SALAMANCA — Salamanca Police Chief Troy Westfall announced last week the city Police Department is working with the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (PAARI) to further its addiction outreach and recovery program, Community Connections.

“This is not just happening here in Salamanca, in Gowanda or in Olean,” Westfall said of the opioid addiction epidemic. “It’s all over the United States, so different people are trying to figure out different ways to address the problem.”

Police began the program on March 1 and are following the Arlington Outreach Initiative model. Through this initiative, outreach coordinators contact people they know are struggling with addiction and help them develop a plan for long-term recovery.

“That’s the most popular model, and that’s how we’re starting,” explained Westfall. “We’re trying to get the word out and reach out to these people that we know are users by letting them know that there’s another way.”

As part of the department’s overall plan to combat addiction in their community, police will also look to incorporate the Gloucester ANGEL Program in the coming months.

“This is the really neat situation we have available to us today,” said Chief Westfall. “People who are addicted can come to the police department and basically ask for help. They can get help immediately through us partnering them with treatment providers. This is how we’re going to make it better.”

Seneca Strong and the Gowanda Police Department are collaborating with Salamanca Police to reach out to those struggling with the disease of addiction across the county. Identifying information will be provided to a Seneca Strong Community Connections Outreach Coordinator, who will visit with individuals in need of recovery services and work to get them into a treatment program.

Meetings will also be set up with people struggling with addiction, along with their families and loved ones, to provide a wide variety of services, resources and treatment options. Residents who indicate a need for inpatient services will be paired with treatment and recovery centers locally and from PAARI’s nationwide network.

“I’m very familiar with different organizations that have worked with PAARI, so we’re trying to work with the communities as best as possible,” said Mike Brown, CEO of Sobriety Now, a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center based in Boynton Beach, Fla.

“The biggest challenge is the payment of treatment,” he continued. “But if you ever send someone to a private facility, don’t be scared about the money. They’re all willing to negotiate and willing to figure it out with you.”

Additionally, police began carrying Nasal Naloxone on May 1, 2015, to save lives. In 2015, Salamanca had five fatal overdoses, translating to one death per 1,000 residents, Chief Westfall said.

Working with the Southern Tier Overdose Protection Program (STOPP), a community-based opioid overdose prevention group that distributes Narcan, police were able to get immediate supplies and training to combat the number of overdose deaths occurring in the city. STOPP has pledged to support the Salamanca Police Department with their addiction recovery initiative.

“We know this heroin epidemic has been difficult for all, but our area has been hit particularly hard and we had to do more to get our residents help battling the disease of addiction,” Chief Westfall said. “We’re extremely grateful for our community partnerships with PAARI, STOPP and Seneca Strong, as they give us the tools to implement recovery efforts through Community Connections.”

The combined efforts of the organizations plan to combat the epidemic through five key aspects: prevention through community education, outreach through peers and law enforcement, immediate access to inpatient help, re-integration back into the community and community support after re-integration through community healing circles and peer recovery centers.

“We’re trying to convince users there is a better way to live,” Chief Westfall said. “We are fighting it from both ends—trying to put people in treatment and taking street-level dealers out at the same time.”

Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello and John Rosenthal, co-founders of PAARI, said they are pleased to see Salamanca Police join the national movement to end drug addiction. They applauded Chief Westfall’s commitment to the cause, as it allows more people struggling with addiction to reach out and obtain the resources they need to recover.

Rather than arrest the problem of drug addiction away, PAARI-committed police departments plan to:

PAARI was created by Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello and John Rosenthal to bridge the gap between police departments and those struggling with the disease of addiction. It was launched to support police departments around the nation as they work to help those suffering from the disease of addiction.

(This story appears in the March 10, 2016 edition of The Salamanca Press.)