'The Biggest Message Is That Anybody Can Get Clean'

By Dean Wright, The Bristol Press

April 12, 2022

Professionals who’ve sought to overcome their own battles with addiction say Bristol is in a precarious spot for its opioid-centered challenges. However, they remain hopeful for the many and varied forms of help those looking to overcome addiction.

Rebecca Zigmund, currently a peer specialist with Wheeler Health in New Britain, knows firsthand the opioid struggle.

She first set out on the path of opioid use after a surgical incident in 2009. After being unable to obtain prescription drugs, she turned to more illicit substances.

“I was just getting out of bed and progressing over 10 years, just from one little pill,” Zigmund said. “Within three years my addiction went from prescription to street drugs.”

Zigmund said she eventually became involved in the 12-Step community and members started suggesting she should work with individuals recovering. She attended a recovery facility out-of-state because she said she had experienced challenges finding such options in Connecticut at the time and that’s why she’s part of initiatives to increase recovery access options. After encountering professionals who had experienced addiction themselves, she was inspired to help others.

“Seeing that example was huge for me,” said Zigmund, who stopped using in 2019 but still attends therapy. “When in active addiction, I was angry and felt lessened. I remember one particular counselor that said she was celebrating 10 years of recovery and shared stories about her past. She was amazingly professional and a human who had all of this compassion.”

That experience, in part with her others, inspired Zigmund to take the route she is on today.

Zigmund coaches parents in recovery from opioid use disorder and specifically works with women who are pregnant, have birthed and used substances or are postpartum. She also works as a volunteer with the Brian Cody’s Law movement, which seeks to expand recovery access in Connecticut as well as enact stricter penalties for opioid traffickers.

Since 2006, Zigmund said she’s experienced the personal loss of over 60 individuals who died in opioid-related incidents.

In Bristol, another Wheeler Health peer specialist, Alan Moore, has overcome a variety of substance issues. Moore looks to take what he learned from his own experiences and help the people of Bristol.

“There’s help that’s needed in this particular city. I felt that I was guided here,” he said. “It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to stand up tall and let (clients) see that someone was where you were at and now they can hold their head up high and they can also have opportunities, if they just follow someone that knows the way.”

Moore served as a substance abuse counselor for eight years in Stamford at the same facility where he began his steps to recovery. Moore credits, like many others who follow 12-Step programs, part of his ability to overcome his challenges by finding something beyond or outside himself as a source of inspiration.

“We basically try to help them go through recovery life, knowing someone has been there and done that to help (clients) make the right and positive decisions for where they’re trying to go,” Moore said.

Moore said the most important thing about his vocation is being able to listen with an open mind.

As Moore continues to do his part for this city, Bristol has made strides in creating a variety of options and techniques to tackle its opioid challenges and lead others back to a life of sobriety.

“When the mayor (then Ellen Zoppo-Sassu) started the task force, we really were able to see what the problem was but also how interested everyone was in fixing it,” said Lisa Coates, operations manager at the Bristol Health Counseling Center.

Out of the Mayor’s Opioid Task Force was birthed COBRA, otherwise known as the City of Bristol’s Recovery Alliance, in November 2019 along with various other diversionary and prevention outreach programs.

Coates said one of the biggest initiatives pushed by the coalition was the development of a non-medical transport service referred to as COBRA calls. She noted these protocols were created for incidents where law enforcement may encounter individuals struggling with addiction and to allow for those persons to be placed into treatment and recovery programs instead of simply being charged with crimes.

“I think through the task force, we really identified gaps in services and this was all volunteer,” she said.

With all these programs moving forward, America would see most of the focus of the nation shift to the pandemic in March 2020. The opioid problem, however, never went away, and COBRA held strong.

“What is exciting, despite covid, we’ve had lots of COBRA referrals,” Coates said. “To me that says it’s ingrained in the seams of Bristol and I’m happy to hear that. We didn’t want that to be only for opiates, we want that to be for any substance.”

Bristol-Burlington Health District Director of Health Marco Palmieri said regardless of the type of community and its socio-economic status, opioids affect all manner of people.

