Preventing Opioid Abuse in New Jersey

Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Richard Stagliano, President & CEO, Center For Family Services, to discuss the programs his organization has initiated to help opioid abuse prevention in New Jersey.

12/13/18 #2182

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"Welcome to One on One. I'm Steve Adubato. And let me introduce, for the first time, Richard Stagliano, who is President and CEO of Center For Family Services. I just found out that his family... now my family... originally from Italy, is from Naples. Yours is from Calabria? Calabria. Yes. And the other combination is? Is Sicily. Sicilian. Now Sicilian... is Sicily still a part of Italy? Oh yes. I'm joking. [laughter] There has not been a secession movement there. No. But we're here to talk about this country, and a particular issue in our country. This is a crisis. The opioid abuse crisis connected to what you're doing at Center For Family Services because it is making a big difference? Yes. Well, let me tell you a little bit about the Center For Family Services first of all. Sure. So we are a multi-service family service organization, and we run more than 70 programs to help children to deal with the chall... children and families to deal with the challenges that they face. Sure. So we do everything from family support programs, domestic violence, sexual assault, behavioral health, Early Head Start, Head Start programs, we're doing everything to help change the odds for disadvantaged children and their families, and also help people that are challenged. We all have challenges in our life, sometimes family and friends can help, but sometimes we need professional help. So that's where we come in. So the opioid abuse crisis, if you will? Yeah. If someone says, "Well, you got to treat that particular patient and take care of that patient" you say, "Yes, but it's more than that"? It's more than that. And it's, you know, we're a supporter of families in how do we help families to deal with issues? What do they need? They need a lot of support, they need a lot of education, and they need a lot of direction and help. You know, people... it's amazing, is all the resources in the community and it's not always enough, but still, people don't know where to turn sometimes. And so it presents a real challenge for them. So just being able to walk with people, help them find their way, is critical to supporting them as they're dealing with someone who's facing a major crisis. Let's go through some of the programs. Yeah. You got peer counseling? Yes we do. What does that look like? So the addiction field has changed dramatically in recent years, you know, 30-40 years ago when I started in this business, in general, there was a lot... not a lot of support and understanding that we... you know, people can recover from addictions, people can get better from mental health issues, and I..."