.png)
Speaking Our Minds Podcast
"Speaking Our Minds" is a new mental health podcast from Nashua DPHCS highlighting the lived experiences and struggles of Hispanic and minority communities in New Hampshire. The podcast includes 5 different hosts who speak 5 different languages and share their experiences and valuable community resources.
Speaking Our Minds Podcast
What If Prevention Looked Like Community with Detective Jamie Huertas
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
A scam can look like a simple text message, and the cost can be devastating. We’re joined by Detective Jaime Huertas of the Pelham Police Department, who investigates elder fraud and spends just as much time on prevention as he does on cases. He shares a real scam that took $17,000 from a senior, how the department built an operation that led to an arrest and conviction, and why shame and isolation often keep older adults from reporting what happened. If you’ve ever wondered what “red flags” actually look like in 2026, this conversation gets specific about links, mobile banking risk, and the panic tactics scammers use to rush decisions.
We also zoom out to community-level solutions through the Pelham Community Coalition. Jaime explains why the mock bedroom presentation is so eye-opening for parents and caregivers, how stigma can keep adults from showing up at schools, and why a mobile mock bedroom trailer can make education easier to access at local events. We talk about a key promise that lowers fear for families: when a caregiver finds drugs at home, the goal is removal and help, not charging a child who is struggling with substance use disorder.
The episode also highlights Outrun Addiction, a 5K fundraiser that supports scholarships for students from families impacted by substance use and helps bring motivational speakers into schools. We touch on suicide prevention, remembrance events, peer-to-peer support for first responders, and the simplest self-care advice that still gets overlooked: take time for yourself so you can show up for others. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend or family member, and leave a review so more people can find these local mental health and prevention resources.
Welcome And Today’s Guest
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Speaking Our Mind Podcast, where health is more than healthcare.
SPEAKER_04Hello, to welcome to Speaking Our Minds Podcast, where health is more than healthcare. This is provided by Nashua. This is provided by the City of Nashua
What A Detective Really Does
SPEAKER_04Division of Public Health and Community Services. I'm Savitri Horrigan, behavioral health strategist at Nashua DPHCS. And I'm welcomed here today. I'm joined here today with Detective Jaime Huertas from the Pelham Police Department. Hi, Jaime.
SPEAKER_03Hi, how are you doing, Saviti?
SPEAKER_04Good. Good to see you today. I'm so excited to talk with you. I've really enjoyed all the work we've gotten to do together. And so I would love to hear more about yourself. If you could just introduce yourself to our listeners and what you do.
SPEAKER_03Well, just like you say, my name is Detective Jamie Huertas. That's the title that I hold in Pelham. I work in the detective division. I do a lot of um elderly fraud investigations, criminal investigations. I'm the drug treatment prevention officer with the department. I do a lot of community outreach, hostage negotiator with the SWAT team. I'm a dear officer. I wear many hats for the department.
SPEAKER_04Wow, that's amazing. That was like so many different titles across the lifespan, working across the lifespan. And some of the things you mentioned, like hostage negotiator,
Elder Scams And Why They Work
SPEAKER_04that's so interesting to hear about. I think you were telling us a little earlier about before this, about some of the stuff you do for older adults or maybe some of like the scams that they have experienced.
SPEAKER_03Yes, I'm also the uh senior liaison with the department. So anything that has to do with the seniors, any scams for us, stuff like that, it g comes down to me to investigate. We had one senior that got scammed $17,000, and then uh we ended up doing an operations thing where we told her to tell the scammer that she had $100,000 at the house, and the scammer sent the agent to come pick up the money, and we did the uh operations thing and we arrested the uh individual. And yesterday we got a conviction on it.
SPEAKER_04Wow, that's amazing. That is so incredible. Like, I just what like listening to that, you say it so casually, but that's so much work and effort to, you know, like walk people through those stages. Can you tell me a little bit more about what happens usually with folks who are at risk for these types of scams and how you approach it with a lot of empathy? Because I know that from working with you that you always bring a lot of empathy to those situations.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, there's different ways, there's different scams out there now. There's a lot of stuff with Bitcoin, a lot of stuff for online with banking, there's uh the viruses on your computer and stuff like that. So it depends where you click on on the link. And some of these people are given access to the they're getting access to your computer, and that's how they're scamming the other person.
SPEAKER_04Do you feel like in your experience with folks who are at risk of these types of scams, scams, that there's an element of increased vulnerability for older adults if there's no more more loneliness that's being experienced or less connection to people?
SPEAKER_03Absolutely, 100%. Uh and they prey on people like that.
