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Bucks County man helping those struggling with addiction during COVID-19 pandemic
FOX 29's Bill Anderson has the story.
LANGHORNE, Pa. - A Bucks County man is stepping up to help people struggling with addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We don’t want anyone to miss treatment or miss the support that they need because of this pandemic," Don Colamesta told FOX 29.
Most of us know of the overwhelmed hospitals in our area due to the coronavirus, but there is a less talked about shortage of resources that for Don Colamesta, the founder and CEO of Silver Linings Recovery Center, is personal.
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“My experience is that I’m a man in long-term recovery who struggled with addiction for a long time,” explained Colamesta.
Maintaining sobriety is his life but it soon became his career as he opened housing and treatment facilities.
His recovery center in Langhorne was barely a year old when the coronavirus hit.
“I mean who could’ve predicted that we would be open for a year and then all of the sudden, the people we need to help the most wouldn’t be able to access us," he said.
Most of these facilities are paid through insurance or private funds and people get there on public transportation. All of those things right now are severely limited and that’s a problem for those who are in recovery. So Colamesta decided that helping people now is more important that their ability to pay for it.
"As someone who spent a good deal of his life in and out of prisons and living homeless in the streets suffering from drug and alcohol addiction, I understand the stakes for someone living with that disease while dealing with this global pandemic.”
Colamesta plans to offer free telehealth for people that don’t have access to treatment, have had their insurance cut or cannot get the rides that they need to get to these recovery centers. He’s another person who wasn’t a fan of being interviewed for all of his hard work but agreed because he wanted anyone who needed treatment during this pandemic just to give them a call.“If I can’t use everything that I’ve gained throughout sobriety to help other people, then what’s the point?”
After Colamesta’s history of addiction, incarceration and homelessness, it was obvious that he disagreed with being called a hero but was touched by what others thought of him.“When you hear that someone is saying you’re a hero, how do you respond to that? It’s not a factual statement. I’m a survivor, just trying to help other people."
He may just be a survivor in his mind, but to all of those people that he has helped, he is a hero to them — for goodness sake.
We want to hear from you. Tell us about a hero you know using the hashtag #FOX29Heroes or #ForGoodnesSake.
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