We are honored to have hosted Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Dr. Rahul Gupta for part of his visit to New Jersey to meet with public health providers and learn about our work in reentry and addiction treatment. The Director met with our Safe Return and Navigator team, IMPACT (Immediate Mobilization of Police Assisted Crisis Teams) partnership police chiefs, the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office of New Jersey and more to hear about the IMPACT program’s successful outcomes and plans for expansion.
Dr. Gupta also held roundtable discussions with elected officials and representatives from Hackensack Meridian Health at our Stephen A. Shultz Program Development and Training Center.
The overall goal of Dr. Gupta’s visit was to learn about reproducible intervention strategies for people who need treatment and recovery services to overcome substance use disorders.
According to Dr. Gupta, people discharged from prison without having addiction treatment services are at a 40 times greater risk of an overdose when reentering their community. With treatment, that rate falls by 85 percent.
Our IMPACT program makes it possible for many more people to receive the treatment and services they need, and in many cases, divert them from the criminal justice system.
VOADV staff and partner police chiefs shared these success stories with Dr. Gupta, as well as the statistics exemplifying the success of the IMPACT program. While nearly 75% of police referrals for services resulted in people being connected to services, it was the personal stories of those encountered by program staff and law enforcement officers quickly receiving the help they need that made the true impact.
View more information on IMPACT’s successful outcomes from FY2022 here.