GREAT BARRINGTON — Twelve years ago, Gary Pratt was struggling with substance abuse; he knew what services were available in the Berkshires, but found them difficult to access. The vast majority of his substance use was in Great Barrington, but he ultimately had to leave the area to get effective treatment.
“I thought I was worthless, I thought I was a junkie, and I thought I was never going to get better,” he told The Edge in a recent Zoom interview before adding: “I was wrong.”
Pratt, who identifies as a person in long-term recovery, is drawing upon his “lived experience” to create change in South County. As project manager of the newly launched Rural Recovery Resources (RRR), he is working to “ensure that people going through what [he] went through [don’t] have to leave their home town to facilitate change in their own lives.”
As a baseline for our conversation, Pratt pointed to a basic, albeit often ignored, truth: “Substance use disorder is a problem that affects the whole community, not just those who are using.” Anyone connected with a user feels the effects of the individual’s choices, and the currents extend into every facet of life for that person and their family. While Pratt has seen a “definite improvement” in the services offered in the area over the past decade, “there is always room for more services, more collaboration.”
Which is where Rural Recovery Resources comes in. Pratt and two colleagues, Adam Post and Jessica Jones, have their sights set on opening a drop-in center for individuals in all stages of recovery, that will expand access to services and help increase prevention using the peer-support model. “Eventually, it will be run by the peers who will be utilizing the services,” Pratt said, noting “nothing like this exists in South County.” The closest comparable organizations are Pittsfield’s Living In Recovery and Beacon Recovery Center in North Adams.
The trio’s efforts began when the South County Opioid Working Group received a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Rural Communities Opioid Response Program grant. The three-year, $1 million grant will fund the peer-support recovery center and also act as a referral hub to connect people to existing services. Jones explained these additional, underlying issues — including unemployment, underemployment, food insecurity, and lack of health insurance — as “compounding” substance abuse. “These things get wrapped up into one another [which is why] being able to refer individuals to cross-sector resources [will] improve people’s lives as a whole along their path to recovery.” Recognizing these underlying issues exist is the first step. Choosing to see, and then acknowledge, these issues is key.
Post, in his position as recovery coach, cut straight to the chase: “Shame and stigma are at the core of every single one of these issues,” he pointed out, noting the “shaky foundation” on which the whole issue is built. Which is why Post, who is a longtime participant in 12-step meetings, is keen on “connect[ing] people to the resources that exist and building new ones.” If someone wants to form a knitting circle, open a coffee shop, or start a band, Post will be on hand to help “thread it all together … [especially] as those things relate to recovery,” he said. The rural nature of Berkshire County means, “surprisingly, there are a lot of people with needs that don’t get met either because they are not aware of what exists,” or there are issues with access. “No ride to get there, think they can’t afford it … we want to connect these people with what they need.”
“We are dealing with a multi-headed monster, [it’s] not just the substance — it’s everything attached to it,” said Pratt. The conversation is changing, but slowly. Jones noted that individuals in recovery are still “being shunned, [and] thought less of by [their] community.” Which is why, at the root of this work, lies stigma reduction — something Pratt calls “the absolute foundation of what we are doing, [and] why we exist.”
Instrumental to their mission will be acting as a bridge between agencies to facilitate connections. Rural Recovery Resources is working with four funded partners: Railroad Street Youth Project, which is acting as the fiscal sponsor; The Brien Center; Fairview Hospital; and Berkshire Community College (which together form the South Berkshire Opioid Consortium).
Unfunded consortium partners include, among others, Tapestry Health, Healthy Steps, Berkshire County District Attorney’s Office, Volunteers in Medicine, Southern Berkshire Community Health Coalition, Family Resource Center, Health Resources In Action, Great Barrington Health Department, Centers for Motivation and Change, Community Health Programs, Great Barrington Police Department, and Southern Berkshire Volunteer Ambulance. Post breaks the goal into bite-sized pieces, a process that begins with “establishing a presence, on the ground, and forming relationships. It’s a broad task, but that is the idea — and we will learn more about what is needed as we get going.”
Pratt likened it to “Nothing for us without us.” This does not mean that one need have “lived experience” with addiction or recovery to be an advocate for this work, but it helps. If the opioid crisis wasn’t evident prior to March 2020, COVID-19 has brought it into sharp focus. Pratt admits to not being able to comprehend “this [recovery] journey without the interpersonal connection that [one] build[s] in a face-to-face meeting.” For him, that kind of connection was “essential.”
Still, across the County, individuals are having to navigate the road to recovery with strict COVID-19 protocols in place, many of which preclude in-person meetings. Pratt and Post are hosting all-recovery meetings on Zoom, every Thursday, at 7 p.m. In-person meetings, at RSYP headquarters at 60 Bridge Street in Great Barrington, will take place every other Friday at 7 p.m. (the next is slated for February 12). Strict COVID protocols will be in place, and meetings are limited to 10 participants, including facilitators. For more information, view the Rural Recovery Resources Facebook page, where additional information, including a Zoom link for tonight’s meeting, is located.
As to next steps? “We are looking for a physical space in Great Barrington, on the bus route,” Pratt said of their ideal situation. In the meantime, there is a salient takeaway to share: “There is no wrong door to recovery,” Pratt said. “Twelve-step recovery works; SMART Recovery (Self-Management and Recovery Training) works, so does medication-assisted recovery, so does abstinence.” It’s a sentiment with which Post agrees. “There are multiple pathways to recovery; that is what we stand for.”
