SWAMPSCOTT — The Police Department is inviting young people and their parents to attend a community event dedicated to addiction and substance abuse prevention on April 25.
“We really want to encourage any and all parents and children, high-school- and middle-school-age students to come and just either sit and listen or have some questions answered or take a more participatory role in learning about the addiction process and what we can do to help avoid addictive lifestyle behaviors,” said Officer Brendan Reen, one of the organizers of this public forum.
During the discussion, the organizers are planning to highlight the ways addictive substances are affecting the brains of young people, talk about substance-use prevention strategies, especially for opioids, and discuss the harms of vaping.
The event will take place at Swampscott High School on April 25, at 6:30 p.m. It is organized with the assistance of Essex District Attorney’s Office, Swampscott Public Schools and School Resource Officer Brian Wilson.
The forum will kick off with a presentation from Addiction Policy Forum (APF), a national network that is working to end stigma around addiction, help patients and families in crisis and translate the science around addiction.
“The Addiction Policy Forum has many excellent resources to help students and their parents understand addiction and the importance of delaying the first use of alcohol and drugs,” said Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, who is the chairman of the board of directors of the APF. “I’m pleased that Swampscott is taking advantage of these resources, particularly as prom and graduation season approaches.”
The presentation will be followed by an open discussion with several panelists, including Blodgett; James Nicholson, a nurse practitioner from the complex addictions team at the Lynn Community Health Center; Amanda Rivers, a school district nurse; a former Swampscott High School student who was able to overcome the opioid addiction and his mother; and a local firefighter Chris DiPietro, whose brother died of a drug overdose.
“This is close to (the) heart for me,” said DiPietro, who found his deceased brother and has been carrying the weight of his passing ever since.
Anyone whose family member is struggling with addiction and doesn’t know what to do, said DiPietro, should fight the hurdle of embarrassment and stigma and seek out help. The Police and Fire departments are ready to speak to people, listen, and share available resources.
Overdoses in Swampscott more than doubled in the last four years from six in 2018 to 13 in 2021, according to the Essex County Critical Incident Management System. However, there were no fatal overdoses in the town in the last two years.
“We had a lot of Narcan saves,” said Reen, who is a part of the Police Addiction Assistance Recovery Initiative (PAARI). “If that is one extra day that a person has to maybe seek treatment or get into treatment, it is one less fatality and one less family that is forever affected from a fatal overdose.”
As a part of this network, Reen does follow-ups with the family and the person who overdosed in the days after the incident to try to introduce them to available resources, such as a recovery coach or a detox bed to go to.
Officers come across all types of people struggling with substance-abuse disorders, Reen said, regardless of their socioeconomic status or education.
“What we have come to realize is that it seems that everyone knows of someone who has struggled with addiction, whether it is a family member, friend or a former classmate,” said Reen. “We need to reduce the stigma that is associated with addiction and, particularly, opioid addiction.”
The goal of the forum and discussion with young people is to help prevent opioid issues from developing, Reen said.
“We don’t wait for someone to have stage four cancer or some other horrific disease before we start to try to provide some intervention and assistance. That is the same case here,” said Reen. “We need to get on the front side of this and provide resources and support to help avoid long-term addiction behaviors.”