According to information provided by Palmieri utilizing EpiCenter, a digital service connected to state data, in 2019, there were 209 Bristol residents who overdosed. Around 120 overdoses in the same time were reported in Bristol zip codes, according to a real-time first responder data collection service called ODMAP. Palmieri noted those 120 individuals may not be Bristol residents and it was important to highlight the difference in statistics because of how data is collected and then cataloged. Residents of Bristol who overdosed may not necessarily have overdosed in town but elsewhere.

In 2019, there were three deaths connected with an opioid-related overdose according to the ODMAP in the municipality. From the Office of the Chief Connecticut Medical Examiner, said Palmier, in 2019, they reported 28 opioid-related deaths of Bristol residents. The director noted first responders may not necessarily document a death as it’s often done by other professionals.

In 2020, the number of overdoses in Bristol residents dropped from 209 to 166, according to EpiCenter data. In ODMAP, there was an increase of 13 individuals who overdosed in Bristol, and not necessarily residents. There were eight opioid-related deaths in Bristol zip codes and there were 31 Bristol residents who died of an opioid-related overdose.

In 2021, there were 63 Bristol resident overdoses, in accordance with Palmieri’s EpiCenter data, and 144 individuals who overdosed in Bristol zip codes. According to ODMAP data, 16 individuals died in Bristol from an opioid-related overdose and 43 residents passed in opioid-related deaths.

Opioid numbers that may have dipped during the pandemic, Palmieri said was likely due to the distancing activities of residents.

“As an epidemiologist, we look at this and we say Bristol seems to be a destination where people are perhaps either accessing illicit drugs or participating in activities that would increase their access to drugs and having an overdose in Bristol,” the health director said.

According to Bristol Police Chief Brian Gould there is no data showing Bristol has a massive distribution in town.

Being central to Waterbury, Hartford and New Britain, Gould said a lot of times police investigations observed that illegal drug activity often seemed to be coming from other cities and was being driven into Bristol. He likened area drug investigations to those surrounding motor vehicle theft trends in the greater Hartford area.

“It’s very similar to the stolen vehicle issue that’s going on and a lot of those people are coming from outside of our area and coming in from Hartford and such and really hitting those ring municipalities,” he said. “I think we’re kind of, not really a pass-through, but we’re a junction of that, if you will.”

With the emergence of covid as a chief health concern across the country, the chief noted a lot of attention was refocused upon the pandemic.

“From our perspective, it never stopped,” he said of opioid issues.

With the continued challenges of narcotics, Gould emphasized the danger of fentanyl, a synthesized opioid that’s around 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine, as a key component of opioid-related deaths.

“A lot of people that have substance abuse disorders are purchasing the drug of choice not understanding that it may be cut with this very dangerous drug and it’s killing them,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of those deaths.”

Palimieri said in 2019, 82% of all drug-involved overdose deaths in Bristol were fentanyl-related, and in 2020, 94% involved fentanyl.

Alongside Bristol’s community medical and behavioral health prevention efforts, city police continue to strive to meet the everyday challenges posed by narcotics.

Gould said in addition to COBRA protocols, first responders have saved many lives as the pandemic continued due to the early implementation of law enforcement carrying Narcan. Local police have even seen a dip in applications because of residents carrying their own and using it before emergency response arrives. Among other prevention efforts, the police station has a dropbox for drug disposal for those who many longer need to use their medications. Local officers continue to investigate narcotic drug dealers as well as work with DEA task forces.

The chief said if any of Bristol’s police efforts have suffered or slowed to address the issues opioids pose it was to be found in its educational outreach. Getting into schools to address opioid prevention educational programs had been a challenge because of the pandemic.

“If any change is going to happen, it's going to be in our youth. We’ve got to show them the dangers of this stuff,” Gould said.

Palmieri and Coates believe the services that have been opened and highlighted in Bristol mark a turning point.

“The biggest message is that anybody can get clean,” Zigmund said. “I have seen some of the most unbelievable people get clean and have the craziest stories behind what they did in active addiction compared to where they are now.”