Coastal Horizons’ Quick Response Team was started in 2018. It works in tandem with community agencies and paramedics to assist individuals and families impacted by the opioid epidemic.
It’s connected over 480 people to treatment so far.
Now, on August 31 of each year, they honor those who passed away due to an overdose, encourage people to seek treatment for drug use and aim to destigmatize addiction in the community.
This year, families and advocates met at Hope Recovery Church to enjoy live music and free food — and spread hope for individuals and families affected by addiction.
Many support and recovery groups pitched their tents to do outreach. The groups included Foster Pantry Inc., SEEDS of Healing Inc., and RHA Health Services.
Jason Black, Coastal Horizons program director of adult residential and community treatment services, said the Quick Response Team is here to offer help in whatever way people need, whether that is assisted treatment, detox, or recovery groups.
They also offered free Narcan for attendees.
“Our peer supports are kind of the backbone of what we do,” Black said. “People who have been through addiction and are in recovery, they go out, they meet people wherever they are in the community. And let them know what the treatment options are.”
Representatives from Launch Pad Inc. were also in attendance. Their organization provides structured, sober living for men and women, ages 18 and up.
Will McSwain, the admissions and recovery program coordinator, says they were proud to be out in the community because “addiction doesn’t discriminate,” and events like these provide a great opportunity to reach out to many.
“It can happen as innocently as someone going to the doctor because they get hurt and they end up addicted to pain medication,” McSwain said. “But you know, it's your sons, and daughters, and co-workers. It's not just a ‘wrong side of the tracks' kind of thing.”
Launch Pad housing manager Jim Wells said in addition to raising awareness about the lives claimed by overdoses, being out in the community also shows people in recovery that sobriety may not only be a productive lifestyle, but it can also be fun.
“This is our way to come and show support for the people who have passed away, but also to show the people who are still here that there is another way, you can have fun in recovery,” Wells said. “Part of being in recovery is learning how to live differently.”
Overdoses are a reality for many living in recovery, Wells said. His residents often have to cut ties to the people and resources that enable their addiction for that reason.
Basil Stephens, a 37-year-old resident at Prodigal Recovery NC, Inc., said he lost many friends back home in Elizabethtown, NC, to overdose. Which is why he left home to start on his path to recovery two years ago.
Stephens said he’s doing well for himself now, working as a landscaper and making enough income to start scoping out a place of his own.
He said events like this make resources and support more accessible.
“We need more to be honest with you, [addiction’s] real out here… It's taking lives,” Stephens said.
McSwain echoed that belief.
“There needs to be more resources, and hopefully some more programs can be set up to help people access care,” McSwain said. “Some people are just not able to access it without having the funds to do so. So more funding and more low or no cost programs for people, I think would be a really big help.”
Black says one way people can destigmatize addiction and support community members and loved ones who may be in treatment is by learning how to administer Narcan in case of an overdose.
He says QRT holds monthly Narcan administration training, but if further treatment is needed he urges people to contact the quick response team at 910-833-2052.
“We're all human,” Stephens said. “Some look down on people just because you say you got an addiction. I say we are the same in God’s eyes, but the ones in addiction I truly pray for every day.”
