Through HARP, Manchester PD Helping Addicts Get Aid In Breaking Free Of Drugs

MANCHESTER, NJ — In four months, the Brick Township and Manchester Township police departments have seen more than 160 people decide to seek help beating their addiction through the Heroin Addiction Response Program.

Now the HARP program, which has operated on Wednesdays in Manchester and Thursdays in Brick, is expanding and at the same time getting a new name, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato announced Friday.

HARP will now be known as the Blue Hart — Blue Heroin Addiction Recovery & Treatment — program, Coronato said, and the Stafford Township Police Department is joining, offering a third site for those who've decided to seek help. Beginning Tuesday, those seeking help breaking their addiction can go to the Stafford police department, which is working with Ocean Mental Health Services in Manahawkin and Bayville.

The Brick police department works with Preferred Behavioral Health in Lakewood, while Manchester police work with Integrity House in Toms River.

Blue HART, which initially began on Jan. 9, is designed to go beyond the prosecutor's office's proactive Narcan and recovery coach program measures to offer substantial diversion help in order to reduce the impact of heroin and opiate abuse in Ocean County, Coronato said.

The premise of the program is simple: any person who voluntarily goes to the police departments in Brick Manchester or Stafford and requests help with addiction to heroin or opiates, or any substance, is screened for potential participation in the program, without threat of facing charges or jail, Coronato has said.

Though the program is primarily designed to apply to people who come to the station, an officer who encounters a person outside the police station and who believes they would benefit from Blue HART has the discretion to the bring them in if the person consents to the voluntary screening process, he said. Once a person is screened, the person is taken to the designated provider as soon as reasonably possible, he said.

It works in part "thanks to the generous commitment of Behavioral Health and Integrity House," and now, Ocean Mental Health Services as well.

Photo by Karen Wall