Recovery Capital
By Albert B. Kelly
Roughly a week ago, I stood with various officials and
stakeholders for the dedication of what will be the Cumberland County Capital
Recovery Center at 72 N. Pearl Street opening in early 2020. At first glance
the name can cause confusion. Say the word “capital” and the first things that
come to mind is money and finance. But in the world of addiction and recovery,
the word “capital” is really about what people have to fall back on in
recovery, assets such as family, friends, spiritual life, and work to name a
few- basically their “village”.
I mention “village” because in so many areas of life these
days, making progress or achieving success takes an assemblage of people in
one’s orbit who care, however limited it may be. I know for some, the sentiment
of “the village” sounds like some lefty notion that reeks of a lack of personal
responsibility but it’s not, especially in a day and age when so many live without
the support and sense of stability that my generation got from home, family,
marriage, religion, work, and friends.
The Capital Recovery Center, and what it might offer, comes
at a time when our society is being shredded by drug overdoses- mostly from
Heroin and Fentanyl. Just focusing on our immediate area, in the six years from
2012 through 2017, Cumberland County saw 241 overdose deaths from drugs. For
comparison purposes, in Gloucester and Salem Counties for that same period, the
numbers were 456 and 76 respectively.
Over and against the overdose numbers, according to the New
Jersey Department of Health, from 2013 through 2017 the number of our residents
that were first-time admissions for substance abuse treatment was 12,795 with
43% of those seeking treatment for addiction to heroin or some other opiates. The
number of first-time admits in Gloucester County during that time was 19,632
(55% for opioids) and in Salem County the number was 4,147 (44% for opioids).
Whatever the numbers tell us about the size of the problem and
whatever we choose to see in those numbers, the reality is that we’re losing
far too many souls to the ravages of substance abuse. We now know that relapse
is a common occurrence on the road to recovery and it can be a life-long
struggle. So there is a need for whatever patchwork of services we can cobble
together at the local level, something that can be difficult in the best of
times.
The addicted and those in recovery have never been a
sympathetic lot to begin with so there are too few programs out there to help
and of the programs that do exist, many are chronically underfunded. Another challenge
is the number of programs out there that exploit addiction. There’s a lot of
money to be made off of addiction and the country is littered with programs
that find creative ways to bill insurance or Medicaid while delivering very
little of value to those in need.
Locally, we’re fortunate to have programs and people who are
committed to progress. For one thing, Inspira opened its 20-bed acute alcohol
and drug detox unit a couple of years ago now under the leadership of Dr. Kaitlan
Baston, M.D., a board- certified addiction medicine specialist serving as the medical
director for the inpatient unit and its various programs. If we can achieve a
degree of coordination between Inspira, the Capital Recovery Center, and the
mobile Recovery on Wheels program we can make meaningful progress.
The hope is that the Capital Recovery Center might serve as that
flexible resource to fill-in the gaps not addressed by treatment programs
whether inpatient or outpatient. To be clear, the Capital Recovery Center will be
a community-based support program not a treatment facility. It will help
individuals in their recovery, and families, by assisting them with everything
from organizing personal finances and navigating the web of social services, to
getting health referrals, obtaining a GED, or simply being a shoulder to cry on.
That’s no small thing.
The more recovery capital a person has the greater the
chances that the person will succeed in their recovery long term. For those
with little capital of their own, my hope is that the Center will provide what
might be considered the equivalent of start-up capital with their small but
dedicated staff being the ones to guide, coach, encourage, exhort, and cheer
those working on recovery. The needs are great- I wish them much success.