SPEAKER_04Unfortunately. That's really hard. But that's wonderful that you and your department were able to help this individual and get her money back every every you know, dollar counts as we age. And so that was that
Rebuilding The Pelham Community Coalition
SPEAKER_04was a huge win. Thank you for sharing that. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So I kind of wanted to ask you about the Pelham Community Coalition. I know you've done a lot of work with them. Could you please tell me about the what type of work you all focus on and some of the projects that y'all are working on, like the race and the mock bedroom trailer?
SPEAKER_03So I'm a member, a member of the uh Pelham Community Coalition. I love that organization. It was after before COVID, you know, they were meeting. After when COVID hit, they stopped meeting and the organization wasn't doing much. So I reached out, I was like, hey, let's get this group back up and running, which we did. And then basically basically what we do is we do a lot of community outreach. We try to bring the message out to the parents of any uh anyone that's struggling with substance use disorder so that they can get the help that they need, and we'll provide them with resources. One of the things we were doing was we were doing a mock bedroom presentation at the schools. But you know, what when it comes to stuff like that, a lot of parents used to have that stigma, you know, not my kids, or I don't want to be seen at the school because this is a mock bedroom presentation, it has to do with drugs, and what's my neighbor gonna say, or what my friend's gonna say if they see me at the school. So we weren't getting a big turnout. There was people showing up another big turnout. So I said, you know what? Let's let's spin this around. Let's try to let's try to get a trailer. And we can buy a trailer and let's outfit the trailer with a kid's teenager's bedroom inside. And we can put in hides and we'll wrap the trailer, make it eye caching, catching, and then uh we'll put a QR code so people can scan the QR code and notes we what the panel complex is all about, and we'll bring the trailer to any community events, and only adults will get to tour this trailer and get the um
The Mock Bedroom Trailer Idea
SPEAKER_03education they need, you know, on what hides kids can buy online now that looks authentic as the stuff we may have at home. And if they find this stuff at home, they can reach out to us. The child won't get charged. We will remove the drugs from the house and we'll work on getting help for that individual.
SPEAKER_04I think that's a really important part. That last, I mean, it's all important, but the thing you just mentioned about the child won't get charged, I think is a huge, you know, addressing a huge barrier that a lot of parents, grandparents, caregivers might face is they maybe are experiencing this or witnessing this in their their child's house room, but are not sure about what to do, what to say, worried about getting their child in trouble, and then maybe not having the tools or resources to address it. And so if it goes unaddressed, it may get worse and escalate.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. My job is not to start a teenager because he's struggling with substance use disorder. I got into this field, so it was to help people. And if I can make a change on one person, I think I've done my job. And when anytime a parent will come up and say, hey, listen, I found this. I believe my kid has some drugs at home. Can you come check it out? We'll go over, check it out. I don't take a report number. There's no documentation that I taught to you. There's no documentation about your child's information. The only documentation that I have to do is I have I have to write down I picked up whatever, uh, three bags of cocaine because I gotta enter these three bags into evidence to destroy it. Because what goes to say that I didn't keep the drugs, you know? Yeah. So that's the only documentation is there that I picked up, I found three bags. I entered into evidence for destruction. It doesn't say who gave it to me, what address I went to, who I talked to, nothing.
SPEAKER_04Wow, that's really helpful to know. Thank you for sharing that.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Can you tell me a little bit about what are some of the common misconceptions or questions or kind of key takeaways that parents and caregivers have when they go to these mock bedrooms?
SPEAKER_03They're shocked on the stuff that they see, you know, what we have for hides. And a lot of them don't know the help that's out there, you know. And so we have like different brochures and pamphlets, and we've you've came out to help us as well. You sat at a table, and it's that it's that uh outreach, you know, and giving them the information that you know they probably don't know about, and then they walk out of there with more knowledge.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely. I know I was shocked when I went to uh your mock bedroom. That was my first one I ever went to, and I was like, whoa. And you said these are all available online. And I was like, wow, that's really mind-boggling and really illustrated to me how urgent this matter is. These things are all accessible to our youth. And so it's really necessary that we have these resources and events like what you're putting together so that everyone in the family, parents, children, caregivers can know and be informed. Not that these events are for children, but absolutely only for adults. Yes, and I thought you did a very good job making it look very realistic with like clothes strewn everywhere.
