PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The possibility of establishing a new addiction recovery center, modeled after a successful Holyoke program, and potentially sited at the underutilized George B. Crane Memorial Center, was explored at a public forum held at City Hall on Thursday.

 

During a one-hour presentation attended by about 20 area residents, representatives from the "Hope for Holyoke" Peer Recovery Center described their approach in providing a variety of support services for those struggling with addiction and other issues as well.

 

"Much like what I know about Pittsfield,  [in Holyoke] there certainly is an epidemic rate of both opiate use and overdose," said Program Director Deborah Flynn-Gonzalez. "I was struck the differences, and yet the similarities."

 

Flynn-Gonzalez said their facility, a subsidiary of the Gandara Center, first opened in 2015 as simply "Holyoke Recovery Support Center," and it's current name was decided upon later in the same manner as all other major issues: by the peer members who frequent it and participate in programs there. 

 

"No decision is made without the peers," she explained. "It really is something unique to see — this process means that not only are they participating in the services that are sustaining their life and giving them a better quality of life, for themselves — they're making the decisions for the center itself."

 

Such decisions include how to spend budget funds, what kind of programs the center will host, the mission statement for the center, and its internal rules of conduct. The center's peer members even have an active role (and veto power) in all hiring decisions for the center's paid personnel, which currently consists of four staff members.  

 

Gandara's Hope for Holyoke facility now has about 250 members, with about "25 to 40" actively running the center at any given time. The amount of the work that's done by these members allows the center to be open seven days a week and offer a packed schedule of programs and services.  

 

"We're not really doing it — we're just there to facilitate it starting, and then it takes care of itself," according to Flynn-Gonzalez.

 

Those who use the center, she said, benefit from the informal, nonthreatening environment and the experience of the members involved.

 

Aside from this peer-participatory process, another key component to the center's philosophy is "an acceptance of all pathway of recovery," rather than an endorsement of any one recovery method, such as the 12 Step process. Recovery is seen as "a very individual process," and not strictly defined. Multiple groups and recovery modalities are part of what is offered, based entirely by the democratic choices of the members.

 

Flynn-Gonzalez said the peer network established by these practices has been key to their success in helping people get clean and stay clean. The members create their own exponential support structure for each other.

 

"They become this safe network of people that can better navigate the community together without relapsing,"  she concluded.  "If there's one thing I can impart, it's that recovery succeeds or not based on the social relationships."

 

The presentation on Hope for Holyoke comes amidst a convergence of two ongoing local conversations; growing concerns over the region's inadequate resources to combat the current national opiate epidemic, and the quest to maximize the potential of the George B. Crane Center on Linden Street, an addiction-oriented facility that is mostly vacant space and underutilized.  

 

For several months, management of the Crane building have been reaching out to find the correct fit of partnerships to ensure use and financial sustainability for the facility, and organized Thursday's forum with the help of Mary McGinnis, a registered nurse at McGee and local human services activist.

 

"I'm on the clinical end of this, but I'm also a human being seeing some of the sad things that are happening to people in our community," said McGinnis, who said such a center would be possible for Pittsfield but will take vocal advocacy from residents.  

 

Some expressed cautiously favorable feedback to the idea of adapting the peer-driven recovery center model in Pittsfield.

 

"It feels a lot of times in Pittsfield like we're trying to fill the gaps [in services]," said Northern Berkshire Community Coalition Director Adam Hinds. "This would give them and address to go to."  

 

City Councilor Chris Connell recommended that they try to assemble some comparative data on the financial costs of this against the economic toll incurred by the state due to the lack of recovery services.

 

"We're dealing with human beings, obviously, but it seems like the only thing that people really understand when it comes to grants and earmarks is money," Connell said. "So if they can see that somebody going through this is going to be successful and that will save X amount of dollars per person, I think that's a big sell."

 

"We're also looking at collaboration, and programs that are already in place that we could work with, and also have them in the building," McGinnis added.   

 

McGinnis believes this to be a good fit for the Linden Street structure, which currently has a variety of finished meeting and office spaces used only for a few AA and other program meetings each week. Other portions of the building interior are still being gradually finished and the struggling center, founded by the SIOGA Club, is anxious to find a purpose and a sustainable plan for the future.

 

"We just need to be a squeaky wheel on this, because it's a new concept," she concluded.