hope for New Hampshire Recovery, a Manchester based, grassroots nonprofit has several fundraising events planned this summer.
Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello and businessman John Rosenthal, co-founders of The Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.), announce three new treatment partners, in New Hampshire and Florida, all owned by former Delray Beach, Fla., Police Officer Michael Brown.
I’ve found that throughout my life there was always quite a difference between the person I was and the person I wanted to be. I knew deep down inside that I wasn’t giving life my best shot. Teachers would remark about my “potential,” but I was happy not to study for tests and do well enough. I handed in assignments late and got points off, content because I knew I’d still get a good enough grade. I was always a fan of shortcuts, easy fixes and doing the bare minimum; whatever was good enough to get by. Why do today what I can put off ’til tomorrow, right?
For most of us, it’s hard to open up about something we’re struggling with. We don’t want to be perceived by other people as weak or we don’t want to bother other people with our troubles.
Up until the past year, I was always on the other side of addiction. I was the person who other people worried about, the one that no one probably expected would live a whole lot longer. I was OK with that. I envisioned that before too long I’d be gone and that, hopefully, my friends would show up to my funeral and say some kind things about me. I never thought that I’d be the one in recovery, mourning the loss of my friends.
As far as she knows, this is the first emergency rescue shelter of its kind in the country, taking in those who most typically have survived a heroin overdose and, once medically cleared in a hospital emergency department, can stay up to 14 days while actively seeking treatment and recovery solutions, says Kriss Blevens. “This is a porthole for the sickest of the sick, for those whose next stop is either another arrest, an overdose or the morgue,” says Blevens.
The money will be used around the state to support new services such as withdrawal management services, medication assisted treatment and various 24/7 crisis services, including a new statewide crisis hotline.
Farnum Center North in Franklin is ready to welcome 10 new clients into the newly opened “Ray House,” named in honor New Hampshire’s well-known and generous restaurateur, Alex Ray, of the Common Man Restaurant chain, who donated $100,000 to help with the project.
The Hope for New Hampshire Recovery board of directors unanimously supported affiliation with Face It TOGETHER in order to expand and strengthen their addiction support programs and services in the wake of the state’s growing opioid crisis.
The Manchester session will be held March 9 from 6-8 p.m. at City Hall, third-floor Aldermanic chambers.
This is a problem that can’t be fixed overnight, and maybe not in the next presidency, but if a 24 year-old from New Hampshire can understand and explain some of the basic issues connected to this crisis, we need to expect the leaders of our country to do so also, instead of sticking to narrow-minded pipe dreams for their own political benefit. This isn’t a partisan issue. This is a common sense issue. And it is also an issue of life or death for the millions of Americans struggling with opioid dependence.
What Holly Cekala has done, since arriving in Manchester last summer, is activate a recovery underground with her street smarts and experience as someone in recovery herself. She’s about to help cut the ribbon on the state’s first comprehensive community recovery center in Manchester, fast-tracked only thanks to private investors. But they aren’t standing on ceremony, or waiting for the ribbon. Instead, they welcome walk-ins at the temporary peer center on Central Street, where the services are limited, but the compassion is genuine.
Marty Boldin has a success story to tell, one of long-term recovery from addiction. Getting past the stigma, for many, can be an insurmountable hurdle. That’s got to change.