SPEAKER_03I tried, I tried.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's a very fun and educational event, which I appreciate. And I'm so excited for this trailer that you're creating to make it more accessible to people.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, in this trailer, we're gonna be using it at any event that uh Pelham has, and we will also bring this trailer out to any other community that would like to have the trailer there. So Windham wants it, Nashville wants it, Merrimack wants it. Because after I did the mock bedroom in Pelham, I had uh Merrimack reach out, they wanted to do it. We went to Merrimack PD and we did a couple mock bedrooms. He's done some as well. He saw my trailer, he saw the trailer, he's like, This is awesome. He's like, Can I take some photos? He was I would love to do the same thing in Merrimack. So he did. So hopefully Merrimack will get a trailer as well. Wyndham did the same thing, a teacher, and Wyndham, her husband, is a lieutenant in Nashua, reached out, asked for the stuff so they could do it in Wyndham. So now we have the trailer, we'll bring it out to their events, and it's it's it's that you know, spreading the awareness.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's awesome. I I love all of that, like just collaboration with other departments too. I've I've really enjoyed the mock bedrooms that the officer in Merrimack uh police
Outrun Addiction 5K And Scholarships
SPEAKER_04department also does. Those are really wonderful. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the Outrun Addiction 5K. I know it's coming up soon, but it happens every year, right?
SPEAKER_03It does. This is our second one. It's outrun addiction, it's a 5K, and you can run a walk. If you run, it's like 3.1 miles. If you walk it, it's two miles. And all the money that we raise on this 5K goes towards scholarships to kids who suffer from uh the family suffer from substance use disorder that they can't afford to go to school, pay for the colleges. So this that's where that money goes to. And then some of the money that we have as well goes to us getting motivational speakers into the schools to talk to the kids at an early age so they can make better choices in life.
SPEAKER_04Wow, that's amazing. I didn't realize that's what the money was going towards was supporting the the students and the the families um who have that experience in their lives. That's really wonderful.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_04I haven't gotten a chance to go yet, but I'm hoping to go soon. Uh can you tell me a little bit about some of the unique elements of this 5k that just really make it, you know, unique?
SPEAKER_03So we we have the one that we have, we we're having one May 31st of this year at nine o'clock is the starting time. We have different medals for age brackets as well. So it's not like you only a first and second, third place. So it's gonna be H brackets. So we have from like zero to 12 years old, you know, whatever. You know, there's gonna be a time, there's uh, and then like from 15 to 25, this time age brackets, and there's medals for each each uh category for first, second, and third. Next year we're gonna try to see because we're gonna be doing it every year. Next year we're gonna try to see if we incorporate dogs as well, because we're dog friendly. Oh, that's wonderful. We're gonna see if we can uh get uh people to bring their dogs in the races, and we'll give medals to those the first three dogs that crosses the uh finish line to help the runners or the walkers through as well. So, yeah, that's that's the goal.
SPEAKER_04That's awesome. I love the idea of incorporating dogs because animals and and the emotional support they provide is just un unmatched.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. We'll have a DJ there as well. Oh, cool. Yeah, it's gonna be food and it's yeah, it's it's gonna be a good event.
SPEAKER_04I love that. I love the combination of food, music, animals in the future, just people gathering in community to, you know, for something related to addiction and grief, and also community and connectedness.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and one of the stuff that we're doing too with the race, we have a poster project that we do. So basically, if you lost a loved one to substance use or suicide, you can send us a photo of your loved one and two phrases of what you remember your loved one by, right? At no cost to you, the Pelham Community Coalition will pay to have that photo, a poster size. Like what will you see when you know when people go for elections? They have the posters and so it'll be a live-sized poster, and then we will put these posters out at every event that we do. It's just to pay the respects for the loved ones. That's another stuff we do.
SPEAKER_04That's beautiful. I really love that idea of having these posters where people can, you know, honor their loved ones and have these quotes, uh, memories of the things that they used to say and remember
School Speakers On Mental Health
SPEAKER_04them by. And that's really sweet. I love that a lot.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely.
SPEAKER_04Thank you for sharing that. So I'm also interested in the speakers that you all have. You mentioned that some of the funds go towards bringing speakers to the schools.
SPEAKER_03We do, yeah. Uh, we use it for motivational speakers. The first one we had last year, we did uh it was Hoffman. Oh, Tony Hoffman. Tony Hoffman. Yes, Tony Hoffman is present of the Olympics. He was awesome. He taught to the students to all it was about five hundred and five hundred and ten students at the high school. The whole auditorium was full, and uh, he had all the attention. It was it was awesome. Yeah, they listened, they they were quiet. Yes, and then the last one we had this year was Sam Demmer, the red backpack. You can see his stuff on uh on uh YouTube. He was phenomenal as well. He actually spoke to the kids at the uh elementary and at the high school.
SPEAKER_04Wow. So yeah, it was that's cool.
SPEAKER_03Good, good, good guys.
SPEAKER_04I like that they are talking to other ages too, because I think starting young is also really important.
