- Hi everyone, Steve Adubato here.

We kick off the program with Gary Mendell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of an important organization called Shatterproof.

Gary, good to have you with us.

Thank you.

- Likewise, Steve, thanks.

A pleasure to be here.

- Shatterproof, established in 2013.

Give folks some context as to why this organization was started and why it's so personal for you.

- Sure.

My older son, Brian, in high school, became addicted to alcohol and then drugs.

And went to treatment programs, in and out, for eight years, and tragically he passed away in October, 2011.

Obviously it doesn't get much worse as a father, and I really struggled with two questions, Steve.

What could I have done differently as a father, and what could be done to spare other families of the tragedy that my family had suffered?

I took three months away from my business, traveled the country looking for answers for those two questions, and what popped out of that three months of travel were a few things.

How big this disease was, third largest cause of death in our country, that eight out of 10 of those who had this disease developed it before the age of 18.

But what really struck me, Steve, was that I discovered that all this research existed, buried in medical journals, that had proven from randomly controlled trials to be able to prevent a lot of this, a lot of our loved one from developing this disease, and for those who had it, treatment protocols that had been proven to improve outcomes for success rates comparable to other chronic illnesses.

Yet all this information was buried in the medical journals and not being implemented.

And when I asked myself why, it became clear for every major disease in this country, there was one well-funded national organization, non-profit, leading the fight to protect our families from their respective diseases, and nothing existed for addiction.

So seeing that, I left my business, spent a year and a half developing a business plan to launch a non-profit like those that we have for other diseases to get this research out there and implemented, and save lives.

- So as we put up the Shatterproof website, let me ask you this.

You've said there are three pillars, you tell our producers that there are three key pillars to the Shatterproof methodology.

What are those, Gary?

- Sure.

Transforming the treatment system in the United States, which has been outdated, left out of the health care system, bring it into the health care system, the same science-based protocols we have for any other disease, number one.

Number two, end the stigma that's associated with this disease, with those who have it, their families, the medications that treat it.

End it, like we've done with other disease states and other social issues.

And number three, provide the education that families need to be able to prevent their children growing up from developing this disease, or their loved ones if they're adults.

And for those who do develop it, and some will, how do you navigate the treatment system?

And empower them, give them resources to empower them if they want to help.

- Someone watching right now, they see a loved one, someone they care deeply about, struggling with substance abuse.

They follow up on the Shatterproof website.

- Right.

- What resources are there for them?

Or is it helping them navigate in their own community?

Because you're a national organization, but people want to access locally, if that makes any sense.

- Absolutely, makes perfect sense.

We do have resources on our website.

So if someone listening, watching us right now, has an issue in their family with someone who may have this disease, you go to the find help section on our website, and the first thing they can do is there's a section there they can go to, a resource we have called Atlas.

- Atlas.

- Atlas, A-T-L-A-S. And it's in the subsection on finding help related to treatment.

And there, any family, confidentially, completely confidential, can take a 13 question assessment that was built by us with the science of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, which is the gold standard, to determine does that loved one need what level of care?

Do they need residential?

Do they need out-patient?

Or do they not need treatment at all, they just need an intervention?

So that's the first thing.

They'll also get a recommendation based on those 13 questions, based on that level of care, let's just say it's out-patient.

Do they need an out-patient program with medications or not, based on how you answer those questions.

Do you need mental health services or not?

What additional services do you need?

And then once you have that recommendation, that's a huge start.

And then if you happen to be looking for treatment in one of ten states that we have data on on the treatment programs, you can determine which treatment programs are following evidence-based practices, and which ones are not.

And we're soon gonna be in 14 states, representing almost half the country.

14 states is a quarter of the states, but it's half the population because of the size of the states.

- And is New Jersey one of those states?

- Yes, it is.

We're already live in New Jersey today.

- We are based in New Jersey, we're New Jersey centric, but obviously the issues we're talking about are national in scope and impact.

Quick follow up on the question of public policy.

New Congress coming, split Houses, if you will, this program will be seen in 2023, and individual state legislatures, executive branches of government.

One policy change improvement that would have significant impact on the issues that we're talking about as it relates to addiction and the struggle of addiction.

Any government policy?

- Sure, we can break it up into federal and state.

There are many state policies.

Let's leave that alone for a second.

Federal, we have a bill in Congress right now that would, it's already passed the Senate.

We've been working on it for three years.

Excuse me, it's already passed the House, it's sitting in the Senate, that would require every doctor in the country who has a DEA license to prescribe controlled substances, which is essentially every doctor in the country.

- The Drug Enforcement Agency, go ahead.

- Right, if they have that license, which is essentially most doctors, they would have to have eight hours of continuing education on the basics of prevention and treatment and recovery of addiction.

Not specialty care, the basics.

And if that law were to pass the Senate and get signed by President Biden, then you'd have every doctor out there today that would have within 12 months, they would have to have that eight hours of continuing education.

And by the way, they all take continuing education anyway.

They would just take this eight hours versus something else that is optional.

And then you would have every medical school required, because who wants to graduate medical school and not be able to prescribe controlled substances?

- And it hasn't been passed.

But it passed the House, it's in the Senate.

- It's in the Senate right now, correct.

- Real quick, does it have to be passed by the House again because it's a new House?

- It does not have to be passed by the House again unless the Senate amends it and sends it back to the House.

- Gary, I want to thank you so much.

We appreciate not just you joining us, but more importantly the work you're doing every day.

- Steve, thank you.

- Thank you.

Gary Mendell is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shatterproof.

Gary, best to you and your family.

All the best.

- Thank you, thank you, Steve.

- You got it.

We'll be right back after this.

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