Since her initial idea of creating an organization that could save others from the heartache she experienced losing a child to an overdose, Dorrie Carolan has just one wish: for others suffering through a loved one’s substance use disorder to walk through her door, if only once.

In the ensuing years, Carolan has seen that wish fulfilled despite the bittersweet implications. But after serving as executive director and co-founder of Newtown Parent Connection — and seeing the positive results of its support system helping so many families in and beyond Newtown — she has formally expanded the nonprofit statewide.

Carolan knows the value in the support the Parent Connection offers, because it did not exist when she lost her son, Brian, to his addiction in 1999.

But soon after and while still grieving his senseless loss, she made it her mission to provide education, support, and compassion for the loved ones of those afflicted with what she calls the “insidious disease of addiction.”

“People today generally recognize addiction as a family disease,” said Carolan. “What they don’t know, unless they’ve experienced it themselves, is the fear and isolation it causes, particularly for parents. When you have an addicted child and those around you are posting their kids’ achievements all over social media, it is incredibly difficult because you’re just worrying about keeping your child alive. Many parents believe it won’t happen to their kid, until it does.”

And for too many families across Connecticut, it has.

Most recently, the nonprofit has worked to spread its message and programming by opening a “Hope & Support” group on Tuesdays at 7 pm (currently on Zoom) to reach loved ones in the greater Watertown and Waterbury region. This follows the establishment of similar outreach initiatives from Southbury to Fairfield.

Her agency’s efforts continue to grow as the opioid epidemic continues to take a deadly toll.

In recent years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified opioid overdoses as a national health crisis, and Connecticut Department of Public Health statistics reveal a staggering increase in statewide overdose deaths, which have escalated by 72% since 2015.

Deaths Still Mounting

Most recently, the CDC reports that COVID-19 may have contributed to a 2020 overdose increase, while attributing a recent spike in related deaths to synthetic opioids like fentanyl — a powerful pain relief drug nearly one hundred times more potent than morphine, which is frequently laced into narcotics to intensify a drug’s effect with deadly consequences.

According to a mid-February report from CTMirror.org, Connecticut saw a 13% increase in fatal drug overdoses in 2020, with most deaths occurring from April to July, when the state was going through the first round of the pandemic. There were 1,359 fatal overdoses in 2020, with 78 cases still under investigation, according to state Department of Public Health data.

In 2019, there were 1,200 deaths.

Overdoses with the animal tranquilizer xylazine continued to be a problem, CTMirror.org also reported. The number of fatal overdoses that included combinations of xylazine and fentanyl doubled from 70 deaths in 2019, when the drug first surfaced locally as a mixer with fentanyl, to 140 deaths last year.

Xylazine is not alone — a number of substances emerged in 2020 as fatal complements to fentanyl. Flualprazolam, a designer benzodiazepine, in combination with fentanyl, resulted in ten overdose deaths, and eutylone, a synthetic stimulant, contributed to three overdose deaths.

What was once believed to be a moral failing, substance use disorder, most commonly called addiction, has long been classified as a chronic and complex medical disease involving neurological, genetic, and environmental factors. The only moral failing may be the persistent stigma associated with the disease which serves as a deterrent for those seeking help.

Jennifer DeWitt, prevention coordinator for the Waterbury Department of Public Health, attended the greater Watertown/Waterbury Hope & Support meeting launch on January 12 to offer agency support. A licensed alcohol and drug counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist, Dewitt praised Connecticut Parent Connection’s specialized approach in supporting families with loved ones suffering from addiction.

“Parents need support no matter where they live and where their loved one is in the disease,” she said. “The facilitation of this group by a licensed clinician or APRN and the involvement of parents more experienced with navigating addiction and those who are brand new to it makes for the greatest level of support the area has seen, if ever.”

While Carolan co-founded the Newtown Parent Connection informally in 1993, the organization became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency in 2003 after operating under Newtown Family Services for several years.

She recognized the need for a parent support group when a mother approached her at the front desk of a gym she managed and started to cry in desperation about her teenaged son’s heroin addiction, which began, like many, with physician-prescribed pain medication. But Carolan’s concerns expressed to the media were challenging to relate because she could not get corroboration of the problem from local officials.

So she went door-to-door to every rehabilitation organization in the state gathering and notating statistics about their patient demographics. At the time, she was not surprised to validate that Newtown residents topped the list of patient admissions.

A Community Reacts

Evidence in hand, the town and media could no longer dismiss Carolan’s claims of a local crisis and reporting along with an initial town meeting was planned. That first gathering of concerned and affected family members was attended by more than 300 people including local law enforcement, educators, and public health officials.

Out of that meeting, a weekly Newtown Hope & Support meeting quickly grew to welcome more than 20 regular participants, typically from Connecticut and New York.

This year, Newtown Parent Connection became Connecticut Parent Connection with its expansion throughout Fairfield county. With support from the Jonathon Simko Scholarship, a fund established by the parents of a Bethel man who lost his addiction battle in 2019, the group continued its growth in 2020.

And now, with the addition of the greater Watertown/Waterbury Hope & Support group, Carolan hopes the organization will also draw parents from neighboring communities like Thomaston, Plymouth, and Naugatuck.

Carolan emphasizes that geography does not dictate eligibility to attend — meetings are open to anyone, anywhere.

“We meet parents and loved ones where they are in the journey. We understand what it’s like to shudder when the phone rings late at night and to fear something as benign as the doorbell,” She said. “We are a group of people who listen without judgement, offer compassion and understanding as well as provide education in our communities. Nobody understands better what this experience is like than those of us who have lived through it.

“But the first step is the hardest, and my hope is that new people will sit through just one meeting,” Carolan added. “I can almost guarantee they will leave feeling better than when they came in.”

For the Watertown/Waterbury Hope & Support meeting schedule, as well as other area meetings and service offerings, please visit ctparentconnection.org.

This feature included contributed content from Nan McKernon.