On May 18, Hamilton Township officials unveiled a new community response plan to address heroin/opioid issues in the municipality.
As part of the collaborative effort, Mayor Kelly Yaede and her administration have partnered with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, RWJ Barnabas Health, The Overdose Prevention Agency Corporation and the Mercer Council on Alcoholism and Drug Addiction, as well as have contacted Hamilton School District interim superintendent Thomas Ficarra regarding coordinated efforts with the schools. Together with Hamilton’s Police Division and Police LEAD Officers, the Township’s Health Division and the Hamilton Alliance Against Substance Abuse, Hamilton has sought to enhance efforts in addressing heroin and opioid issues.
The collaborative approach includes the ongoing deployment of naloxone through the Hamilton Township Police Division, including Hamilton’s School Resource Officers, working with The Overdose Prevention Agency Corporation and Hamilton’s Division of Health to pursue naloxone training efforts for citizens, township officials and school district employees, implementing a process of presenting overdose victims saved with naloxone and their families with “save” counseling strategies at RWJ Barnabas Health through a coordinated effort with the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, and supplementing prevention efforts in Hamilton’s Public High Schools by providing additional emphasis on heroin and opioids within existing school drug alcohol curriculum. The municipal government also has offered to provide a guest speaker to address high schools students during their existing fall and spring semester drug awareness weeks.
The initiatives would not cost any additional taxpayer dollars, the township said in a press release.
The released added that the new initiatives are in addition to existing substance abuse prevention measures, like the municipal alliance, the police’s LEAD program in schools and the recently unveiled “Project Medicine Drop” collection box, which is available 24 hours a day at the Hamilton Township Police Division Headquarters.
