Saratoga County starts addiction support program in schools

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Saratoga County is launching a school-based opioid and substance use disorder support program to tackle the rising use of addictive substances and drugs in school-aged children.

“Vapes have a lot of addictive substances in them, some are illegal," Phil Barrett, Chairman of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors, said. "Kids are moving on to other substances as well, there’s gateway drugs that they’re possessing.” 

Certified recovery peer advocates will work directly with school resource officers to provide addiction and substance abuse services.

“One of the things that is going to be critical with this particular program is the ability to approach the kids that are suffering and have the issue with substance use disorders," Captain Daniel Morley said. "The other thing I think that’s critical is the families so they can approach the CRPA about something that’s going on in the family and seek support for that as well.” 

Morley said the connections school resource officers have with students is crucial to this program.

“Once you build trust with somebody, it opens up doors that have been closed for an awful long time and you can’t afford to have them shut again because that’s what the program is predicated on.”  

The program is funded with money from the opioid settlement regional abatement fund through the New York State Office of Addiction Services.

“We identified the problem," Dr. Michael Prezioso, Commissioner of the Saratoga County Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, said. "This project has been underway for a couple of years at this point. So the fact that these resources are available to actually bring it to fruition it’s really critical.” 

As the program is implemented, Barrett said the goal is to provide direct help to schools and tackle addiction before it becomes a wider problem in schools.

“Our schools need help," Barrett said. "Between our SROs, the certified peer recovery advocates, they’re going to have another referral resource and somebody they can depend on to help them.