SPEAKER_03You gotta start from the young, young kiddos, you know, yeah all the way up to the end.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Would you tell our listeners a little bit about what these speakers talk about and kind of the key takeaways they try to share with the youth?
SPEAKER_03So the key speakers will talk about their life experience, what they've gone through, the struggles they've they've gone through and uh where they're at now, how successful they've made they've made it now, and and they let them know, you know, not to take those, those, uh, those paths, how they can change their life without going the way the route they took, and because they they talk about all the struggles they went through with you know the uh bad stuff that the families uh also experienced because of the life choices they did or the friendships that they made at an early age as well. So yes, it's they talk about bullying, how it affects other people, you know, mental health, all that stuff. So it it they hit like every topic. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I remember that I think it was for Tony Hoffman, he spoke about having experiences with anxiety and ADHD growing up and not really knowing or having the resources to navigate that. And in addition to the high pressure of being an Olympic athlete, yes, and all of that, like all of that pressure that goes along with that, and then having that experience with developing a substance use disorder. I think that for me, the takeaway, well, it was just incredible just to hear that raw vulnerability from somebody to talk about their mental health journey. I feel like that's always really just so critical to hear other people be so open and vulnerable about what they're going through in their mental health. I think also for me, it highlighted the importance of prevention at an early age, like all the work that you're doing. Because if if children and families don't know or have the resources to address these other mental health issues or other, you know, needs that they have, like around anxiety, ADHD, any other types of needs that they might have, it can really isolate.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. It goes hand in hand, you know, mental health and substance use, you know, definitely hand in hand.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. And the other person you you mentioned has a red backpack series on YouTube.
SPEAKER_03Yes, he does. You gotta watch it. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_04Okay, that sounds very cool. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Sam Demma.
SPEAKER_04Sam Demma, awesome. Are there any other things that y'all are working at, working on with the Pelham
Vigils, Veterans, And Peer Support
SPEAKER_04Community Coalition that you'd like to highlight?
SPEAKER_03Uh, we do a lot of stuff. Uh, we do the candlelight visual. We remember family members and loved ones that died from overdoses or suicide. We do that type of stuff as well. We do suicide prevention. The month we do is a week where we teamed up with the honor bearer project and uh we set up flags at the village green. We have a lot of veterans that that come up as well. And it's for veterans and first responders as well. Oh wow, yeah, mental health hits hits home.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely. Can you tell me more about that event and when it typically happens in the year?
SPEAKER_03Uh I believe it's in August when we do that event. Okay. But yeah, we we reach out to the VFW, they come over, they do a nice uh presentation. The chief usually says says a speech as well. And it's just talking about you know the awareness about the mental health, suicide, uh, substance use, how it impacts everyone, and that they're not alone. There's, you know, we have people that are out there their job is out there to help you, you know, through those struggles. Even in our department, we have what's called the peer-to-peer. So we'd have like a check, a buddy check system where we check on each other, you know, how you're doing. Because today you might have gone to a call and it was traumatic for you. You know, for me, it probably was nothing, but for you it hit home, you know. So we do a buddy check system, peer-to-peer, and and our chief is very big on the mental health aspects as well. So we got to see a clinician every year as well, sit down with a clinician to make sure you're you're okay.
SPEAKER_04Wow, that's really wonderful that there's all these different like support systems in place to help support folks. And I really like the peer-to-peer, what did you call it?
SPEAKER_03The it's a peer-to-peer.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, peer-to-peer program, checking in on each other. I think it always means so much more when it comes from someone that you already have that established relationship with, as opposed to someone that you don't maybe know as well. And maybe they with with that established relationship, I feel like usually people can also pick up on really small cues too.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely. And if you're broken, you're not gonna be able to help someone that's in crisis, right? So if you're broken, your buddies gonna see you and they're gonna know something's wrong. Most likely, probably your family life is not going well as well because now you're broken. So let's let's work on helping you get better so you can help others and you can live a good family life.
SPEAKER_04Yeah,
Red Flags For Digital Fraud
SPEAKER_04absolutely.
SPEAKER_01I just want to think, Savichi, sorry to interrupt, but this for those who are listening, this is Jonathan Detective. I just wanted to kind of circle back on on what you were mentioning about the elderly being scammed by these predators online, these digital predators, right? If you can just touch base on you, also mentioned that you do these education pieces with the senior center in regards to you know making sure that they're they're aware of the red flags and stuff like that. But if you can just touch in a little bit of what you tell them to pay attention to, just for those listeners here that are listening, maybe they're they're not aware of it, can probably help them.
