from Chumsford Teledia, the community media center of Chumsford, Massachusetts. What is substance use and misuse prevention? We aim to prevent initiation of substance use,
prevent progression of substance use to a substance use disorder, prevent consequences associated with substance use. Prevention, supports healthy development of individuals,
strengthens families, expands programs in schools and communities, improves safety and the livability of communities. The earlier in life a person starts using alcohol or other drugs, the more
likely they are to develop a substance use disorder. It's never too early and never too late. or prevention. There's a science to prevention. Decades of prevention science and community experience show that prevention works.
There are effective strategies when used as part of a comprehensive approach such as building and practicing skills, managing our emotions and behaviors, problem solving, resolving conflicts, peer relationships, academics,
parenting, communicating positive social norms, that most of your peers don't use substances. Focusing on healthy alternatives, enhancing positive connections with peers, family,
community, culture, including peer-led activities, enhancing opportunities for education, employment, and engagement, improving community norms and policies on substance use. To inspire action, each of us can share how prevention is
improving lives. Share your #myprevention story on social media. Join us as partners in prevention year round. And for prevention month in October, visit ww
Justice. Oh, I know. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, I signed up for one little driver for like half a second. So I had to watch that.
Yeah, you can't see the student waiting outside. >> All right, I think we can get started. Um, let's see. So, we're gonna have just so that we're not on camera yet, so you can all relax. Um, I'll tell Brian when we're going to start. Um, but I'm gonna
just introduce us and do like the mission statement like I do for the public. And um, I brought my glasses this time so I can actually read. And then um, Mike's going to go over the DART program. >> And then beyond that for the public, it's gonna >> all set. You want a minute?
>> Just a minute. Um, so I have a couple slides for you. I just have Dart >> and then I have that. >> Yep. >> Um, >> and then, um, Narcan boxes and then a quick overview for whoever might be watching. and then we'll go into our our
real work work stuff. Um, okay. I think we're gonna be ready. You're good to go. >> Okay. Let me put this in slideshow. Brian, all I need to do is find I mean, sorry. Yeah, Brian. All I need are my glasses and then I'll be ready.
Oh, yeah. Does everybody know everybody? Sorry, Nilda is um my supervisor. >> Yeah. >> The connection. Yeah. >> Okay. >> You guys are ready. >> We are ready. >> All right. Stand by.
>> In five, four, three, two, one. >> All right. Uh good evening everybody. My name is Ananda Linux. I'm the director of the close community coalition and um we are going to start the public part of our meeting this evening and um I always like to start with the mission of the
close community coalition so folks remember what we do. Um so our mission is to collaboratively initiate, coordinate and sustain prevention and intervention efforts that reduce youth substance use and abuse within the town of Long Meadow. Um, our community members work together to strengthen our community capacity to support positive
youth development and reduce risky behaviors in a variety of ways, including increasing access and reducing barriers to protective factors, evaluating and monitoring risky behaviors among youth, and sharing that data with the community, establishing and strengthening collaboration among
local stakeholders, understanding the diversity of the community, and striving to include all, facilitating collaborative fundraising, grant writing, and programming among coalition members. and researching evidence-based practices and sharing data, information, and resources. And tonight we have um
Detective Lieutenant Michael Dowski who's going to give us an overview of the DART program um which is one of our partners who do a lot of good work for the community. >> Thanks. Yeah, Lieutenant Dowski, uh been on the job about 19 years. Um since 2015
um the state as well as a lot of grants in Hampton and Hampshire County became available to uh recognize a lot of community needs in terms of uh mental health and um drug abuse, substance abuse. So DART is it stands for drug
addiction recovery team and for Long Meadow um there's DART and there's CIT it's crisis intervention team. We combine them both. So about in 2015 like I was mentioned there's a lot of grants that were available um through the state and hand counties
we uh successfully got the grants and we formed both a dart and CIT cit combined um bigger agencies bigger cities we'll have separate because again CIT is more for mental health dart is more for drug abuse um recovery teams fortunately for
long meadow we don't have um the high levels that other communities in the area that have. So again, we combined both. But um when we do have um for DART purposes a uh an overdose or a sub uh substance
abuse or any uh possibility that a family member needs help with a member of our dart team which uh consists of myself, Sergeant Rob Bombardi and Officer Kevin Rowley will reach out to the calling party
usually a family member u make sure they're getting uh resources is and reach out to a clinician. Lucky for us, as I was mentioned of all the grants, we actually have an in-house clinician uh 20 hours a week for Long Meadow, 20
