COURTESY OF CENTERVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
CENTERVILLE – The Barnstable Democratic Town Committee held a forum on the substance abuse epidemic at the Centerville Library last night.
The discussion centered around prevention, treatment, recovery and support.
Elizabeth Albert, Barnstable County’s Director of the Human Services Department, said she hopes the community understands how hard they are working on the epidemic.
“It’s really important for our community to understand that their elected officials and their public servants and their community leaders are all kind of working together to really address this problem,” said Albert.
Susan Rohrbach, district director for State Senator Dan Wolf and a member of the Barnstable County Regional Substance Abuse Council, was the moderator for the event.
Panelists included Albert, Michael Jackman, District Director for Congressman William Keating, Parent Activist Janis McGrory, Recovering Youth Coalition Co-Founder Nate Robertson and Cape Cod Healthcare’s Substance Abuse Prevention Initiative Executive Director Cheryl Bartlett.
Bartlett says the message of the forum is important.
“I think that there’s a lot of negative news out there. There’s also a lot of hope for a lot of people in recovery, trying to make sure we balance our message so that people don’t take this as a hopeless situation,” said Bartlett.
According to statistics from the Barnstable Democratic Town Committee, substance abuse claimed the lives of at least 265 Cape and Islands young people between 2004 and 2014.
