By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
“I was literally drinking myself to death,” said Heather Carns.
Recovering alcoholic Heather told a grim story of her last week as a drunk: in and out of three emergency rooms she made a final, desperate phone call to a recently-opened state hotline for addicts. Trained staff take these calls 24/7 at the Rutgers Behavioral Center in Piscataway.
“I didn’t expect there to be somebody on the other line. Somebody did answer here, for that I’m eternally grateful,” she said.
The call led to placement in a rehab program and Heather’s now recovering. She visited the hotline center today and told Gov. Chris Christie, she’s been sober since Dec. 12.
“The significance that she places on Dec. 12 tells you not only how important what we do here is, but it also tells you how desperately she wanted to be helped,” Christie said.
Christie toured the hotline center, which has received more than 45,000 calls since it opened in July 2015 — a quarter of them from families of loved ones struggling with addiction. Heather’s one of 1,100 callers who got coordinated care and treatment. Staff placed 2,200 calls to follow up.
“When people call for help, they don’t encounter some automated phone menu. Instead they immediately receive a live response from a caring UBHC staff member who will connect them to treatment. And if there’s a barrier, UBHC continues to follow up until that person is connected to the care that they need to overcome their addiction,” said Rosemarie Rosati, interim president and CEO for the Rutgers Behavioral Center.
“Setting up this one-call place for people was such an important priority of mine. To have the courage to make that call in the first place is often difficult,” Christie said.
The center staffs other hotlines, including the highly-regarded Vets4Warriors program, which the state now pays for, after the Department of Defense cut its funding. The addiction hotline’s got 21 staffers. One took Heather’s call. Heather now works on a farm.
“I stand here as a testimony that true, happy, lasting and fulfilling recovery is possible,” she said.
The number of calls to this center is increasing rapidly. The program costs state taxpayers $2.6 million. The governor will be asking for an increase in funding for 2017.
To reach the addiction hotline, call 844-276-2777.