By Phone:

• Call the Elk Grove Village line directly at 847-357-4121
• Call the Police Department at 847-357-4100 (Dial 5 for Social Services)

In-person:

• Present yourself or a loved one to the Elk Grove Village Police Department located at 901 Wellington Ave. Those seeking help will not face arrest. 

• Anyone over the age of 12 struggling with a substance use disorder from the following: Alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines, cannabis, stimulants, and hallucinogens.

• Village residency is not required to participate in Elk Grove Village Cares

• Lack of insurance or the inability to pay for treatment will not disqualify someone from the program. 

Inpatient Facilities:

• Gateway Foundation
• The SHARE Program

Outpatient Facilities:

• A Bridge Back
• Kenneth Young Center 

Inpatient/Outpatient Facility:

• Rosecrance 

• Detoxification 
• Residential (Inpatient) Treatment
• Partial Hospitalization
• Intensive Outpatient
• Individual and Group Therapy
• Transitional Housing/Sober Living Community
• Case Management
• Medication Monitoring
• Psychiatric Evaluation

Services are provided based on individual treatment needs.

Counseling Sessions with Licensed Social Workers

Free Narcan Dispensing Machine

• Available 24/7 in the Police Department Lobby
• Narcan, also known as naloxone, is a life-saving medication that can reverse an overdose from opioids when administered in time usually in the form of a nasal spray. 

Prescription Drug Collection Box

• Available 24/7 in the Police Department Lobby
• Sharps, needles or liquids are not accepted

• Sudden behavioral changes
• Increased irritability or changes in mood
• Weight loss/gain
• Isolation/withdrawal from family and friends
• Change in sleep patterns
• Loss of interest in favorite activities
• Physical appearance (red/glassy eyes, pinpoint or constricted pupils, runny nose, nodding off, needle marks)
• Loss of interest in hygiene or grooming

• Unexplained extreme mood swings
• Changes in dress or appearance
• Isolates from family members and is rarely home
• Collects alcohol and other drug paraphernalia such as vape pens
• Declining schools grades
• Increase in tardiness or missed attendance in school
• Changes in friends
• Becomes secretive and defensive about their actions or whereabouts
• Steals money or objects from family and friends

1. Recognize the Signs of Overdose

• Pin-pointed pupils
• Deep snoring or gurgling
• Slow or no breathing
• Pale, clammy skin
• Fingernails/lips turn blue or purplish-black
• Slow heartbeat/pulse 

2. Shake and Shout

3. Call 9-1-1 immediately

4. Administer Narcan (if available)

For decades illicit drug usage, including heroin and opioid abuse, was viewed as a problem for law enforcement to solve. It has become clear that merely by arresting those who have become victims is not an effective approach to reducing the impact heroin and opioid abuse has on families and communities. Today, opioid addiction is rightfully viewed as a public health crisis that requires not just a police response, but a community-wide response.

As such, the Elk Grove Police Department, like many other law enforcement agencies across the county, has adopted a new approach whose focus is not on arresting the addicted, but on serving as the point of entry for those who want help.

As part of Elk Grove Village Cares, individuals who are willing to take that first step on the road to recovery can walk into the Elk Grove Village Police Department and ask for help. On their behalf, an officer will contact our program partners who provide a full range of addiction and recovery services and also provide safe transportation to a treatment facility for that individual. Every officer has been trained on this new procedure and no one seeking help will be turned away. The goal is to help individuals access the treatment they need.

This policy shift is made possible because the Elk Grove Village Police Department has entered into agreements with substance abuse and addiction counseling institutions. As part of these agreements, partnering providers will do everything they can to ensure that an individual seeking help can access it.

But our commitment doesn’t stop there. After an individual is admitted to treatment, Elk Grove Village social services personnel conducts frequent follow up with individuals and family members. If the hard road to recovery takes months or even years, our social services personnel will be there for any individual that enters treatment via Elk Grove Village Cares. We will support individuals and family members by helping them access community-based support services, providing assistance with insurance challenges including Medicaid application assistance, and making sure that they have our full support during their very difficult journey to recovery.

