This is a hard story to tell, but I have my son’s permission to tell it, if it will help others.
Our adopted son had his first drink of alcohol before he was born. We brought him home when he was 10 weeks old and still in withdrawal, although no one called it that five decades ago. When I tried to hold him, he responded as if his skin burned. It appeared to me he was undergoing some form of withdrawal. I called our pediatrician, but he turned out to know nothing about symptoms like this, saying “Withdrawal in a child this young’s not possible. He’s probably just cranky.”
Later, other pediatricians confirmed my suspicions.
I decided I needed to do some research and discovered the book “The Broken Cord” by Michael Dorris about his experience as a father of an adopted child with symptoms similar to that of our son, caused by ingesting alcohol in utero. Much of what I initially learned about fetal alcohol and drug syndrome came from this book.
It let me know what our son may be in for, from the worst case to the mild. Luckily for him he was on the mildly disabled end of the spectrum, but this still meant he struggled in school and that he would be an easy candidate for alcoholism.
He has accomplished much in life, overcoming obstacles that no one should have placed in front of him before he took his first breath. To his credit, he was able to acquire a degree from UNH and held a responsible job working for the government until he became permanently disabled.
He was able to trace both sides of his biological family. From his mother’s sister he learned his mother died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 53. He was born when she was 13 and already drinking.
The wheels came off for him a short while ago. He admitted he had been drinking for years and was in the midst of a crisis. That was when I personally was able to witness the compassionate teamwork of the Wilton Police, Fire and Ambulance crews who took him to the hospital to help save his life. The actions of these groups, working as a team, combined with Avenues Recovery in Dublin, is the focus of this article.
A few Wednesday’s ago, I met with Wilton Police Chief John Frechette and Danielle Gardiner, Wilton’s Chief of Ambulance Services. Wilton’s Fire Chief, Norm Skantze, was unable to make the meeting.
What I hoped to discover was how this seamless crisis-management team came about. I also hoped to learn about other ways in which they all work together for the benefit of the town and its citizens.
When John Frechette joined the Wilton police force 22 years ago, he saw a need to build greater camaraderie between the police, fire and ambulance services since their jobs often overlapped, but they were not working with a team mentality. As shared activities and competitions outside of work evolved, people began to function more like partners than competitors and this partnership developed into friendships. The upshot is that knowing people well, as friends, helped them work in the seamless style they now exhibit.
In response to one of my questions, John explained there are differences in the types of calls each group receives, saying “The police are called for absolutely everything from a couch cushion in the road, lost animals or ridding a house of bats to violent assaults, but 65 percent or our calls are related to substance abuse in some form. Either the person is in crisis at the time or activities related to substance abuse have initiated the call.”
Although each group has different responsibilities, those on the police and ambulance services more often than not have to deal directly with people while they are undergoing immediately painful experiences. Yet firefighters, who are technically trained in different ways and primarily intent on fighting fires, may also be called upon to drive an ambulance or help care for a patient if they are medically certified.
Danielle jumped in with one example to explain how teamwork and training result in a lot of cross-service help saying, “Because we work so well together we are able to use a lot of non-verbal communication and read each other’s body language and facial cues, especially when people are involved in the strain of performing CPR. Those who are CPR certified, from any of the services, can recognize when a person performing CPR needs to rest and will swap positions without being asked.
She also explained that three years ago, when she first joined the ambulance service, she was astounded at the fluidity with which they all worked together. She said she was pleased to be part of such a cohesive team. This experience differed greatly from what she experienced at her previous job where the various departments were filled with dysfunctional tensions and rivalries.
As both chief of ambulance services and the Wilton health officer, Danielle sees her job as dealing with everything from medical emergencies to people just needing someone to talk to. Breaking it down, she explained that when the ambulance arrives, the police are there for protection and the fire department provides technical skills.
Recently her job took on an additional focus. She is in the process of trying to add resources to the Wilton community: resources that have been long needed for those suffering from mental health issues and substance abuse and that will help catch an issue before it becomes a crisis or worse. These resources come in the form of a program that provides, as she called it, “mobile integrated health care.” She has begun to integrate the police force and the welfare department into this program and fire is next on her list. It will take time and funding, but she has hope that a program like this will someday be available to Wilton residents.
There’s another component to this story. That is the rehabilitation center our son agreed to go to in Dublin, Avenues Recovery Center. I haven’t seen our son this positive for decades. The day I picked him up, he was smiling and glowing with confidence, determined to take on the next challenges he may face in life, armed with the teachings of the Avenues program gripped in his hands and looking at continuing the program outside of Avenues.
Chief Frechette explained they are well known for the quality of work they do and are an essential resource for the Monadnock Region.
No one knows how this story will play out in the future. All that is known is that our son, like others in similar circumstances, will have a chance for a brighter future than they previously faced because of the combined efforts of this team of people who serve Wilton so well and Avenues Recovery in Dublin.