The death of our son and brother, Rob Hollis, from an opioid overdose on September 18, 2016 created an overwhelming desire for us to fight this scourge and ensure that others would not have to go through the pain this has caused us. Rob was in recovery for over two years and had much going for him; he was talking marriage with his girlfriend, Brittney and had great relationships within his family, friends and co-workers. He was working six days a week in a good job but succumbed to a single relapse. This is not a choice, he had too much to live for! This is the power of the disease and we decided we must give people a fighting chance.
Take our story and multiply it by 20 for those that died in Plymouth alone in 2016 and then by 2,000 for MA and over 50,000 for the country! Then consider the many struggling with addiction and the impact it has on their family and friends: it is time to go to war on this disease!
We are actively looking for help with the establishment of a Recovery Center in Plymouth which will be charged with several goals intended to fight the ongoing opioid addiction tragedy within our community. The first goal is to raise awareness of the problem and educate our community regarding effects of the disease on those who are addicted, too often addiction still has a stigma attached to it which discourages people from reaching out for help. Our second goal is to provide a place where someone who needs help can come and get assistance with getting into a treatment plan, a very difficult and confusing proposition at present. The third goal is to provide after care and accountability for those that are out of treatment and back in the community. This stage is when many of the overdoses are occurring and numerous studies have found that a Recovery Center which provides peer to peer counseling and meetings specific to opioid addiction is very effective in helping people in their recovery. This model has been cited by the Commonwealth as one of the best means to accomplish this and the State has funded 10 Recovery Centers already.
The continuum of care which is needed to deal with this menace can be broken down into four steps: Prevention, Intervention, Treatment and Recovery. Plymouth is lucky to have organizations already active in a few phases of this effort and by adding a permanent center to allow for collaboration and the addition of the Recovery piece we will be in great shape to attract state funding and attack this across the board. We will be working very closely with the Plymouth Schools who have established a Youth Development Collaborative to stress prevention and we also will provide a permanent home for Project Outreach, a joint effort of the Police Department and BID Hospital, which focuses on the intervention piece. While they hold 4 meetings a month at New Hope Chapel and New Testament Church it will be even more effective to have a place open at least 6 days a week to give direction for treatment for someone in need at the time they need it. Once they are out of treatment they will have a place in our Center for long term support and counseling and access to numerous established recovery programs.
Plymouth Recovery Center, Inc. has been formed as a non-profit corporation and we are close to settling on 2,000 sf of office space to house the Center at the South Shore Community Action Council building but need help with funding for the space and programs. We are working with Gandara, Inc, a non-profit which operates 3 centers currently, to run the peer-peer counseling services and staff the site 6- 7 days per week. They are applying for the available State funds for this component while our group is responsible for the remaining components and leasing the space.
Much like our country during World War ll, this fight can only be won with total community involvement and support of those fighting the front line battle. Please consider making a donation, whatever the size, and help spread the word. Our goal is to go out of business as soon as possible ... due to a lack of need!
