Catholic Charities Participates in Massachusetts Trial Court and New England Association of Drug Court Professionals Drug Court Conference

Portland, ME - The New England Association of Drug Court Professionals (NEADCP) Board of Directors, the Massachusetts Trial Court, the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services of the Mass. Department of Public Health, and the Department of Mental Health convened their joint annual Conference on Specialty Courts in New England at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough, MA on November 16 and 17.

Carolee Lindsey, Director of Co-Occurring and Substance Abuse Services at Catholic Charities Maine (CCM) is a Board Member of the organization and attended the conference noting, “Both regional and national Adult Drug Court intervention practices  continue to grow, evolve, and develop in the areas of evidenced based practices. Appropriate team interventions, following these best practices, leads to successful recovery and quality of life for many who otherwise would have been lost in the morass of addiction and criminality.”

Lindsey attended with fellow staff from Catholic Charities Maine who participate with both the Androscoggin Adult Drug Treatment Court (ADTC) and Cumberland County ADTC programs. Catholic Charities Maine holds the state contract to administer the behavioral health services component for the ADTC program in these two counties.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Where Justice and Treatment Meet-Regional Approaches to Tackling the Opioid Crisis.” Over 450 judges, probation officers, defense attorneys, prosecutors, law enforcement professionals, treatment providers, recovery support advocates, local and state leaders and elected officials attend from six New England states.

Drug courts have been definitively proven to save lives and money by applying the 10 key drug court components to justice-involved individuals with drug or alcohol dependence. Overseen by a judge, each drug court team consists of a prosecutor, public defender, case manager(s), drug and alcohol abuse counselors, law enforcement, jail personnel, mental health counselors (in the case of a mental health or co-occurring court) and probation/parole officers.

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