LEBANON — Mylin Paul spent six months at the Grafton County jail in North Haverhill after pleading guilty to criminal threatening with a firearm.
Upon his release in late June, the 28-year-old father was driven by the Grafton County Department of Corrections to Headrest’s sober living house on Church Street in downtown Lebanon.
In mid-July, less than two weeks after his release from jail, he died of a suspected overdose in woods near downtown in White River Junction.
His death highlights a dearth of residential substance use treatment on the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley.
Listen Community Services, provided resources for Paul at a monthly free health clinic in the Lebanon emergency shelter on Mechanic Street, one day before his body was found.
“Community is a huge part of recovery,” said Leah Hanzas, a Listen service coordinator who worked with Paul at the clinic. “Living in (a sober living) space is still good because you’re living with people who are also working towards sobriety. But it’s not case management. It’s not receiving treatment.”
Loss of housing
When released on June 28, the Grafton County Department of Corrections, provided transportation for Paul to go to Headrest, a Lebanon-based nonprofit with a sober living house.
Headrest provided residential substance abuse treatment until February when the nonprofit closed its 14-bed Low Intensity Residential Program and its Outpatient Services Program. It cited a lack of staffing and an inability to meet state requirements as reasons for the change.
Headrest, founded in 1971, still operates a 24/7 crisis-suicide hotline and a 12-bed “substance free living environment” on Church Street , according to its website.
Michael Kemp, Headrest’s house manager asked Paul to leave Headrest’s sober house for failing to return to the home by curfew, taking backpacks from other residents, and towels and clothing from Headrest without permission, Kemp told Paul’s parole officer, Amanda Hadley on July 7, according to court documents.
Kemp also told Hadley that he received a phone call from Paul in which it “was clear” that Paul was “under the influence of alcohol,” the records said.
Kemp and Headrest’s board chairman Matt McKenney declined to comment for this story.
After being kicked out of Headrest, Paul couch surfed for about 10 days.
On July 16, Hartford police responded to a call from a woman who had found Paul’s body in the wooded area behind 54 Bridge St., near the Main Street Museum.
Although Paul’s cause of death has yet to be determined, people close to him suspect it was an overdose.
Lack of services
Until February, Headrest was the only residential substance abuse treatment center on the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley. The next closest licensed programs are New Hampshire Detox in Bethlehem, N.H., and The Plymouth House in Plymouth, N.H.
“The lack of residential treatment has created strains on all the other providers in the area,” said Zachary Labelle, the community outreach liaison at Comprehensive Treatment Center West Lebanon, a medication-assisted treatment center.
Patients come to the Comprehensive Treatment Center “on a daily basis in the beginning stages of their recovery journey” to receive counseling services and methadone or Suboxone, medications that ease withdrawal symptoms and cravings for opioids, Labelle said.
Labelle’s job is to connect patients to other services they may need. Lately, he hasn’t been able to make contact with Headrest, he said.
The scarce resources have also been noted by corrections officers. If substance abuse treatment is part of an inmate’s sentence, Department of Corrections staff contact different facilities in the state to find bed space in a program that matches the judge’s criteria, Lethbridge said.
“There’s never enough beds to serve all of the need,” Lethbridge said.
Leading up to an inmate’s release, House of Corrections staff work with the inmate to “try to line them up with housing or other support they need,” Lethbridge said.
Paul’s sentence did not include a specific living arrangement.
“Once an inmate is being released, they’re a free citizen,” Lethbridge said. “In the end, I can’t even require an inmate to go to sober living.”
Once Paul was released from jail, “it was luck of the draw where this gentleman chose to go,” Lethbridge said.