While this major shift in how to approach this problem is not the first thing the Elk Grove Police Department has done to address the opioid crisis, it is a significant step forward in our efforts  to tackle this problem compassionately and with the safety of our community in mind. Every officer on the force has received training on how to best handle an individual suffering from addiction. Local addiction counselors and physicians have spoken to our officers about the disease of addiction. Additionally, our police officers, firefighters, and paramedics carry Narcan, a drug that can save the lives of overdose victims by immediately reversing the effects of heroin and other opioids.

To be clear, the Elk Grove Village Police Department will continue to be tough on drug-related crime. We will continue to work every day to hold drug offenders—those who place our families, our children and our community in harm’s way—accountable. Over the last five years, our officers have made more than 600 drug-related arrests. However, we also know that the best way to help an individual who is suffering from the disease of addiction isn’t by arresting him or her. The best way is to help them access the care and guidance they need so they can recover.

In addition to helping those addicted get on the road to recovery, Elk Grove Village Cares is also about saving lives. According to the Illinois Department of Human Services, nearly 2,000 people in Illinois died of drug overdoses in 2016. Fully 80 percent of those fatalities were opioid related. Opioid-related overdoses are up 70 percent compared to 2013 statistics.

Narcan, the brand name for a drug called naloxone, is a drug that can rapidly reduce the effects that opioids can have on the human body. It has proven effective in rescuing individuals who are suffering from emergency overdoses. Increasingly, police officers and EMTs have saved lives by deployed Narcan. From 2013-2018, Elk Grove Village Police Officers have saved 16 lives by administering Narcan to overdose victims. In 2018 alone, members of the Elk Grove Village Fire Department have saved five lives by administering Narcan to overdose victims.

Beginning September 14, 2018, the Elk Grove Village Cares program began placing easy-to-use Narcan kits in public spaces so that life-saving treatment is easily accessible. Initially, kits were placed at over 20 locations, including private businesses, schools, churches, and public facilities such as Village Hall. The Village will continue to work with interested organizations and businesses that want to participate in this life-saving effort.

The kits contain two Narcan doses that are administered via a nasal spray. Administering the drug requires no special training or expertise, only the willingness to by any good Samaritans willing to step in to help another in need. The Village has provided training on how to recognize an overdose and administer CPR to Village staff who have daily interactions with the public as well as to staff of participating businesses and organizations.

Elk Grove Village is only the third community nationwide (Albuquerque, New Mexico and Gloucester, Massachusetts are the others) to launch a program where Narcan kits are so easily accessed in public.  More information about Narcan can be found on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.

On average, an individual recovering from the disease of heroin or opioid addiction will relapse seven to ten times. This speaks to both the difficulty of staying clean and also to the need for communities to have ample support mechanisms in place for those in recovery. Further, family members of the addicted often require peer support and programs to help them help their loved one.

Currently, there is a dearth of aftercare support services available in Elk Grove Village for individuals and families struggling with heroin and opioid addiction. In order for Elk Grove Village Cares to be effective, that needs to change. We all play a role in making sure that those who want to stay on the road.

The prevailing wisdom among those who study and treat substance abuse victims is that addiction is a disease, not a lifestyle choice. Many of us have experienced addiction firsthand in our families or social circles be it alcohol, cigarettes or drugs. We know that the hurdles to recovery are very high for those who suffer from substance addiction.

But we also know that there is a stigma attached to heroin and opioid addiction. Many of us just don’t know what to say to an addict or a family member who has a child, sibling or a parent who is in the throes of addiction. We don’t know how to talk about it. Too many of us think those afflicted with the disease of addiction chose their path. We now know that not to be true due to advances in medical and scientific research.

There was a time, believe it or not, that we didn’t talk publicly about diseases like breast cancer or AIDS. But we now know that once we removed the stigma that was attached to those illnesses and once we began an honest conversation about how those illnesses affect communities and families, that the public was better informed and, most importantly, treatment improved and lives were saved.

So, as part of Elk Grove Village Cares, we will be making a greater effort to educate residents about the problem and how it affects Elk Grove Village families. We issued a special edition newsletter when Elk Grove Village Cares was launched, and have continued to promote the program in Village media and publications. The Village also intends to develop educational videos, make information available on our website and tap local experts to speak at Village events and to community groups.