MC Sheriff bringing back pre-pandemic resources to help people struggling with addiction

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is pushing through the pandemic and finding ways to help people with addiction.

In January, News Center 7 reported, after two years of decline Montgomery County saw an increase in overdose deaths in 2020.

Now, the department is trying to change that for 2021 and beyond.

Inside the Montgomery County Jail Kristen LaCaze is working to keep people out and alive.

Through the Peer Support program, she meets with inmates and people struggling with addiction in the community and connects them with resources to help them heal. This is something she didn’t have when she was in the jail on drug charges in 2014.

“It’s really important to me,” LaCaze said. “What I experienced here I can change that for other people and hope that they’ll have more support when they get out, and they’ll feel more comfortable talking to me because we’ve been through the same situations.”

LaCaze has been sober for four years and has been working as a peer supporter for almost three years.

“It means everything to me. It’s the first positive thing I’ve been able to do for my addiction. There was so much negative and hurt and this is me being able to help others heal,” LaCaze said. “It helps me heal too and it reminds me what I could go back to and we just help each other out.”

The pandemic changed the way she was able to do her job.

“We have been able to bend with it and help others still through emails and seeing them non-contact,” LaCaze said.

Though she was able to continue the Peer Support program throughout the pandemic, the sheriff’s office had to stop or cut back on other services that help people with substance abuse. The shift happened at a time when people were unemployed, isolated, and dealing with mental health issues.

“All of that stuff just combined to now as we start to come out of this pandemic, we had 322 deaths in 2020. Well, we’ve got to get that number back down again,” Montgomery County Sheriff Rob Streck said.

That is why his office is bringing back its pre-pandemic programs.

“We’ve got to be out in the community. We’ve got to have people like Kristen and peer support in the jail, letting people know the dangers,” Rob Streck.

He also wants to see people stay out of trouble by providing them with treatment or services instead.

“The best thing I can do is find a way to keep people out of my jail,” Sheriff Streck said. “We want people to remain in the community, have productive lifestyles as opposed to being brought to the county jail every couple of weeks because of a mental health episode or substance abuse issue.”

Cox Media Group