community and create a safe environment for its
residents, CADET pulls together diverse members
from different disciplines. Local schools provide the
education component, while the Caribou PD covers
enforcement. Pines Health Services, Cary Medical
Center, AMHC, and other organizations bring the
prevention and treatment perspective.
Operating since 1996, CADET is the longest
running program of its kind in the area. The
collaboration reached a telling milestone in 2003
when team discussions turned to the prescription
drug problem that began to permeate the internet
and infiltrate rural neighborhoods. Caribou took
a proactive approach to the epidemic that was
already destroying other communities. Rather than
thinking it couldn’t happen here, CADET members
prepared to meet its inevitable arrival head-on. In
2005 the group took the issue to the City Council and
developed a proclamation to fight prescription drug
abuse. Wanting the cause to be community-driven,
CADET held a town meeting to inform the public and
to send the message, “Be prepared.” Krista Burchill,
MD, Medical Director of Pines, detailed the harmful
physical effects of addiction. More than 1,600
people filled the Caribou Performing Arts Center,
making it the biggest event the venue had ever seen.
The overwhelming turnout signaled the concern
community members felt, and their determination
to preserve their town.
Geography helps, but relationships are key.
Caribou looks to other counties as bellwethers
of the coming trends in prescription drug abuse.
Given its relative isolation, Aroostook County often
experiences a delay in those trends, giving Caribou
time to anticipate and prepare. But time alone
doesn’t work; it takes a real partnership between
people to obtain and share key information.
Michael W. Gahagan, Chief of Police for the Caribou
Police Department, characterized the exchange of
information among community members as “freeflowing.” When he receives intelligence bulletins
from other police departments, he immediately
shares that information with local schools and
providers. When a medical provider discovers a
safety issue, that information makes its way right to
Chief Gahagan.
The Chief also acknowledges the CADET
partners’ knack for solving problems. Caribou is
a resourceful, close-knit community. When they
see a problem, they fix it instead of waiting for
someone else to step in. For example, in addition to
prevention, the team made a commitment to offer
comprehensive treatment and recovery services to
the community. AMHC has long provided medication
assisted treatment (MAT), but community need
outgrew AMHC’s capacity to do it alone. Thanks to
the partnership between AMHC and Pines and Cary,
these organizations established a Caribou Suboxone
clinic in 2006, offering local treatment to individuals
so that they don’t have to travel downstate. The
clinic marks the first in the state that was founded
on a partnership of multiple organizations to provide
this service.
With that problem addressed, another one
emerged. The Caribou PD discovered the trend of
“renting pills” from others to maintain the correct
pill count during Suboxone treatments. The PD
shared this information with area behavioral health
and primary care providers, who immediately took
action. They worked with locally owned pharmacies
to package pills in bubble packs, preventing the pills
from being swapped and then replaced. The change
has proven so effective that it has been replicated
throughout Maine. In fact, the Maine Office of
Substance Abuse has sent providers to the Caribou
clinic to learn from this success.
The revolutionary step toward bubble packs
happened within a matter of weeks, but could have
easily taken six months in a larger community. How
is Caribou so light on its feet? According to Chief )