hours a week for East Law Meadow. Um even if she's in East Law Meadow and there's an incident that happens in Long Meadow, we call our clinician over and we address that issue right away. Now, if it's on the weekend, obviously, we're going to send them to the hospital or call an on call clinician. But in terms
of the whole purpose of DART again, drug addiction recovery team, it's it's the community aspect. It's not just the person that needs the help who could have been overdosing and the ambulance shows up. So clearly they're going to the hospital. We're not even going to really see see them at that point. Um
we're going to note it and we're going to make sure the next day, the next 48 hours, next week they're getting the help that they need. Um usually the hospitals are great. They already set them up with uh clinicians um and recovery teams, but we want to make sure that they're not being
bypassed when they come back into the law community. So whether it's the in-house clinician or myself or Sergeant Lombardi or Officer Raleigh, we'll make sure they're getting the services that they need and uh confirm that. Now, it's a family,
it's community approach. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of services at the time prior to this the star program where the families, the loved ones were uh also receiving services um for for the events that they encountered. And so, uh we make sure, you know, we give them packets. Again, we're we're just
the police department, but we give them all the the resources and to let them know that, you know, we're human beings, too. I know uh we try to wear the attire that I'm wearing right now as opposed to the uniform. We don't want to upset anyone and show them again that we're normal. Um that we want to provide
whatever we can to know that we generally care. It's not just that you get shipped off to the hospital and um and we forget about you. And it's not just the next day or next week. We'll follow up months down the road, too. Um again, we don't have a PhD in front of
our name. It's lieutenant, sergeant, or officer. So, the clinician is going to be dealing with all the professional um parts of that. Hello. >> Sorry. Sorry. >> But that is the gist of it. Um again, luckily for us in Long Meadow,
uh we deal with more the mental health. I shouldn't say luckily, um but it's more of a CIT mental health approach. Um DART, the very few, you know, drug uh overdoses that we do have. Um again we
make sure they get their services but overwhelmingly in law me it is a uh mental health approach. Um again our in-house clinician who we share with the Lmetto PD they will uh assist in those avenues as well.
>> Nice. >> You want to talk about these? >> Yeah. So Ananda has done a great job in helping us set up uh free Narcan training throughout the year. We try to do it at least twice a year, sometimes at the shops. Um, the past few years
have been at the shops. Williams Place Mall Small. Um, we have uh Close and Tapestry, which they're based out of Tapestry is based out of Holio. >> Yeah. >> Um, and I forget the the two gentlemen's name, but they've been awesome. They they come out and they'll give free uh
Narcan training to anyone riding by outside. We try to make it during nice weather. Um, you can see Rep. Ash there. he's always there supporting us. um just showing trying to spread that the knowledge but also the the stigma
that you know having Narcan available um it's only going to save lives and it's it's as simple as any nasal uh plunger you know uh you know I have allergies right now if you're taking those kind of allergies it's the same concept and god forbid if a child or anyone else got a
hold of it and they uh administered it by themselves or to a friend there's going to be no uh side effects it it's safe. We're trying to again change the stigma just like there's a everywhere you see in restaurants, professional build, uh school buildings. We kind of want that to change and I think we the
past year we've seen improvement from compared to five six years. >> Yeah, we even had um so like I don't know if it was the dart program, but I've been seeing like the opioid rescue kits like there's already there's one in the police department. you already had one set up in the library and then we've been um moving along and we've reached
out to the Long Meadow Adult Center. They now have them. The Jewish Community Center now has them. Uh the latest craze has them and First Churches has them as well. >> Mhm. >> So, >> and just 5 years ago we were getting the polite no thank you, you know, come back later. But so again, that it's all changing. Um and it's just to save lives
and >> I credit Ananda and >> well thanks >> for helping getting this going. It was interesting. There was a college student uh doing a project at the end of his senior year and he was he wanted to come
into first church and he was observing sort of older things that were historic in character and blah blah blah. And then he was pointing out the newer things and things that technology things like that that made it feel more
uh current. and he observed that we had the box right below our the Narcan box right below the ad >> the AAD and he he he took a picture of it to bring to give as part of his report but he he just said
>> that's new you know >> but it was it was kind of I was struck that he caught it you know he saw it >> that's awesome >> um before we move on does anybody have questions about the dark program while we're talking about I do. >> Okay. >> Yep.
