Those battling addiction often struggle to find care. Connecticut’s new Shatterproof Treatment Atlas can help

The last time Gary Mendell sat on his back porch with his son Brian was in 2011. They spoke about sports, Eli Manning and the New York Giants, but then the conversation turned.

“He looked at me and he said, ‘Dad, someday, someday people will realize I’m not a bad person. I’m a good person and I have a tough disease,’” Mendell said. “He looked me in the eye, he said, ‘Dad, I’m trying my hardest.’”

Four months later, just five weeks after celebrating a year of sobriety, Brian took his life.

Mendell said that what killed his 25-year-old son was not the alcohol and drug addiction that followed Brian for more than eight years, but shame.

On Tuesday, the nonprofit Mendell founded in Brian’s memory launched the Shatterproof Treatment Atlas in Connecticut. The first-of-its-kind online catalog of addiction treatment providers works to increase access and transform standards of care as well as to eradicate the stigma around a disease that claimed 1,464 lives in Connecticut last year.

Paid for by a grant from the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Atlas compiles all addiction recovery providers in the state.

Patients, family and friends can browse treatment options or fill out a 10-question, confidential survey on the Shatterproof website to receive a recommendation from the American Society of Addiction Medicine on the level of care a patient should pursue.

Atlas allows users to filter through treatment centers by accepted insurers and payment plans, location, medication options, services, age and special programs including ones designed for LGBTQ+ patients, domestic and sexual abuse survivors, veterans, justice-involved individuals and more.

“It completely titrates the treatment programs to your criteria,” Mendell said.

He said Atlas is not only breaking barriers to access, but “changing the game” of recovery treatment, Mendell said, by establishing National Principles of Care.

Unlike other diseases, Mendell explained that there is no nationally recognized standard of care for the treatment of addiction. Shatterproof sets seven science-based standards for high-quality treatment, including fast access, personalized evaluation and treatments, medications access, effective behavioral therapies, long-term treatment and follow-ups, coordinated mental and physical healthcare and additional support services.

“You can go to every treatment program on Atlas and see which ones are following these and which ones are not,” Mendell said.

At the same time Mendell said Shatterproof shares data with the states and insurance companies to see which treatment programs provide quality performance data and meet the standards of care.

After launching in six states three years ago, Mendell said the Shatterproof Treatment Atlas is fully operational in 14 states including Connecticut, serving more than 45% of the U.S. population.

Mendell said so far, 300 of Connecticut’s 450 providers have provided data and offered advice to Shatterproof on how to improve Atlas for residents.

Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz described the platform as “life saving.”

“Our state has a lot of resources. The problem is people just don’t know that they exist,” Bysiewicz said. “Shatterproof Treatment Atlas, it’s free, it is confidential, and it will give information to support those in need and to their loved ones who are looking for appropriate quality care.”

Mendell said that when his son began struggling with substance use in high school, the family had “no idea” whether Brian needed outpatient or residential treatment, medications or mental health programs.

“We were lost,” Mendell said.

In eight years, Mendell said Brian went to eight different treatment programs.

Kim Haugabook, a Connecticut resident who recently founded a health equity nonprofit called The Samaritan House Inc., said Mendell’s story resonated with her own recovery experience.

“My parents didn’t know what to do either. And sometimes when family members don’t know what to do, they don’t do anything because of the shame and the guilt,” Kim Haugabook said. “The stigma is something they feel too.”

Haugabook said that if a treatment atlas like Shatterproof existed when she started her recovery journey more than 20 years ago, things may have been different.

“I think my parents, friends would have had the resources and would’ve known how to speak to me or how to help me,” Haugabook said. “For a long time it was, ‘Something’s wrong’ but you don’t know what to do.

Karen Ablondi, the founder and executive director of Shoreline Recovery, said navigating substance abuse treatment options can be a struggle, even for those who work within the system.

“I’m a person in long-term recovery and I also have a son in early recovery,” Ablondi said. “I’ve found it so, so difficult to find help for my son. And I had always said, I could only imagine a parent without having some of the experiences that I’ve had, how much more difficult it would be for them. So having this resource where they begin to find great care for their loved one is so, so important.”

Dita Bhargava, a Shatterproof ambassador, said that she wished Atlas existed during her son’s battle with addiction.

A fentanyl overdose killed Bhargava’s son, Alec Pelletier on his 26th birthday while living in a soberhome in New Canaan in 2018.

“Alec was a warm, vivacious AAA hockey player. He was a big guy, really just a teddy bear, and anyone who saw him just wanted to give him a big hug,” Bhargava said. “He was a loving son, He was a protective older brother of three younger siblings — our three kids who miss him dearly. He was a devoted friend and he helped so many of his friends through their crisis and battle with substance use disorder and mental health diseases.”

Bhargava said Alec died with Narcan laid by his bedside — something that she said no one in the soberhome knew to help him with.

She said that the soberhome was wrongfully recommended by the treatment center Alec had come from. Bhargava said it’s difficult to tell which facilities are doing the right thing due to the varying quality of care.

“I wish Alec had Atlas at the time when we were desperately searching for care, but I am so grateful that we have this tool in our state now,” Bhargava said. “In the past few months alone, I’ve had several friends who have reached out on behalf of their loved ones asking where to find help and I could finally channel them to the right source.”

Three weeks before Alec’s death, over a plate of pancake and eggs — Alec’s favorite breakfast — Bhargava asked Alec how he would want her to speak or not speak about his substance use disorder.

“He answered my question with his own question, which was, ‘Would you ask me this question if I had cancer?’ And that hit me like a ton of bricks because I was stigmatizing him,” Bhargava said. “He said, ‘My friends have died of this disease and more will continue to, unless we start treating it like a disease and taking action. So yes, get out there and talk about my disease, talk about my story.’”

“My family’s story is one of thousands,” Bhargava added. “This should serve as a call to action to team up and support those suffering from substance use disorders. During this National Addiction Treatment week and year round, we must make addiction the public health crisis that it is and a priority of epic scale.”