2023 Highlights

• In early 2023, NJ CARES awarded funding to six public health agencies to establish Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programs in six areas of New Jersey. Those programs aim to give officers discretion to forego criminal charges against individuals repeatedly engaged in low-level crimes driven by underlying issues of addiction, poverty, and/or mental health, and instead redirect them to community-based programs and services to address those issues. LEAD programs launched in Brick, Elizabeth, Irvington, Phillipsburg, and New Brunswick in the summer and fall of 2023.
• In early 2023, NJ CARES partnered with Rutgers, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, to offer LPS employees the opportunity to receive education on the opioid crisis, including how to administer naloxone, and have a free Narcan® Kit mailed to each attendee’s home after the training. Between February and August 2023, 181 employees were trained, and 171 received Narcan® over the course of 9 trainings. NJ CARES also partnered with the Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services
  (DMHAS) and DCA to launch Naloxone365, a program that makes naloxone available to individuals over the age of 14 at participating pharmacies (which include over 600 sites). Additionally, to combat growing concerns about xylazine, in August 2023, NJ CARES provided 108 boxes or 5,400 kits containing wound care supplies and fentanyl test strips to 18 law enforcement agencies that do direct outreach to individuals with substance use disorder.
• Through funding made available by DMHAS, NJ CARES, in partnership with DCA, provided drug disposal bags to hospices, home care agencies, and senior centers across the state. In February 2023, 142 Medium Pouch Cases (containing 28,400 disposal pouches) were shipped to 80 hospices and home care agencies across the state. In September 2023, 88 Medium Pouch Cases (containing 17,600 disposal pouches) were shipped to 44 hospices and home care agencies and 37 senior centers across the state.