>> Um, so is it based basically like family would call or do you ever kind of present things in the moment? Like if someone had a DUI and the family showed up on the scene, would you kind of just hand them information or >> um for a DUI normally during the that
timeline, it's mostly alcohol that we deal with, but let's just say it was narcotics, operating the impairment of narcotics. Um, if a clinician wasn't working, they would put the report in the CIT DART inbox. So, myself, Sergeant Lombardi,
Officer Rowley, and the in-house clinician would uh would get it the next day and we would follow up that way. If it was um an emergency, um they would just call us in or we call the clinician in. But generally speaking, um for that
example, that wouldn't be the case on scene. uh it would be more so uh god forbid if there was uh a fatal overdose. Those are the kind of sources we need, you know, the times we need to be >> with the family to provide the proper
services to them. >> Um and again, if they do get transported to the hospital, then that's when uh we just make sure that the hospital is at least aware of all the facts and then we follow up whether it's the next day and so on. >> Okay. So, is it mainly fatal overdoses
or like >> No, it could be honestly it could be a a loved one calling us saying they're suspecting their their family member is using and we'll meet with them and try to gather, you know, more facts again from a humanitarian like out of, you
know, community aspect as opposed to the police aspect. You know, we're separating those two. Um and whatever information we get from there, we'll we'll obviously provide the services to that loved one and then uh make an attempt to speak with the uh involved
party. Sometimes we get the door slammed in our face and sometimes it's actually wellreceived and we make progress. But um we're going to try. >> Okay. Thank you. I have I have so many more questions but I'll interest of time.
That's what I'm here for. >> Yeah, go ahead. No, I want to hear your question. >> Um, so does the family have to ask or or you you kind of just like come >> I I mean we follow obviously the hippo laws and >> um it doesn't have to be family either.
