Rita Brown recalls the “help in the old days” when her ex-husband was recovering from alcoholism.
“It was tough love,” she explained. “There was a whole lot of blame on the families, ‘you are enabling this person, that’s why [he/she is] addicted because you are an enabler … it was horrible.”
That is in part why Brown, who is a licensed social worker and worked as a case manager and therapist throughout her career, decided to become part of Metuchen CARES, a borough committee working on prevention and education concerning substance use disorders.
“To me, it’s really important to reduce the stigma [of drug addiction] and give people hope,” she said.
Brown, Carol Volkland and Kathy Liss came together to discuss the formation of Metuchen CARES, formerly the Metuchen Municipal Alliance.
Volkland is a former teacher.
“I worked with children my whole life and also worked with families,” she said. “I was able to see the dynamic involved and within my own family, I knew I needed assistance.
“I feel it’s very important to try to educate from a very young age [in order to get to a point to] prevent people from starting [a path that could lead to an addiction].”
Liss served as a young adult librarian at the Metuchen Public Library.
“I worked with the population of teenagers and was asked if I was interested in joining [the Municipal Alliance],” she said. “We had a display [at the library], which was a way to get messages out to kids. We worked together on programming as well [before] it became more restrictive. I would like to bring [those messages and programs] back to the library because we can now.”
Liss noted on a more personal note that she had lost a son to cancer. He was 25.
“I got such an outpouring support from this community,” she recalled. “It was very touching and right after he died, we learned one of his peers had passed away because of an overdose.
“I could relate to the parents [having lost a child], but also saw the difference. They could not tell their story because of the stigma. That’s why I really felt, we all as a group, wanted to become part of the overdose awareness [movement].”
Metuchen CARES is part of the international movement that recognizes Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31 each year. This movement brings communities together to remember those who died of the disease of addiction and to offer compassion to those who have lost loved ones to a substance use disorder. Similarly, the committee will celebrate a Recovery Day to bring hope to people suffering from a substance use disorder, their families, and friends.
Similar to the Municipal Alliance, the committee continues to work on prevention and education but also works to:
• focus more on prevention and recovery, not just reduction of alcohol and drug use;
• provide education, community support, and resources for substance use disorders and other behavioral addictions (e.g., gambling, porn, gaming);
• promote mental wellness across the community to children, teens, adults, and seniors; and
• sponsor programs and activities that better meet the particular needs and interests of the borough’s population in the areas of substance use, behavioral addictions, and mental health.
As a Municipal Alliance, which had been previously in place since the 1980s, members said they couldn’t focus on the whole picture of drug addiction. The use of grant funds from the state were limited to specific purposes and certain topics.
This caused frustration.
“There were programs that we wanted to do for the people in the community, [programs that the] schools wanted, but we were not permitted to do those particular programs for whatever reason,” Liss said.
The Committee held its first Overdose Awareness Day in 2020 while it was still a Municipal Alliance, recalled Liss.
“At that point [borough officials heard our] frustrations,” she said, saying the next year they left the Municipal Alliance and became a borough committee funded by the municipality.
“Now [as a borough committee] we’re able to talk about addiction, address addiction … also recovery.”
And that’s what members of the committee are doing – providing resources and/or programs on problems from gambling addiction to screen addiction – whatever the need is – to the availability of Narcan and family support too.
Aside from their main event Overdose Awareness Day, they plan programs for the schools and community.
Last year, they sponsored a number of events:
- Two sessions of “A Natural High” for students, featuring neuropsychologist and standup comedian Dr. Matt Ballace at Metuchen High School;
- An evening program open to the entire adult community, “Supporting Teens in Reducing Their Stress (and Ours);”
- Supported Metuchen High School’s Project Graduation 2023 with a $1,000 donation. They purchased clear plastic drawstring bags for graduates for the event. Two wallet-sized cards containing overdose and emergency information were placed inside each bag;
- Sponsored a six-week peer leadership program for 5th and 6th grade campers at the Metuchen YMCA. Students learned important life skills like conflict resolution, sportsmanship, and how to stand up to peer pressure;
- Began an educational campaign via the “Borough of Metuchen” Facebook page with biweekly messages;
- Co-sponsored with Wellspring Prevention, “Senior Jeopardy: Maintaining a Healthy Mind” at the Metuchen Senior Apartments on Lincoln Avenue; and
- Granted $1,000 to the Metuchen Public Library to create a teen issues collection. The collection will hold both novels and non-fiction books and other materials on topics like substance use, behavioral addictions, and mental health, as well as information on Metuchen CARES.
This year they plan to host a program on bullying.
The first full week of October is Respect Week. Metuchen CARES is working with Edgar Middle School to bring in a speaker, who will bring the message of being kind to others. The speaker will talk to students about overcoming a disability from birth, overcoming adversity, and overcoming physical and mental challenges.
The speaker will speak at the middle school during the day and will provide the same message later in the evening for the entire community.
The purpose of Metuchen CARES is to provide outreach to all the schools and the community through programs, resources and announcements.
“We want to get people talking about addictions and things like bullying,” Volkland said. “We want to reduce the stigma because the stigma is the thing that gets us all. It’s such a widespread issue in our society, but no one talks about it.”
The isolation of the COVID pandemic exacerbated mental health problems.
“Overdose numbers went high during COVID and stayed there,” Liss said. “There were over 100,000 overdose deaths each year, 95,000 were alcohol related deaths. [And the numbers are] still steady.”
Members said in addition of educating the risks of alcoholism for people under 21, they now have to educate about the risks of using marijuana for people under 21 because “teen brains are still developing.”
Another important announcement, members want to get across to the community is 3 out of 4.75% of people who have an addiction problem will eventually recover.
Two studies came out in 2022 – one from the National Institutes of Health and one from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – show people recover – they might relapse – but eventually will recover.
“People can keep their loved ones alive,” Liss emphasized.
Years ago, there were programs such as “Just Say No.”
“Did it work? Maybe it worked for some people, but there has to be other prevention strategies,” Liss said, adding it’s important to “Delay, delay, delay” the onset of the first drink or use of marijuana.
“The more we can delay it, the brain is less vulnerable to addiction.”
And that is where education is key for both parents and their children to talk about addiction situations.
Metuchen CARES will continue to work with schools and work with the Metuchen Senior Center, which is combined with the borough Recreation Department.
“We are also trying to expand more into faith-based organizations,” Liss said, of providing information for people and their families. “We hope to be the resource that they don’t have.”
Metuchen CARES, which has liaisons from the Borough Council, Board of Education and police department, meets on the second Thursday of January, March, May, July, September, and November at 7:15 p.m. on the second floor of Borough Hall.
