Kevin Simmers locked up drug abusers in western Maryland for years as a narcotics officer for the Hagerstown Police Department. Then, someday, the crisis observed away into his personal domestic. I felt like handcuffs and incarceration were the answer to this epidemic,” Simmers stated. Now, he runs a drug remedy software to assist addicts.
He’s hoping that although he wasn’t capable of the store his daughter, he may want to save the lives of others. Brooke’s House,” which opens its doorways soon Hagerstown, Md., is named after his past due daughter, who, after a years-lengthy battle with drug addiction, ended up dying from a drug overdose. The software he opened and his wife gives counseling, medically assisted remedy, and professional education.
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I’m hoping they leave here with a motive, live a sober life, and are prepared to overcome the arena,” Simmers said. He said his perspectives on pills and dependancy modified in 2013, when his then-18-12 months-vintage daughter, Brooke, admitted she was addicted to Percocet, an opioid pain medication. Now a retired officer, Simmers stated he watched his very own daughter struggle with addiction for years. Although he tried to assist her, he couldn’t. Simmers reached out to treatment centers to attempt to get her off the street; however, he was pissed off he couldn’t pick out the kind of treatment. The coverage companies’ most effective legal outpatient remedy.
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This, in the long run, failed, as she gives up after some weeks. Brooke instructed her father she turned into now capturing heroin and funding her dependancy thru shoplifting, embezzlement, and promoting her body. The own family then attempted an inpatient facility choice. However, mattress space wasn’t available for over a week. ANothing helped. T that point, Brooke ended up relapsing. She turned into in and out of remedy facilities in search of help but then relapsing once more. She ended up in the health center, and she ended up in prison. She ended up with the loss of life from a heroin overdose.
Nationwide, more than 70, two hundred Americans died from an overdose in 2017, keeping with today’s records from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
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A month after Brooke’s funeral, Simmers and his wife realized they needed to fulfill their promise to Brooke and construct the sober living domestically in her honor. Anytime Simmers and his spouse went on vacation; they could visit drug treatment centers to accumulate research. They desired to avoid copying different facilities ’ horrific attributes, which includes overcrowding. He didn’t want a place that turned into co-ed.
After four years, they constructed Brooke’s House. The women enrolled have three career path alternatives: cosmetology, pet grooming, and chocolate making. The aim is to give those women relevant job abilties they can use after graduating from the program, a possibility Brooke did no longer get.
Everyone in “Brooke’s House,” from management to enrollees, must take part in the chocolate-making procedure. Proceeds from chocolate income will assist the program. When asked the distinction among this residence and different facilities Brooke turned into enrolled in, Simmers stated: “This house has been built with love.
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The community has donated everything from the driveway to furnishings and plumbing. Simmers says he doesn’t consider inside the pronouncing, “You won’t be capable of reach every person.” He feels “Brooke’s House” will be able to help each female that enters.
