It’s hard to miss the symbolism: Former opioid addicts cleaning up the drug-infested park they once used. A park that was filled with broken glass, used needles and shattered lives.
But it is much more than just symbolism. It is real change.
For as these drug addiction recovery patients clean up 26ers Park in the Harwood Community of Baltimore, Maryland, they see more clearly now what destructive behavior brought them. And, conversely, what dedication, care and opioid addiction recovery can also bring them.
Now the park is clean due to the year-long efforts of the Concerted Care Group. It was long overdue and the neighbors are thankful for the cleanup and upgrade.
As WJZ TV News in Baltimore recently reported, the park cleanup was completed on time and a Grand Reopening was held on November 9, 2017.
“[It] was known as the park from hell, so no one wanted to visit it,” said Concerted Care Foundation director Ronald Shelley in the news report. The people who helped clean and refurbish the park are in a drug addiction recovery program through the Concerted Care Foundation.
“Many of them have been destructive in the past, but now they want to restore and be a part of the restoration process,” Shelley continued.
26ers Park is now clean and open to everyone. It’s no longer a place for drug users and drug dealers. They are gone, except for the ex-drug users who cleaned it up.
As Harry Johnston, a patient of the Concerted Care Group said in the news report, “Yeah you have an addiction, or you may have issues, but the stigma needs to be replaced by people who want to give back. Sure we have done bad things, but I have been clean for 13 years and look back at that as a struggle but now I am seeing the light.”
They are done with 26ers Park but they aren’t done with cleaning and rehabilitating up the neighborhood. That, and a mural, are next on the list.
They have seen the light and instead of taking, they are giving back and this Baltimore community is reaping the benefits of clean parks… and clean lives.
The Concerted Care Group provides opioid addiction treatment. We utilize the “Whole Person, Whole Life” philosophy of substance abuse treatment. It integrates medical, psychological, vocational, economic, and social expertise to literally “wrap around” the patient and the patient’s lifestyle. It doesn’t matter if you have an opioid addiction, heroin addiction, prescription drug addiction, methadone addiction, painkiller addiction, or some other substance abuse addiction. We treat them all and do it all under one roof.
Contact our outpatient clinic in Baltimore, Maryland at (410) 617-0142 or email at info@concertedcaregroup.com. We accept patients that same day, too.