Pat Carroll is all too familiar with the impact of opioids on people's lives.

"This is about enough fentanyl to take your life," said Carroll, holding up a tiny vial. A retired member of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, he has a personal connection to the dangers of opioid drug use.

He lost his son to an overdose.

"My goal is to do every single thing I can every single day so nobody else has to go through what I went through," said Carroll.

He came to the Saugerties Veterans Resource Fair as an education coordinator for the ORACLE program, a substance use prevention and recovery group, to educate veterans and active-duty service members about the dangers of opioid use.

"We like to do the Narcan training and send people home with a Narcan kit," said Carroll.

In 2020, Ulster County reported a 94% increase in opioid-related deaths.

Veterans are, unfortunately, not immune to the disease of addiction.

According to the VA, 27% of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in their care also deal with substance use disorders.

"We have seen veterans, the majority of the time, they do come back and they're damaged," said Carroll.

ORACLE was one of many community groups and organizations that came together at the fair to bring information about vital services to vets in their communities.

"People feel really left behind and these services are out there, but we can’t expect people to find all of these disparate services on their own," state Senator Michelle Hinchey said.

Dr. Jim Besong spoke to vets about his family practice, but also looked at other organizations.

Besong served in the Marines from 2004 to 2009, and was deployed to Iraq. He wished he had visited a veterans resource fair sooner.

"This is the first I've ever been to, and it's very important. I've seen a lot of services here that, it's like, wow, I've not seen this in so long," Besong said. 

He was particularly interested in programs that help veterans reintegrate into everyday life.

"It is very important because with PTSD I know the symptoms, I've gone through it," said Besong. "You are kind of isolated. You want to stay in the house, and you don’t want to do anything. As a vet myself, I know we suffer a lot from that, and we need a lot of help."