For Immediate Release

Monday, April 25, 2016

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net

P.A.A.R.I. Adds Three New Treatment Partners in Florida and New Hampshire

Treatment Centers Owned by Former Police Officer

NEWTON — Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello and businessman John Rosenthal, co-founders of The Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.), are pleased to announce that P.A.A.R.I. has added three new treatment partners in Florida and New Hampshire, all owned by former Delray Beach, Fla. Police Officer Michael Brown.

Brown, who is originally from Western New York, served in the Navy for eight years and worked for nearly three years with the Delray Beach Police Department. He currently is the owner of Sobriety Now, Compassion Behavioral Health and The Process Recovery Center, which have all joined the growing list of treatment centers that have partnered with P.A.A.R.I. to offer recovery services to program participants.

Brown has already begun working extensively with P.A.A.R.I.’s Gowanda, N.Y. and Salamanca, N.Y. law enforcement partners to further their recovery initiatives. He has also hired two former police officers, who are in recovery, as regional outreach coordinators in Chicago and Cape Cod, Mass.

Last summer, Chief Campanello and Rosenthal launched P.A.A.R.I., a nonprofit organization created to support law enforcement agencies as they work with those suffering from addiction. Participating police departments place those who come to them for help into treatment programs, instead of jail. As P.A.A.R.I.’s partnerships with treatment facilities continues to grow, so does its ability to help police departments who want to assist their communities in saving lives.

“We take pride in our ability to give clients’ lives the 180 degree turn in a positive direction that they otherwise haven’t been able to accomplish on their own,” Brown said. “Coming from a military and law enforcement background, I understand that structure is of utmost importance. Everyone in our organizations have tremendous pride in what we do, and I am eager to work with P.A.A.R.I. to continue this life-changing work.”

Sobriety Now is a dual diagnosis facility that offers treatment options including partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient and outpatient programs. Located in Boynton Beach, Fla., Sobriety Now offers its programs to both men and women with approximately 37 beds in its transitional housing.

Compassion Behavioral Health, located in Hollywood, Fla., is also a dual diagnosis facility offering partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient and outpatient treatment options in addition to 40 beds of transitional housing. Other services provided to clients during treatment include group, individual and family therapy, life skills training, art therapy, medication management, nutrition education, case management services, mental health services, recreational and gym therapy, and 12-Step recovery education.

The Process Recovery Center, located in Hudson, N.H., is a dual diagnosis, intensive outpatient and outpatient facility, offering both group and individual therapy in addition to a 40 bed transitional housing facility. Individualized to meet the needs of every client, treatment services include family therapy, relapse prevention therapy, 12-Step meetings, mental health treatment and educational activities. The Process Recovery Center has also partnered with Rise Above, one of the largest sober living residences in New Hampshire, to offer additional services to its clients. Justin Etling, who has been appointed as the CEO of The Process Recovery Center, and Director of Clinical Outreach Chris DiNicola have been instrumental in helping to set up this facility.

Chief Campanello and Rosenthal are eager to begin working with Sobriety Now, Compassion Behavioral Health and The Process Recovery Center on their mission of saving lives and ending the stigma surrounding addiction. They applaud Brown for taking the initiative to provide additional resources to P.A.A.R.I. participants at all three of his treatment centers.

About P.A.A.R.I.:

P.A.A.R.I. was started to support local police departments as they work with opioid addicts. Rather than arrest our way out of the problem of drug addiction, P.A.A.R.I. committed police departments:

• Encourage opioid drug users to seek recovery
• Help distribute life saving opioid blocking drugs to prevent and treat overdoses
• Connect people suffering with opioid addiction with treatment programs and facilities
• Provide resources to other police departments and communities that want to do more to fight the opioid addiction epidemic

P.A.A.R.I. was created by Gloucester Police Chief Leonard Campanello and John Rosenthal to bridge the gap between the police department and persons suffering from the disease of opiate addiction who are seeking recovery. Since its founding, more than 40 police departments in 14 states have joined as partners with the initiative.

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