Earlier this month Governor Murphy signed legislation expanding access to what are known as harm reduction supplies items like clean syringes naloxone and other opioid antidotes the harm reduction method was long seen as controversial but research shows it's a more effective and compassionate way to help people dealing with substance abuse Melissa Rose Cooper takes a look at one training program in South Jersey teaching communities how they can help so harm reduction embrace meeting people where they are and helping them get to where they want to be instead of saying this is The Benchmark that you have to meet yet is an approach Heather Ogden says many people do not fully understand when it comes to treating substance use disorders as someone who remains in long-term recovery Ogden knows the struggle firsthand traditionally we tend to um encourage people into a particular pathway of recovery we kind of prescribe what they need to be doing harm reduction at a philosophy is more raran centered it's uh client centered it's Patient First and we look at each person as the authority on themselves so when most people hear harm reduction they think of the methods of harm reduction which is things like overdose prevention sites naloxone syringe service programs um but it's so much more than that cuz it's really just a way of interacting with people people and accepting that they are the authority on themselves and that all pathways are good Pathways now she's teaching others how to effectively interact with patients hosting this training at recovery Centers of America and Mays Landing the inpatient and outpatient facility offers a variety of services to help those struggling with addiction get back on their feet so we have like I mentioned detox level of care so if somebody were to enter into our detox that's typically for alcohol opiates or benzo diazines so they're medically detoxed they're given a withdraw taper while they're tapering down off the substance they're also given comfort meds to make sure they they are safe and that they are comfortable while they're going through that and then they also have group Services Corey Richey is the CEO for Recovery Centers of America at Lighthouse she says substance abuse tends to get a bad rap and people don't often realize there could be underlying issues contributing to the disorder a lot of people believe that substance use disorder can be a disease of choice it's not a disease of choice it's a disease just like any other disease um one of the areas that I always focus on is trying to erase the stigma surrounding substance use because a lot of times that's why people don't seek treatment should be no different than somebody who maybe needs to go to the hospital because their diabetic medication isn't working it really shouldn't be any difference just because this is a disease of the brain and it's not a disease that people can make sense around medically opioid and fenal use continue to be major issues impacting New Jersey families State data shows there were more than 2,300 suspected overdose deaths between January 1st and November 30th last year Ogden says creating an individualized recovery plan is critical to a patient's success one method doesn't work well for everybody so um we have tried many different things over the years to get people into recovery but we realized that recovery means something different to every person that says they're in recovery so we want to embrace that because recovery is really about improving your life on your terms and as more harm reduction centers open across the state Ogden wants people living with a substance use disorder to know their safe places of support so no one has to be in this fight alone for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper