The town of Alexandria has announced itself as the first “recovery friendly community” in the state dedicated to supporting community members by providing resources, treatment programs and making town government a supportive employer.

The commitment “encourages a healthy and safe environment where employers, employees, and communities can collaborate to create positive change and eliminate barriers to those impacted by addiction.”

Alexandria is a small town of about 1,700 people west of Newfound Lake in Grafton County. Like many rural communities, it is not immune to drug addiction.

“Recovery is important and anytime someone dies from an overdose in this town, it’s a failure for all of us,” Alexandria Police Chief David Suckling said. “Other communities should do whatever is right for them but I’ll tell you straight, we’re a small community with a little bit of government, it’s easier to get stuff done. But we are doing what we should be doing – our job as police officers is to save lives.”

At a select board meeting late December, Suckling discussed ways he has worked to promote recovery-friendly programs and asked for wider support from the town.

“The initial push was to make the department recovery friendly, but we’re only three people; why not make the town recovery friendly?” Suckling said in an interview with the Monitor. “We started conversations in the town about it and the select board said it sounded great.”

Another goal is to show another side of policing.

“I am the one that has to deal with it,” Suckling said. “Town officials don’t have the opportunity to deal with people that could be or should be in recovery and it’s time we recognized what we are doing.”

The police department has been working to connect residents with surrounding organizations, distribute Naloxone and get anyone enrolled in same-day recovery programs.

“We can have people into a residential, medicated detox program within a couple of hours,” Suckling said. “A couple of years ago, people came to us asking about recovery and we had no idea how any of it worked.”

Over the last four months, the department has placed six people in local residential detox programs.

Through partnerships with the Plymouth Area Recovery Connection, Communities for Alcohol-and-Drug Free Youth and Mid-State Health Center, the department will continue those in recovery while continuing to take action against drug dealers and drug related crimes in the area.

The Plymouth Area Recovery Connection helps get individuals into treatment the same day while offering peer-to-peer support services, resource navigation, goal planning, education and advocacy. Meanwhile, Communities for Alcohol-and-Drug Free Youth provides counseling services and Naloxone distribution to the police department and promotes recovery-friendly events and outreach materials. Mid-State offers individual support, medication-assisted treatments, outpatient programs and higher level care.

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