I am pleased to share this week’s blog with Clodette Sabatelle member of the Board of Trustees of Community in Crisis, Liberty Corner, NJ.

By Clodette Sabatelle

Volunteers of the Community in Crisis movement announce the launch of their website, www.communityincrisis.org, a much anticipated and needed resource that provides impartial information surrounding addiction and mental health resources, support groups, latest news, tips and facts. The website is a culmination of two years of work and research, assimilating data and materials to present one central ‘go to’ for individuals and families in crisis, from advice for those struggling with their own or a loved one’s addiction to basic facts on the signs and symptoms of substance use disorder that every parent should know. 

Said Clodette Sabatelle, a key player in its creation, “We kept hearing from families and individuals how frustrating it is to find the information they need to help them navigate through their crisis, particularly at a time when many of us would find ourselves vulnerable and easily overwhelmed. There are so many websites in the nonprofit and for profit sectors offering recommendations and information and it certainly makes it difficult to discern what is reliable and impartial and what is self-promoting. This website answers these valid concerns with impartial and objective tools and resources. Special thanks go to Debbie Demcsik Len and Colleen Joyce – we lovingly built this site together.” Community in Crisis volunteers hope that members of the public, as well as professionals and agencies, will visit the website and help promote it. According to the CDC, heroin overdose deaths is now the leading cause of death in the US; in NJ, it eclipses homicide, suicide, car accidents and AIDS as a cause of death and is triple the soaring U.S. rate. “Drug addiction affects us all,” adds Sabatelle. “Until we acknowledge that and turn for help, this epidemic will continue to steal our loved ones away.” Visit also www.facebook/groups/EndOverdoses to join a vibrant community of concerned citizens and professionals.

Our website utilizes the “Before You Prescribe” campaign pictures on our home page as a powerful slide presentation and have gotten great feedback about how powerful that message is!

Who We Are:  

• United in the fight against the pills to heroin epidemic, committed to prevention and recovery. 
• We primarily serve the five Somerset Hills communities: Basking Ridge (Bernards Township), Bernardsville, Bedminster, Far Hills, Peapack-Gladstone.
• Our vision is to be a model community for substance abuse prevention and education: changing lives, enabling futures
• Our mission is to create a community united in fighting the heroin/opiate crisis, reducing the stigma of addiction and preventing overdose deaths.
• We represent a “it takes a village” approach to the opioid epidemic, attacking the problem at the local level by marshaling local resources. Interventions are designed to meet unique community needs and to produce sustainable environmental change
• One of the few community coalitions in NJ singularly focused on the opioid epidemic

You can view our list of accomplishments and goals on our website under the “About CIC” tab on our website to read more about our projects and working groups and how to volunteer for this amazing group of community activities united in fighting the opioid crisis.

Community in Crisis is planning an event in the fall that will incorporate uniting and sharing information among the various Somerset Hills neighboring communities. This event will only be open to the leaders of each community to discuss how we can all work together to fight the pills to heroin epidemic.  To keep abreast of any future events, which there will be many, please continue to visit out website, www.communityincrisis.org, and subscribe to the site on our home page to be sent updates.

Tobin Heath, two time gold medal winner for the USA Woman’s Soccer Team and Ridge High School 2006 graduate, was featured in a PSA produced by Community in Crisis, on opiate abuse. This 30 second video will be aired for the next 52 weeks before each movie shown at Bernardsville Cinema, as a way to educate our communities about the dangers of prescription pain pills which can also lead to heroin addiction. This is a wonderful message that we want to send to everyone, that “denial can be as dangerous as the disease itself”.