Addiction Treatment Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Local Outcry Spurs Beckley To Drop Addiction Recovery Resource Expansion

Last month, Beckley was poised to become the first city nationally to earn a special status for its addiction recovery resources. But on Tuesday, Beckley residents packed a meeting of the Beckley Common Council to express concerns over the plan.

Last month, Beckley was poised to become the first city nationally to earn a special status for its addiction recovery resources.

Now, the city has dropped that plan entirely.

By creating new recovery resources — like an addiction advisory council and recurring community destigmatization events — Beckley would have earned the international status of “inclusive recovery city,” joining 26 other cities around the world.

But on Tuesday, Beckley residents packed a meeting of the Beckley Common Council to express concerns over the plan.

Some said Mayor Rob Rappold had adopted the plans without first accepting public comments or seeking council approvals.

Others claimed the new resources would over-extend public resources and draw more homeless people to the city.

Mary West, a Beckley resident and former council candidate, expressed disapproval of the plans and homelessness in the city.

There are “all these homeless people that I see walking through here, and they’re in front of my house, throwing backpacks in my yard with drugs,” she said.

During the council meeting, Rappold said he was surprised to hear the plans had garnered any backlash, maintaining that they would benefit the local community.

But on Thursday he dropped the project entirely, echoing national trends.

Resident concerns over homelessness and drug use have delayed rehab centers in the Bronx, Boston and North Carolina, blocking rehab expansions as overdoses rise nationally. For years, West Virginia has had more overdose deaths than any other state.

James Phillips, the local addiction recovery advocate who spearheaded the project, declined to comment on this story, and referred West Virginia Public Broadcasting to a Wednesday press release.

“The purpose of an inclusive recovery city is not to establish a sanctuary city or initiate a radical shift in approach,” he said in the press release. “It is not a program designed to attract or increase any capacity, and it requires no city funding, assets or grants to implement.”

In response to community concerns, Phillips will host a presentation and community discussion on the plans March 19 at 9:30 a.m. at 410 Neville Street in Beckley.

Phillips said that the project aimed to bolster support for residents experiencing addiction, and “walk aside them, offering hope [and] encouragement.”

The City of Beckley is an underwriter of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Beckley First US City To Earn International Status For Addiction Recovery Support

Beckley was named the first inclusive recovery city in the United States, joining 26 other cities globally in providing city-level resources for addiction recovery.

The first city in the United States granted a special status for its addiction recovery resources is located in southern West Virginia.

On March 19, Beckley will become the first city in the nation to be named an inclusive recovery city, joining 27 other cities globally.

Recovery cities are recognized for their citywide approach to curbing addiction and supporting individuals experiencing the condition.

To achieve its new status, the city will host four community events annually, which aim to directly include individuals experiencing addiction and promote community well-being.

In collaboration with the international recovery city program, the city will also create a new recovery council.

The group of community advocates, addiction specialists and city officials will work together to address addiction recovery on the local level.

James Phillips, executive director of the Beckley addiction recovery nonprofit Seed Sower, is spearheading the project.

He said these events are “public, celebratory, community recovery events” that will reinforce the idea that recovery “is not something to shy away from or to hide.”

“It’s okay to celebrate it openly and publicly, because there is hope,” he said.

Phillips said he hopes the city’s new designation can foster more productive conversations on addiction.

“The research has been telling us for a number of years now that one of the best ways to promote long-term remission from substance use disorder is by positive social relationships and meaningful activities in the community,” he said.

The recovery city program accomplishes this by bringing together different members of the local community to advance a shared goal of strengthening addiction recovery resources.

This citywide effort can be more effective than a person-by-person approach to addiction recovery, Phillips said.

“When you have multiple isolated pockets of recovery [that] maybe don’t know what the other pockets of recovery are doing, there are people that slip through the gaps,” he said.

Phillips and several city officials will attend a charter signing March 19 to formalize the new status.

