A southeastern Connecticut mom is making sure sober homes meet national standards after she said her son died behind the walls of one.
Lisa Johns, the co-founder of Community Speaks Out (CSO), certified the first sober home in New London on Thursday. It was made possible by a $5,000 grant given to CSO last year from Lawrence + Memorial Hospital through their affiliation with Yale New Haven Health.
Johns’ son, Christopher, died of a heroin overdose in a sober home in the city more than three years ago.
"There were no strict policies and procedures," Johns said. "My son was dead in that house for 16 hours and there was no bed check. I got mad and decided that we needed to fix this."
Each home Johns certifies meets the National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR) standards. Johns said she looks for the home to have sign-in/sign-out sheets, bed checks, naloxone availability and other items.
It’s a way to ensure the families of New London’s most vulnerable population that their loved ones won’t fall through the cracks, she said.
A-CURE, LLC became the first recovery home to be granted the certification for four of its New London buildings on Thursday.
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"We saw a lot of houses that were flophouses and [clients] weren’t getting the support they needed," Terri Keaton, director and owner of A-CURE, said.
Currently, Johns said she’s certifying the homes in New London for free and while it's a voluntary certification program, she said eventually there will be a charge.
There are questions about how many sober houses there are in New London.
"We think approximately 32, but we don’t know because you’re not required to register, you’re not required to have inspections," New London Human Services Director Jeanne Milstein said.
The City of New London is looking to create an ordinance to better regulate sober homes and have them register with the city, Milstein said.
Brook Beaulieu lives in an A-CURE home and said this certification guarantees she stays on the path to recovery. The staff has helped her find a job, ride the bus to interviews and she even goes to meetings with the ladies she dorms with.
"If I don’t I’m going to fall down, I’m going to be back to where I used to be and that’s not an option for me," Beaulieu said.
The owners of few recovery homes NBC Connecticut was able to make contact with Thursday said they were interested in learning more about the certification process
