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Recovery Champions CEO Ken Weber speaks during an open house on Friday.
FALMOUTH – Kenneth Weber has held high-level jobs in his career, including most recently serving as chief administrative officer of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. But, as someone in recovery from addiction for the last 20 years, he has decided to switch careers to help others in that struggle.
“I really took some time to think about how I wanted to spend the rest of my days on this earth. Given the epidemic that’s happening now and given my experience in the recovery community, I really felt that this is what I really needed to do to try and help folks and try to make a difference,” Weber said Friday in an interview before an opening ceremony at Cape Cod Behavioral Health, a new addiction treatment center in Falmouth.
Weber, executive director of the new center, lives in Falmouth and has raised four children here who have attended Falmouth schools.
But that is not the only reason why he chose to open the facility in Falmouth.
“Falmouth is somewhat of a recovery town. There’s obviously already a treatment provider here. There’s a lot of really good infrastructure in place already for folks getting into recovery, so it seemed like a good place to start,” he said.
Jeanne Flynn stands near a display of photos of her son, Brian, who died from a drug overdose last month.
Gosnold on Cape Cod, the region’s largest addiction treatment facility, is based in Falmouth, but Weber said there is room for more services to help those struggling with the disease.
“We spent a lot of time researching what type of treatment model we were going to provide. We found there’s a real need to not only provide the clinical, the individual counseling and group counseling but also the educational classes, a lot of family work and then to spend time working with people on aftercare and follow up. Also there’s a very real need to incorporate the 12 Steps to Recovery. They’ve been around for 80 years. and proven most effective with folks, so we really wanted to provide that big broad range of services. That’s not something that’s really present here in the northeast,” he said.
Weber will head the new addiction treatment agency, Recovering Champions, which includes both Cape Cod Behavioral Health in Falmouth and the Awakening Lodge in Sandwich.
Cutting the ribbon at the new addiction treatment center, Cape Cod Behavioral Health, are, from left, front, the new center’s CEO Ken Weber, Kent Clarkson, Harry Turner, and Mike Jackman from US Congressman Bill Keating’s office, and, back row, from left, Michael Kasparian, Falmouth Selectman Susan Moran, Lorre-jo Joyce from State Rep. Tim Madden’s office, and State Sen. Vinny deMacedo.
The two principals of the organization are Kent Clarkson, who is a longtime Falmouth police officer, and Harry Turner, who runs a boatyard in Falmouth.
Clarkson’s brother, Troy B.G. Clarkson, is on the board of advisors of the organization.
“Addiction is, I believe, the most pressing public health issue facing us, the community as a commonwealth and as a nation,” Troy Clarkson said, “Every family is touched by addiction, including mine. And so when I was asked to be part of the board to serve as a link to the community, it was an honor for me and something I take very seriously.”
Troy Clarkson spoke to the need for additional services. “I think the need is so acute that there’s enough room for everyone to work together and to provide services. I think the mission and focus of Recovering Champions is a little different from some of what’s available out there, but I think the important fact is that everyone needs to work together and that really there are a lot of people suffering, and so the more resources we can bring to bear to combat that problem, the better off everyone will be.”
Weber said the Recovering Champions will focus on physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health.
The principals of Recovering Champions, the new addiction recovery organization, are Harry Turner and Kent Clarkson.
Cape Cod Behavioral Health is located in the former Police Athletic League headquarters on Brick Kiln Road in Falmouth. Clarkson said that focus on holistic treatment will include healthy nutrition, yoga and 12 step work, “so it really is a broad spectrum of treatment that is designed to really treat all aspects of the disease.”
The Awakenings Lodge, which will provide overnight beds for those in recovery, is located at the former Spring Hill Motor Lodge in on Route 6A in East Sandwich.
Supporters of the Recovering Champions, including Falmouth Selectman Susan Moran and Falmouth Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Michael Kasparian, gathered at the Brick Kiln Road headquarters for an open house last Friday to introduce the organization to the community and to name the basketball court at the site after Brian Flynn, a 26-year-old from Bourne who died last month from an overdose.
Flynn’s mother, Jeanne Flynn, was there for the event, having just come from the bedside of her husband who died that morning from lung cancer. Jeanne Flynn said she learned at her son’s wake how he had helped others.
“It pleased me. It warmed my heart because I know he did enjoy helping people. I only wish he could have helped himself,” she said. “I have been riding on a wave of positivity because as sad as this disease is, we really have come to understand that it is a disease.”
Of her outspokenness after her son’s death, she said, “It is nothing that I’d ever hide. I’m not ashamed of it and I prefer to share it,” she said.
By LAURA M. RECKFORD, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