The event will feature David Best as a keynote speaker. Best conceptualized the program, and serves as president of the Recovery Outcomes Institute in Florida.

“This model offered a strategic way to best help the people and employers of this region, leveraging the area’s considerable community strengths and organizational assets,” Best said in a statement Wednesday.

Beckley Mayor Rob Rappold expressed his support for the city’s new status.

“We are honored to be the first city in the country to be named an IRC,” he said Wednesday. “Our city leaders and our citizens have steadfastly stood with those in recovery seeking a path forward.”

With the city’s new status, Phillips said he hopes Beckley can continue “destigmatizing addiction and recovery.”

Through more community-based support, Beckley can provide new forms of support “for people who are suffering from a chronic health condition that we very rarely treat as a chronic health condition,” he said.

Lily’s Place Funded For Residential Family Treatment Services

Lily’s Place is a stand alone facility in Huntington where infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, can receive specialized treatment.

The Huntington center has been awarded $514,150 per year for five years from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Projects (SAMHSA) for a competitive project titled “Promoting Resiliency in Appalachian Families through Comprehensive Residential Treatment Services for Women with Substance Use Disorder that Have Children.”

Lily’s Place Executive Director Rebecca Crowder says with establishing residential services, the facility continues to build upon the original mission of serving infants with NAS by expanding services to the families of these children.

In 2020, the Family Center was opened to provide behavioral health and supportive services to adults. The Children’s Center, providing extended counseling and preventative services to siblings, clients 18 and younger, opened this past April.

“It’s very important to take care of these mamas and their families,” Crowder said. “But we also want to work with the kids at the same time to make sure that we break that generational cycle of addiction.”

Crowder said one of the holistic ways to help prevent NAS in the decades to come is to offer apartment living for women and their children seeking recovery services that will help these families become self-sustainable.

“They will also be able to have the access to the counseling, the case management, the peer support, as well as the Children’s Center will provide those extra behavioral health support to the children,” she said. “Support to help them cope with life situations including navigating the lifestyle of working with their parents during their journey to recovery.”

Crowder said the funding will specifically go to the project of the program that will happen at the residential facility.

“It does sound like a lot of money,” she said. “But it is a cost sharing grant, which means it is only covering a portion of the services we will be providing and the rest we have to cover ourselves.”

Since 2014, Lily’s Place has served more than 350 babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. With Huntington having one of the highest opioid addiction rates in the country, organizers found the number of babies born with NAS increasing and knew there had to be a better way to care for them.

They discovered the bright lights, loud beeping equipment and busy atmosphere was the opposite of what babies with NAS need most. Lily’s Place offers private rooms with a quiet atmosphere and dim lighting, which are best for babies with NAS, who are sensitive to light and sound.

The new residential treatment center is expected to begin serving families by the beginning of 2024.

Experts Say Understanding Terminology Of Addiction Helps Treat The Disease

The drug epidemic is an ever-evolving hot-button topic with tons of buzzwords. But what does it all mean?

The drug epidemic is an ever-evolving hot-button topic with tons of buzzwords. But what does it all mean? Appalachia Health News Reporter, Emily Rice sat down with Susan Mullens, West Virginia Collegiate Recovery Network project coordinator to discuss terminology.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Rice: What is the difference between addiction and dependence?

Mullens: Well, addiction is more of a common everyday term that really is its everyday language for substance use disorder. So, substance use disorder is the official name in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. And you know, so we just we throw around the word or use the word in common conversation, addiction. Dependence can mean different things.

Rice: When it comes to dependence, people who are quite literally prescribed something by their doctor can be dependent on it. When does that transfer over into addiction?

Mullens: Well, again, addiction is not a diagnosis. And so it’s, that’s not really an accurate progression of the disease, or a great way to describe it, because people talk about being addicted to a lot of things. But you know, do they meet clinical criteria for a diagnosis, is really the question?

