A message from Maria Coutant Skinner, LCSW, President & CEO
July 31, 2025
Dear friends;
Folks in despair often utter this phrase; “well, I did it to myself.” Rather than this being a motivating statement where the person finds a way toward reconciliation and healing, they remain stuck in a painful spiral of shame and self-condemnation. They reproach themselves for being unable to climb out of a deep pit of despair. Bouts of anger, justification, and externalizing blame can be part of this cycle as well. Research shows that what may feel counterintuitive is in fact the true remedy and the way up and out of those dark places.
I had the honor of being part of a national panel of providers who briefed members of Congress about an innovative initiative Connecticut (where here it is called CLEAR; Community and Law Enforcement for Addiction Recovery) and several other states have implemented. The program links behavioral health professionals with law enforcement to connect with folks who have survived an overdose or are at risk of one. Convened by our healthcare data partners at Cordata, our group was charged with presenting the outcomes of our respective states’ initiatives. Data from Ohio, where the Quick Response Teams (the term used in Ohio for a similar model) have been in place for ten years, demonstrates some remarkable results. With each interaction, people improve. By that I mean that they are healthier, visit the emergency department fewer times, rates of crime reduce, and they are safer and less likely to die of an overdose. There is a quantifiable, significant cost savings to communities as well. Emergency services, arrests, incarceration and emergency room visits are all expensive interactions. With this program, there are savings of more than $40,000 per individual—costs usually borne by taxpayers, now saved while lives are improved and communities restored.
There is a notable set of data points in this research; for each sequential interaction, the identified person does better. We can see that with each visit, the benefits accumulate. On average, a person in crisis who interacts with a compassionate, skilled outreach worker four or more times builds a level of trust and is more likely to engage in the services offered. In other words, compassionate, human interaction is the most effective pathway out of that dark place of despair—to health, wellness, safety, and recovery.
This is surprising to most of us. We’ve been taught to believe that through shame and punishment, we will learn the tough lessons needed to make a change in our behavior. We’ve been conditioned to believe that compassion is the opposite of accountability.
What accountability looks like is important for us to get right…the cost of getting it wrong over and over is causing great harm—both on a large scale and within ourselves.
There is recently passed federal legislation that doubles down on the punitive practices we’ve seen fail time and time again. The United States has spent well over a trillion dollars on the “War on Drugs,” which has resulted in filling prisons, destroying lives and families without reducing the availability of illicit drugs or the power of criminal organizations. Johann Hari in his book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs notes; “punishment—shaming a person, caging them, making them unemployable—traps them in addiction. Taking that money and spending it instead on helping them to get jobs and homes and decent lives makes it possible for many of them to stop.”
The policies that work in our communities can also work in our own internal processes. Believing that we are worthy of a love song, some grace, and self-compassion is a journey. It is one we know is made easier through human connection. We are seeing the outstanding results of those compassionate practices—walking one another out of the darkness and into the light.
With love and hope,
Maria
Maria Coutant Skinner, LCSW
President and CEO
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