Rick Huber

JAMESTOWN – The number of people using heroin and opioids in Chautauqua County hasn’t gone down this year, but it hasn’t grown either.

That’s the assessment from Rick Huber from the Mental Health Association (MHA) in Chautauqua County, who took time out this week to stop by WRFA’s Community Matters program and give us an update on the state of drug addiction and recovery in our area for 2017.

Huber, who serves as MHA director of new program development, said based on the number of individuals who’ve come into the MHA so far this year it appears that heroin use has leveled off, although there has been an increase in the number of users for another dangerous drug…

“Heroin seems to have leveled off, but it has not not decreased by any stretch and we’re still seeing a number of fatal overdoses, even with Narcan available as it is,” Huber said. “But we’ve seen meth really on the rise and now we’re hearing things about marijuana cut with fetynal, cocaine, and we’re still seeing crack out there, so it hasn’t slowed down any, from our view point, at all.”

When it comes to tracking the number of deaths that heroin has caused in Chautauqua County, Huber says that remains a challenge, partly because of the county doesn’t have its own medical examiner to investigate the specific cause of death.

“It’s the structure within our county, where we have county coroners instead of a medical examiner that things can come out of,” Huber said. “I know Christine Schuyler, Chautauqua County Director of Health and Human Services, is really trying to get a handle on this and get us some accurate statistics on this because we really need that to help fight this battle.”

For the first half of 2017, the local MHA has had 8500 total visits with 411 separate individuals coming into the facility seeking peer services.  The MHA Has assisted 359 gaining access to treatment or medical services, 67 gaining employment, seven enrolling in college, 13 gaining their GED, and 130 gaining stable housing.

For more information on the MHA, stop by the facility at the Gateway Center at 31 Water Street or call (716) 661-9044.

The complete interview with Huber will be rebroadcast this weekend at noon on Sunday. It will also be posted online at our website early next week.

According to a media release from Senator Cathy Young, the Olean Republican was able to secure a $350,000 capital grant in the state budget to establish a supportive housing program at WCA Hospital’s Jones Hill location in Jamestown.

Young said the new program will be a big step towards addressing the region’s opioid and heroin epidemic, placing people with addiction problems in a specialized housing facility instead of the county jail.

Young said that Southern Tier Environments for Living Inc. (STEL) – a private, non-profit agency that has been providing rehabilitative and support services to people with psychiatric disabilities in Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, and Allegany Counties for over 30 years – is working on developing the new program for supportive housing for the mentally ill and those with chemical abuse disorders who have entered the corrections system in Chautauqua County. She also said she will personally advocate for the supportive housing project to make it through the final approval process.

According to Young, the initiative will give people struggling with addiction alternatives to incarceration – while also helping alleviate overcrowding at the county jail that is costing local taxpayers about $1 million a year.

During Monday night’s Jamestown City Council Work Session, Rick Huber of the Mental Health Association of Chautauqua County spent more than half an hour talking with city officials, providing information on his program and explaining why it’s needed in the ongoing fight in the local war on drugs.

Huber said drug addiction – especially for heroin – is a growing and continuous problem throughout Chautauqua County. He said he’s currently working with the county in trying to reduce the number of addicts who are arrested and put in jail.

“The first part of the program that we recommended that they do is a jail diversion program for people with mental health issues and addictions,” Huber said. “Not your deals. The chief and I have talked about that. They are where they belong and need to stay there. But the addicts are who we need to get.”

Currently, the Mental Health Association is working on developing a self-sustaining jail diversion program where addicts will have an alternatives to being sent to jail.

They would come into a program where they would spend six days a week, eight hours a day in classes and groups,” Huber said. “They would  be going to their therapists, they would see their medical doctors and they would receive programming to reduce the addiction that they have.”

He added that currently, the jail diversion program has a success rate of more than 70 percent, although it is only working on a limited basis.

The initial cost of expanding the jail diversion program so that it can fully address the current needs in the community would be $250,000 to $300,000. But Huber emphasized that once it’s up and running the program would be self-sustaining. He also said that his program is not seeking funding from the city, but instead is just looking for support. He’s hoping that local and regional foundations along with funding from Albany will provide financial support to help seed the project.

Huber said the Mental Health Association is also looking into opening up a long-term rehab facility for Chautauqua County. It would be a self-funded, long-term detox facility for recovering addicts who live in the community. The initial cost would be $1.5 million to primarily help pay for a work component, which would provide jobs for those enrolled in the program as well as a stream of revenue to help pay for the cost of running it.

City officials said they would like to offer support. Council president Greg Rabb instructed Huber to seek an endorsement for his proposed projects from the Strategic Planning Commission’s Health Task Force and to also provide city officials with an outline containing more details of each program so they can return with any questions they may have.