SPEAKER_03So, yeah, absolutely. There's there's a lot of different scams out there now. You'll see, you know, if you if you own a cell phone, one of the big ones now is the easy pass. You know, you owe a fee for the easy pass, and there's a link that they want you to click so you can pay. That you click on that link, they're gonna get all the access to whatever you have on your cell phone. A lot of us use mobile apps like banking apps on our cell phones, so all the information is there. Your passwords are on your cell phone. So once you click on that app, the scammer has full access range to your cell phone. Same thing goes with computers. If you have a laptop and you got a desktop computer, you'll see that they'll send out a virus. Your computer is infected with virus, or they'll send uh they'll send a uh pornographic image to your computer, and now they say you have to pay to get this fixed, and now they're gonna get your information. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, creating panic basically, right? Yes. Okay. Now, how long have you been educating the those folks when when it comes to that information?
SPEAKER_03I've been doing it for 10 years now in Pelham.
SPEAKER_01And have you noticed kind of a decrease in in like cases when it comes to that since you've been doing it?
SPEAKER_03Or we have, but I don't think it's because of the outreach that we do. I think it's a lot of them is did they're not reporting, you know, because they are ashamed of of you know of because now you have also Bitcoin. They try to scam you with you know uh deposits to Bitcoin and this uh the uh the w um that wallet ID number and stuff like that. So I think it's lack of reporting.
SPEAKER_01As far and one last question, as far as because as you know, with the technology, it evolves every year, there's always something different. So is you doing that and being you know one of the uh contacts, you know, in regards to that type of work that you do, is this something that you also get education from other people outside of the department in regards to newer things that can be caused, you know, can be a scam in the future or something that's evolving, like for example, like AI right now. People can't tell the difference if it's a human being or a robot talking to them. So is that something that you get education from outside sources of something that's coming brand new to be aware of?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so there's different trainings that we got to take every year. And when stuff like that comes up, you know, we get a notification on our email. Hey, we're gonna be hosting the training at this department or at this school or whatnot. And then the PD will pay for me to go. If it's a two-day training, if it's a week training. Uh some of them are pretty in-depth, so this they cover multiple stuff. So it could be a week training, but usually about two or three-day trainings every year, whatever comes up, yeah, the PD will pay for me to go.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Thank you for that information.
SPEAKER_03Uh, you're welcome. And we also have a bank, a bank in town. Uh, it was Enterprise Bank, now it's Rockland Trust. Their manager, it's all she also works hand in hand with us in Helm when we go to the senior center to talk about the uh scams, different frauds. And they're they work they're very, very closely with us when it comes to stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Again, thank you for that information. It's really critical information, especially, you know, somebody I have a mother who's older who know the difference, right? And I'm sure it's Vitri. So that really is information that's crucial for folks like us to make sure that you know our loved ones don't get scammed. Absolutely. You know, we're not always going to be around, but it's just and we just have to make sure they get educated on it because these phones are live all the time, 24-7, so you don't know what they're getting into. Many computers. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04So I
How To Reach Help Anytime
SPEAKER_04wanted to wrap up with just one more question or two more questions. One about one's about where can people find uh look for more resources about all this or contact you for a mock bedroom, for example.
SPEAKER_03So they can call me at the uh PD 603-635-2411. Again, 603-635-2411, or they can reach me at my cell phone. I got a department cell phone, which is 603-508-0152. 603-508-0152. I got that phone walling 24-7. So anyone that uh is looking for information on where to get help, if someone is struggling with substance use or someone struggling with mental health, I don't care if it's two, three, four o'clock in the morning. If you call me, I'm gonna pick up my phone. If you leave me a message, because I'm tet up and I don't pick up, I'll call you back and I'll get you the help you need.
SPEAKER_04Wow. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you're welcome.
SPEAKER_04And then also I wanted to share for the Pelham Community Coalition, they can their website is the uh P-E-L-H-A-M-C-O-A-L-I-T-I-O-N dot org.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and that'll have a lot of the resources that you also mentioned.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely, yes. And we have a Facebook page as well. The Facebook page for our uh coalition. Let me make sure I give you the right one, is Palum Community Coalition. You'll find us on Facebook.
SPEAKER_04Okay, perfect. Thank you. And finally, I just wanted to ask wrap up with if you have any advice for folks out there related to self-care and just
Self-Care And Closing Thoughts
SPEAKER_04making sure we're, you know, having space for our own mental health through all of this.
SPEAKER_03Take time for yourself. Take time for yourself, take a break, take a pause, and work on yourself. If you're not good, you're not going to be good for anyone else.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to speaking of my podcast. Health is more than healthcare.