MORRIS COUNTY, NJ – Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon and the Morris County Hope One team will be presenting their model Hope One mobile outreach program to attendees of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference this weekend.
The conference, scheduled to run Saturday through Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, is held annually to allow police organizations and others to share the latest techniques and best practices in community policing. The event is being held virtually.
Morris County Hope, which has been a model program nationally, will present “Hope One as a Dynamic Co-Responder Model to Address Behavioral Health Concerns in Your Community.”
Hope One is a mobile outreach vehicle that travels throughout Morris County, New Jersey, offering critical support for persons and families struggling with addiction and mental health. The team also provides Naloxone (Narcan) education, training and kits free of charge to family members and friends of those suffering from opiate addiction. Since its launch on April 3, 2017, Hope One has made stops at 689 locations with 23,242 contacts, of which 4,413 residents were supplied with the lifesaving antidote, Narcan.
To date, eighty-one (81) people have reported using their Narcan kits to save or attempt to save a life. Over 500 people have been connected to life-changing services for mental health and substance use disorders.
“There is no secret that across America and beyond, this opioid epidemic was happening, and we wanted to make a difference. So, what do we need to do? We need to focus on the at-risk population, and the second and final piece is bringing services to them. That’s it. It’s not complicated,” Gannon said.
The Morris County Sheriff’s Office, in partnership with the Morris County Department of Human Services, the Mental Health Association of Essex & Morris and Morris County, Prevention is Key, and their Center for Addiction Recovery Education and Success (CARES), staffs the unit with a plain-clothes Sheriff’s Officer, a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist and a Mental Health Professional.
In 2019, this team was awarded the IACP, Michael Shanahan Cooperation in Public and Private Partnership Award.
The Morris County Sheriff’s Office Hope One Project is proud to introduce the following replicated programs in New Jersey: Hope One Atlantic County, Hope One Burlington County, Hope One Cape May County, Hope One Hunterdon County, Hope One Monmouth County, City of Newark Hope One, Hope One Passaic County and Hope One Warren County. This simple but effective model brings services to the client.
To learn more about the Hope One Project, click here.