It could be a friend. It could be a school teacher. Um, if someone, again, we're going to use our judgment and our experience and our training, um, and the reliability of the person coming forward with this, but we're, you know, there's no law against going up to someone,
asking, "Hey, are you okay?" and go and seeing where the conversation goes from there. >> Um, >> does the community know that like they can safely ask you to come to their house like that and that you're not going to like arrest their loved one? >> Well, yes. Yes. I mean, the Good
Samaritan law has changed. Um, that's been like nationwide. >> Um, >> and and again, that's why we try to be wearing these type of normal clothes as opposed to our uniform. >> Um, to show that we're not here in a law
enforcement uh criminal capacity. We're here just because we truly care about >> Yeah. >> uh you and we want you to get to get right. We want to get the proper help. You know, it's out there. So these are crisis calls that that you're responding
to >> any call. >> It's community policing. It's it's it's saying, "Hey, we're not just here to rescue. We're here to support you." >> Yeah. And and even so if it was a crisis and again uh I mean the law has changed. I know you've we've talked about this at the high school, a high school student,
uh whether it's alcohol or drugs, though they should call 911. Not they're not going to get arrested. They should know that they're not going to get arrested because in the past they would be fearful that well if I call there's alcohol or drugs here. I'm gonna get arrested too. Even though I'm trying to help out my classmate who's potentially
overdosing or intoxicated. So that I think we're doing a good job spreading that within the schools and hopefully it triggers trickles down to uh adults. But yeah, it's and even if uh let's just say it was,
you know, a call for crisis like you were referring to, there's no CIT or DAR member or clinician available. All of our officers are CIT trained, which is a 40hour a week uh training. Um, again, all grant funded thankfully to pay for
the overtime and the training. But essentially, it's just showing empathy, given time, given space, and understanding the difference between uh a violent criminal or uh a known drug dealer supplying these versus a user who needs help. The combination of the the
mental and drug addiction part of it. And I just have a comment um because I'm and I come from another community but I work in Long Meadow and the relationship that the Long Meadow Police Department has with its residents never feels very
punitive. Never feels like we're out to get you. Um their presence at events K12 re reduces the stigma of kids feeling like I'm going to get in trouble. They know each other's names. Some of our police officers know the students, the
families. It's really a neighborhood feel. You know who lives where, and you know some of the issues that have happened in the past. So, I really could see this community reaching out if they needed help because you've been present in their lives in so many other
non-threatening and pro-active ways. So, I could see why Dart in a community like this would be successful. Um, so I I just thank you for all the work that you do. Your presence at whether it's our lockdowns, our security drills, our just coming to talk to kids, just showing a
presence. It's always there. And then in the future, if these students ever did need help, they I think they know that they could rely and trust that it's not about getting in trouble, it's about getting help. >> Well, thank you for that. And Chief Stocks gives us uh a long leash to make
sure the community knows about that. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention SRO Healey >> um here in the schools. He's doing a phenomenal job as well >> um building those relationships with with the students and building their trust. >> Yeah. And I was at a meeting like this.
I don't know how many years ago it was, but you were there and there were actually students from stand at the meeting and they were able to literally like ask him and he literally looked them in the eye and was like, "You're not going to get in trouble if you call
us because somebody's too drunk to drive." >> And I thought that was like so powerful and so valuable. And so I'm saying that one because he's awesome, but two um because um I'm wondering about getting some stand members to come to some of
these meetings because they're the people who can kind of like get the word out to the other kids. >> Um and then also I just wanted to say remind me afterwards, but like like if Bay Path doesn't have this yet, they should. And if Twin Hills doesn't have
it yet, they should. Um, and I can >> dark program. >> No, no, sorry. The opioid uh absolutely rescue kit. So if those places don't have it, there are some connections that we can make to like make sure that those places have it. >> Great. >> Thank you.
>> So I So my So so you're a teenager or whatever you're 20 and your friends passed out. Where are they they're calling 911 and then you're sent >> to the situation? >> Yes. So in that situation, you know,
again, EMS is going first. First first pull us and EMS together cuz you know, saving life, preserving life. That's the main priority. The second priority would be, >> okay, what happened here again from a noncriminal standpoint, let you know, >> let's get them help, but also let's get
the the calling party potential help. What's going on? So, um, yeah, we're they're probably going to the hospital by the time even if I got the call. If I'm on if I'm working or Sergeant Lombardi or Officer Riley's working, we're going as well. Let's just hypothetically say it's at night and we're not working.
