March 23, 2016
East Bridgewater-The East Bridgewater Police is pleased to announce in its partnership with EB HOPE, the PLYMOUTH COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY TIMOTHY CRUZ’ OFFICE and the BROCKTON AREA OPIOID ABUSE PREVENTION COLLABORATIVE, a new collaboration with two professors from highly respected universities at STONEHILL COLLEGE and ROGER WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY, who will assist in implementing and evaluating programs established to combat the current Opioid epidemic.
East Bridgewater Police, in cooperation with their law enforcement partners in Bridgewater, West Bridgewater and Whitman have been tracking all suspected Opioid overdoses within these four communities for over a year. The goal of this initiative is to use this information to continually improve the services these departments provide to this at-risk population.
EB HOPE started its community-based, Substance Abuse Outreach Drop-In Center in East Bridgewater in November of 2015, which is designed to provide services to persons suffering from substance use disorders (SUDs), as well as providing resources to family members, friends, and/or loved ones of SUDs sufferers. To-date the Drop-In Center and other Initiatives have hosted and assisted over 170 persons, assisting directly 129 people with outreach services, including treatment, Narcan training as well as referrals to their treatment and recovery partner organizations.
In an effort to assess and evaluate the progress of these two independent programs, District Attorney Cruz has facilitated in obtaining the expert services of Dr. Sean Verano (Roger Williams University) and Pamela Kelley (Stonehill College), who are both experts in law enforcement policy and practice, evaluation research and evaluation methods, and criminal justice statistical analysis.
The goal in the assessment and evaluation of these programs is to identify best practices and new methods to aid in the treatment and recovery of substance use disorder individuals, provide support in their long term recovery, help reduce the stigma attached to persons suffering from substance use disorders, as well as to reduce the stigma that follows the family members, friends and loved ones for those suffering.