HARTFORD (April 2, 2019) – iCare’s Sarah Howroyd, Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services, appeared with Governor Ned Lamont, Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz and leaders from Trinity Health of New England and Saint Francis Hospital, and others as part of the state’s Live LOUD — or Live Life with Opioid Use Disorder campaign.
According to the Hartford Courant, Live LOUD — or Live Life with Opioid Use Disorder — is a new website from the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, with information about Connecticut’s crisis, immediate resources, treatment options and family support. It went public Monday along with a new smartphone app from the Department of Public Health called NORA — or Naloxone + Overdose Resource App — that walks people through administering the life-saving, overdose-reversal drug. See the full Courant article here…
Sarah Howroyd was a consultant to the iCare Health Network (IHN)on substance use disorders and treatments and became the company’s Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services in October of 2018. She is tasked with building out IHN’s mental health and substance use programming to be as person-centered and recovery-oriented as possible. She has created a forward-looking structure, business practices and network for new connections within IHN’s mental health and addiction treatment lines of business.
The State of Connecticut’s efforts are pertinent to iCare as in several of IHN’s eleven greater Hartford care centers, the company offers a program known as iRecovery. This unique program is a recovery-based treatment model completed while patient’s receive skilled nursing care. For example, a patient that requires a nurse to provide IV antibiotics or a physical therapist for rehab therapy would also receive individual and group substance use counseling and other supports as needed. Residents can also receive medication assisted therapy such as Methadone or Suboxone.
Again according the Courant, joining Lamont to launch the campaign at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center was Sarah Howroyd, whose experience with addiction and recovery inspired the 37-year-old to co-found a drug prevention initiative, called HOPE, in her hometown of Manchester. Howroyd was in her mid-20s when she was prescribed highly addictive opioids following a car accident; it was six years ago that she nearly died at Saint Francis Hospital.
“I had to walk through the depths of hell to get where I am today and the person I spent all of my 20s with died of an overdose just three years ago. He was an engineer with three degrees,” she said. “This disease does not discriminate against anyone. It can happen to anyone at any time.”
