LYNN — Deputy Police Chief Leonard Desmarais only needed a few words to describe how state money allocated to the Police Department behavioral health unit has altered the opioid addiction landscape.
“This funding has saved people’s lives,” he said.
The unit’s four-woman staff told state Sen. Brendan Crighton and state Representatives Dan Cahill and Peter Capano Monday how drug overdose survivors and their families and people with mental health, as well as drug addiction problems have been helped by the unit and Lynn police.
Launched in 2014 to help stem the opioid addiction tide and overdose deaths and reduce drug-related crime, the unit became a priority for Lynn legislators who successfully secured an annual state allocation that totaled $150,000 this year.
Diversion Coordinator Leighanne Magnarelli, Case Manager Shyra Broughton, Clinical Coordinator Jennifer Waczkowski and Recovery Coach Erin Berecz made contact with 500 clients in 2018 and steered them to recovery and assistance programs.
In addition to the $150,000, the unit also receives $45,000 annually from the state Department of Mental Health and AmeriCorps, the federal volunteer initiative program that pays Berecz’ salary.
Working out of a no-frills office next to the Washington Street police station’s employee entrance, unit employees meet with people who need help. They meet with overdose survivors and addicts’ family members and work alongside police officers responding to calls involving addicted and mentally ill individuals.
Magnarelli said unit workers measure success by counting how many people they can steer into long-term programs designed to help them. Over time, people with addiction and mental health problems have become more accepting of the idea that substance abuse clinicians are working hand in hand with police officers to help them.
One in five clients received extended assistance three years ago. Today, Magnarelli and her colleagues succeed in connecting more than half of their clients with longer term help.
“The officers and people in this office have great relationships,” Police Chief Michael Mageary told Crighton, Cahill and Capano.
Desmarais said working with Magnarelli and her colleagues has expanded the ways officers view the addicted and the mentally ill. They can help steer someone to programs and other assistance before their behavior and actions result in arrest.
Cahill said the unit has been praised by court workers. Mageary said the Lynn legislative delegation’s success in securing state money, including efforts by state representatives Donald Wong and Lori Ehrlich, have sustained the unit into its fifth year.
“The state delegation has been an immense help. We couldn’t do this without the funding,” the chief said.
