PORTLAND, Maine - The University of New England and the Cumberland County Jail have teamed up for a month-long pilot program that seeks to address what officials are calling Maine's rising drug addiction epidemic.
Joined by ANEW Approach drug treatment professionals, students in UNE's West College of Health Professionals, along with faculty and alumni, are volunteering their services in a drug treatment program for inmates.
UNE Assistant Social Work Professor Kerry Dunn organized the project. Dunn says the treatment model attempts to help inmates relearn how to live in a community.
She says inmate participants gather in a specific jail unit where, for nine hours during the day, they work with treatment professionals who are also volunteering their time.
"And then, in order to keep them in that setting, keep them in the community as long as possible, the therapeutic community, UNE students and alum and faculty are coming in the evenings for a few hours to give them some health education, and to do some activities, recreation activities," Dunn says.
Dunn says, after the 30-day day pilot is up, UNE and its partners will evaluate the program's success and seek grant funding to continue the effort. Dunn says they plan to call on the public to raise some money.