Middleborough Detectives serve as the primary service provider in the Town of Middleborough for the Plymouth County Outreach. Plymouth County Outreach (PCO) was developed through the Public Safety Community Coalition and Faith Based Subcommittees of the Plymouth County Drug Abuse Task Force. Since its inception, PCO has fostered an innovative law enforcement/non-law enforcement collaboration which includes the District Attorney’s Office, the Sheriff’s Department, all 27 Police Departments, 5 major hospitals, recovery coaches, DCF, District Court Probation, PAARI, as well as community and faith-based coalitions.
The PCO has two main aspects of the program. They are overdose follow-ups and community drop-in centers. Within 12-24 hours of an overdose, an outreach team consisting of a plain clothes officer and a licensed clinician and/or a recovery coach will conduct a home visit of the overdose survivor. The intent of the outreach effort is to provide resources and support to those with substance abuse disorders and/or their families with the hope of getting people into treatment and connecting families and friends with existing resources in the county. Through the support of Project Outreach and PCO Hope, drop-in centers are held each week in various sites across Plymouth County. These centers host a growing number of health care providers who help with treatment options and train and distribute Narcan (also known as Naloxone which can reverse an opioid overdose) for free.