>> Um and we get the call. Even if we we're heading in, >> that person's going to the hospital as soon as possible. >> Um but we will be following up the next day and weeks on weeks on. >> Well, and sometimes an arrest is a
caring thing like >> Yeah, you're right. Like I mean if they don't get arrested in their early stage >> Mhm. >> So yeah >> their bottom is going to be >> Yeah. >> deeper. >> Believe it or not, um in the past there have been officers here who
uh again I'm talking like well over a decade ago, but uh would try to help out the young person um by not arresting. And believe it or not, the parents have complained by not because they would
have got like like to your point, sometimes again, if you're if you're driving intoxicated, it's completely different. You know, you're you're putting on yourself, but you're otherwise in danger. But in terms of the the use, >> um, no, we're we're not going to go criminally for for using at someone's
house. Now, if you're operating a vehicle, that's a completely different story. And the officer, I don't care what department you are across the country, you're going to have to act accordingly. Mhm. >> Um, and that's a great point because you don't want to give breaks to someone. >> No, I remember I remember a young man
who was driving drunk, crashed his car, parent talks the police officer out of it. She goes out and buys the exact same car and replaces it for the kid as if nothing ever happened. And I'm like, >> what did he just learn? You know what I mean? And where is this going to go in
the future? And I think that's where I go. Hey, the arrest is a guarantee. >> Mhm. >> It's the consequence. >> Any other questions >> in in that situation? The courts, they also um you know, if it is a juvenile,
uh I am happy to to say we're in H County as well. Uh because they factor that the age of the offender too. No one wants to ruin a kid's life for >> right >> um for one bad >> decision. >> Um but to your point they need to
whether part of the conditions will hey they get help do some community service >> um and yeah don't do it again you know. >> Yeah. >> So you have to have some kind of tracking you know >> right that's good. >> All right thanks Mike.
Um so for uh the second part of our public um presentation, I just wanted to share out some events, support networks, and campaigns that we have going on for the spring. So um I'm going to be sending out a newsletter probably early next week to just get this to our mailing list, but I've been having this
shared through um the superintendent on his community bulletin board and through the principles at all the schools. So, this is our annual campaign where we try to raise awareness about um preventing underage drinking, especially during prom and graduation. Um, and we're also
trying to just promote like healthy celebrations and um keeping uh less impaired drive like we want to see less impaired driving basically is the the the gist of it. So, um we I will say um we did double the number of homes that
signed up this year which is really exciting. So, very happy about that. I haven't started passing out the signs yet. We were supposed to coordinate with Key Club, but they haven't gotten back to me, but I've been asking them since March. So, we'll see what happens. They have a lot of energy, but I think they
have eight different tasks going at the same time. Um, and then the other thing that we want to make sure parents know about is the Safe Home Network. Um, it's a uh network that Shelley Warren started for the district and um it's very straightforward. It's a directory where
parents um can be part of a network that's been going on for several years that just connects families who are proactive about preventing underage drinking, uh families that share the same standards as you and parents that you can trust. Um so that if your kid is going to hang out at their house, um
makes it easier to have those conversations. If you know somebody's already in the director, you can be like, "Oh, they're not going to think I'm overprotective if I'm asking about alcohol because they signed up already." So we have that. This is going to be a postcard that's going out probably in the over the next couple weeks. Um, and
then this is a new one that we're going to be doing on May 28th. So, there's a group called the SOS Generation and they come here every year and they do a presentation on substance use, um, some stories from young people who are in
recovery. And the two people who run it are both parents who lost a child to overdose. So they have um decades of experience between them of just raising kids um having really sad things happen and living to tell their tale and kind
of share support for other parents. So, what we're going to be doing on May 28th in a virtual format is um Jim who runs who's one of the CEOs is going to be having a basically a talk but mostly a dialogue with any parents who sign up so that it can be like a nuanced
conversation about like kids and drinking and drugs and setting limits and what does that look like and um how do you keep them talking to you? So um and also touching on mental health because they all tend to be related. So um so this is what we have going on for the spring. Um, I did want to say SOS
has really only done work for us on with youth. So, this will be the first time we're using it for parents, but they've been doing this for years. Um, so, uh, Brian over in LCTV, this is the conclusion of our public segment of tonight's presentation. And I thank everybody who was able to join us for
joining us and, uh, thank you very much, Mike, for talking about Dart. I think we need to promote it so that everybody knows more about it. >> Thanks for having me. >> Yeah. Thanks. All right, Brian, are we done? >> You are. >> Okay. Okay.