The Trenton Times published the following article on February 8, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton substance abuse facility director helps provide Methadone treatments for Sandy victims

By Alyssa Mease/The Times of Trenton 
on February 08, 2013 at 7:45 AM

TRENTON — During Hurricane Sandy, not only did Jersey Shore residents lose power, food, drinking water and other needed supplies, but a few people struggling with heroin addiction could not get their usual methadone treatments, prompting the state to deploy an emergency mobile treatment unit for the first time, officials said yesterday.

Luis Nieves, executive director of New Horizons Treatment Services on Perry Street said his center currently helps about 800 recovering addicts, so when Hurricane Sandy made landfall last October, he barely realized there was a shortage of methadone in Ocean County.

But when the Red Cross called the state Department of Human Services about 35 people in a Toms River shelter who needed methadone treatment just three days after the giant storm hit, assistant commissioner Lynn Kovich said she knew exactly who to call to get the medication delivered.

Nieves, with a team of people, deployed the first-ever emergency response mobile medication unit to deliver methadone to active and recovering addicts in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The unit was awarded to New Horizons in a contract through the Medication Assisted Treatment Initiative (MATI), in 2006, Nieves said.

Ed Higgins, executive director of Jersey Shore Addiction Services in Neptune, drove to a shelter in Ocean County to help facilitate the mobile unit’s arrival, Kovich said. Because nothing like this had ever been done, she said there were no protocols in place and they did not know how it would work.

“This has been such a remarkable off-the-cuff partnership that happened in a matter of hours,” Kovich said.

Michael Hanlon, clinical director at New Horizons, said his team needed to prepare for any situation. They called local police to deal with the issue of dispensing drugs in a drug-free school zone, they brought another vehicle to transport higher-need patients to hospitals and they worked with shelter officials to assure clients that they would not be arrested or discriminated against for receiving treatment.

“We were prepared for really anything and everything,” Hanlon said.

Before Hurricane Sandy, the mobile unit only made scheduled stops to dispense medications to intravenous drug users, according to New Horizons.

Steven Jackson sometimes drives the mobile unit to areas in Camden, and offered to drive to the Toms River shelter.

He said he didn’t know what to expect after the hurricane, and conditions were worse than he imagined.

“It was really overwhelming to me once I got down to Toms River. I’m an ex-police officer, a military man, so I’ve been to a lot of operations, what have you. But when I got down there and saw those cots stacked next to each other, I realized there was definitely a need,” Jackson said.

Higgins said that, in his forty years of experience, he has never seen anything like the success of this mobile unit. He said he worked to find treatment facilities, temporary housing and methadone for a number of people over the course of his time in Ocean and Monmouth counties.

The majority of people he helped were not receiving any treatment at the time, and he helped see them through the process of entering rehabilitation programs. About 20 people he helped are currently receiving treatment for their addictions, he said.

“I was just happy and proud to be a part of this team,” Higgins said. “Out of the worst of circumstances, the best things happened.”

Contact Alyssa Mease at amease@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5673.