Western Maine Addiction Task Force
May 11, 2016
Mollyocket Motel, Woodstock
Attendance:
Taylor Owens, Jennifer Small, Heidi Bennett, Jessica Dufour, Allie Burke, Abby Burdin, Nancy McClean, Kate Shaunghnesy, Wayne Gallant, Brendan Schauffler, Cheyenne Mooney, Matt Baker, Becky Chagrasulis
This meeting is Chief Lange’s last meeting with the Task Force. He has accepted a new position as Chief of Police for Wiscasset. Sergeant Matt Baker will be stepping into his role for the Task Force. Srgt. Baker has been added onto the forms for the banking information, in addition to Dave Preble and Lynda Hebert.
We have just under $3,000 in the account right now after two successful fundraisers this past month, and with that will be looking into advertisement options. Taylor will be looking into getting pricing for banners to be hung at the high schools within the county, as well as contacting schools to see what the requirements are to hang them.
Chief Lange has applied for a “Safe Neighborhoods” grant through the Paris PD. If received, $10,000 of the grant would be allocated to Project Save ME. Skip Mowatt will update us when the awarding is announced in July.
Taylor is working on creating the website and getting the content up on the pages. Brendan Schauffler and Cheyenne Mooney have volunteered to help with this process.
Legislative – Session is done until January, no updated on that. LePage’s veto for the Narcan bill was overridden. Janet Mills is still working on solidifying a price for it.
Fryeburg PD has a subscription for Narcan and the town has passed ordinance for the officers to carry it. It will be a one-year trial period.
Law Update – the law that discusses heroin trafficking outlines that substance is “heroin” meaning that it has to have a higher level of heroin in it, and that can only be tested out of state. To be effective, the language needs to be changed to say, “contains heroin”.
Chief Stacy Carter discussed that in his town heroin is still a problem, and the fire department and Med Care both carry Narcan. It was successfully used last week.
There are no updates on the letter that the DA is working on writing that will be given/read to all people participating in Project Save ME, there will be a check in to see if there has been any progress.
Protocol – A protocol has been created, but still needs one last change before final. Once this is done, it will be sent to the Chiefs. Chief Carter will be talking with the Mexico and Dixfield Police Departments about it.
This will help ensure that everyone who wished to be a part of Project Save ME will have the same experience regardless of what station and officer they come in contact with, as well as the recovery coach.
Many people are calling into the police departments asking for information and they are being put in touch with recovery coaches. It would be helpful if there were a script written to field these types of questions. The website will also be a helpful place to direct people with questions to.
Jennifer has suggested creating a town forum for Fryeburg similar to what has happened in Paris and Mexico to educate the community. Taylor will be helping to make this happen after it has been discussed with the Chief of Police there.
Mexico/Rumford University is moving to a new location. The current building potentially could be turned into a treatment/recovery center.
Jennifer will be talking with the medical staff at Stephens Memorial similar to the talk at Rumford Hospital at the suggestion of Dr. Becky after looking at the protocol. Not all the medical staff know about Project Save ME and might get confused.
Obtaining Naloxone Prescription – It would be easiest if everyone went through the same person to get the prescription – the Regional Medical Director. Dr. Becky will talk with him about writing the prescription for the police departments. It would also be helpful to find out where the police departments who already have a prescription are getting them. Sheriff Gallant knows of someone who is already looking into this information and will pass it along once it is completed. In the meantime, Dr. Becky is willing to write the prescription.
Project Save ME pamphlets are being printed and will be ready some time next week. Ideas for locations to disseminate them include: mental health facilities, hospitals, DHHS, pharmacies.
September is Recovery Month – we should start planning on how to promote being proud in a person’s recovery to help reduce stigma. There is a website called “I am not anonymous” and we could work to promote this and use it as a tag line for our event. A committee will form to work on planning this. Volunteers include: Jennifer, Taylor, Nancy, Cheyenne, Jessica D., Srgt. Baker, and Brendan. To work on getting more information into the news paper we could talk with the Advertiser Democrat to see if they would be interested in running a series about people in recovery. Erin Place has been following the Task Force and would be a good contact for this. In addition to this, Sheriff Gallant will work on sending out press releases more often after meetings and events to raise community awareness