UPDATE: Seaside Heights Mayor On Son's Heroin Overdose: 'I Wish I Had Another Day'

Family and friends of those addicted to heroin or prescription pain killers often do not know where to turn for support or help.

The Mental Health Association in New Jersey has launched a telephone support line to be a resource: NJ Connect For Recovery, a confidential 24-hour service to help those struggling with addiction.

Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers says he wishes it had been available sooner.

The Asbury Park Press reported that Akers spoke Tuesday at the announcement of NJ Connect for Recovery about his family’s pain at the loss of his 29-year-old son, William R. Akers, who was found dead of a heroin overdose in October.

“You’re looking at the face of what happens,” Akers said, according to the Press’s report. “We have to get the message out, this is not a private, family issue. It’s a community issue, it’s a town issue, it’s a state issue. It affects everyone and you need to talk about it.”

“I went to every single organization I knew and if I had had services like this, available to me ... because I never felt, like we weren’t going to win,” the mayor said, in The Asbury Park Press report.

“I wish I had another day,” he said in The Asbury Park Press report.

NJ Connect for Recovery offers a toll-free phone number: 855-652-3737 (TTY: 877-294-4356).

The website is www.njconnectforrecovery.org/.

William R. Akers, 29, died on Oct. 16., according to the obituary.

Authorities told the Asbury Park Press that he was found dead at 3:25 a.m. in a home in Seaside Heights. A man had been arrested for drug distribution in connection with the investigation and authorities were awaiting a medical examiner’s report to see if that person had any connection with Akers’ death, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

Narcotics were found at the scene, Della Fave said.

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