The bigger picture

Matt Ryan has seen the suffering addiction causes.

The SUNY Adirondack student lived in Florida when the opioid epidemic took hold, and he watched friends struggle. But as he witnessed the chaos around him unfold, he realized substance abuse isn’t a siloed issue.

“Criminal justice, substance abuse and mental health are looked at as separate issues, but really it’s one issue intertwined,” said Ryan, who searched online for degree programs in New York state and found SUNY Adirondack’s Criminal Justice: Substance Abuse Services (CRSA).

He enrolled in 2013 and took a summer internship in a dual recovery program through a local association for mental health.

“I continued to show up, unpaid, for another nine months, so they eventually hired me,” Ryan said. He served as case manager, then program coordinator and director, creating pro- gramming, writing requests for proposals, securing funding and collaborating with law enforcement agencies on ways to reduce recidivism.

“I love direct care, but my true passion is creating programs, policies and initiatives, working toward the ultimate goal of reaching and serving the most people,” he said.

Ryan left the agency for a better work-life balance (he has an infant and a toddler at home), returned to SUNY Adirondack to finish a CRSA degree and works as youth health care manager at Wait House.

In January, he started work at Empire State University on a business management degree in economics.

a culmination in Continuums of Care,”

“Any community or region with federal funding through HUD is mandated to have COC, with the goal of solving homelessness as a core value, but it’s so much more: shared resources, collaboration and program development.”

As a member of a COC agency, Ryan chairs committees that help create policy and a strategic plan to help see people through recovery.

“I saw the 500,000-foot view while doing this and working with other agencies. I got to see the fruits of my labor and my colleagues’ labor turn into tangible results, from concept to completion, from writing these grants and RTCs to ‘Welcome home,’ with someone walking into a beautiful apartment with their new baby and their spouse, and being able to do that on a statewide level, that is something I fell in love with,” Ryan said.