Rice: When we’re talking about how the brain works, and once a person is diagnosed with substance use disorder, what changes?

Mullens: Part of it depends on the substance, part of it depends on how long the person has been using. A lot of times, individuals experience other traumas, there could also be undiagnosed traumatic brain injuries and other things. So it’s really an individualized situation. What we know is that the longer people are engaged in care, the better their long-term outcomes are.

Rice: We hear a lot of words around the drug epidemic conversation, could you explain in your own words, what harm reduction means?

Mullens: Harm reduction can mean a number of different things. And unfortunately, it’s gotten somewhat of a bad rap. And one size doesn’t fit all with regard to harm reduction either, but we do know that individuals who engage with harm reduction programs, formal type programs are five times more likely to enter treatment, and three times more likely to stop using substances. And really, the goal of harm reduction is to meet people where they are along that process because not everyone who uses substances wants to stop.

Rice: Yeah, it really does sound like each situation requires a different response. Is bringing that human element into care effective?

Mullens: Yeah, it’s definitely it’s not a cookie-cutter situation. Everyone has different needs. Everyone has different strengths. And everyone has different goals and aspirations. And you know, that’s what our programs try to do is to meet people where they are and not force, anything, any particular view or any particular pathway on to somebody because, you know, it’s, it’s, we all come with unique situations and need a customized recovery pathway.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Recent Statistics Show Decline In Opioid Overdose Rates

According to provisional data, the state’s overdose rate fell from February 2022 to February 2023. The data shows that opioid overdose rates have dropped by approximately 8 percent, marking the most substantial decrease since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Recent data from the Office of Drug Control Policy has revealed a decline in opioid overdose rates, marking a positive turn in the fight against the ongoing drug epidemic.

West Virginia overdose rates are slowly falling to pre-pandemic levels. Advocates say while this data is preliminary, this improvement is in part credited to in-person harm reduction services resuming after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Yes, we are seeing less people overdose, and I think there’s a variety of reasons for that,” Michael Haney, director of PROACT, said. “I think West Virginia has done an excellent job in keeping the substance use problem in sight.” PROACT is an addiction treatment center in Huntington.

Health officials attribute the positive trend to a combination of factors, including expanded availability of naloxone, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses, as well as the implementation of harm reduction programs. Harm reduction refers to a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use.

“The drug problem has been there for decades. I think it really didn’t get people’s attention until you suddenly had people in large numbers dying, and you can’t attribute it to anything else, it was obviously the drugs doing it,” Haney said. “I think that calling attention to that, supporting treatment efforts, encouraging people to get into treatment. I think medication-assisted treatment has helped a great deal.”

West Virginia was one of only eight states in the nation predicted to see a decline in overdose fatalities in 2022. While the data is still preliminary, some advocates are encouraged by the success of harm reduction programs and public education since the end of the Public Health Emergency and COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Fatal Overdose Data Dashboard, West Virginia lost 1,453 people to overdose deaths in 2021.

A Changing Landscape

Lyn O’Connell, associate director for the Division of Addiction Sciences at Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, said it is important to note only four months of data are available for 2023.

“We do know that drug trends vary throughout the annual calendar year with some rhyme and reason and other times without much explanation,” O’Connell said. “We do suspect that drug overdose deaths are changing in that the type of drugs being utilized are changing.”

Of those deaths, 1,146 were attributed to illicitly manufactured fentanyl, 103 to heroin, and 295 to prescription opioids. Overdoses occur with other drug types as well, including stimulants, to which 949 West Virginians lost their lives in 2021.

O’Connell said PROACT, Project Hope and programs like it had made significant amounts of progress in her community in 2019.

“The pandemic destroyed that. We had to pull a lot of people out of public spaces,” O’Connell said. “In general, as a community, people resorted to substance use, because they didn’t have to get up and go to work. It’s often a disease of despair, and it was very easy to feel despair during 2020 and 2021 especially. People lost their jobs, so it might be easy to turn back to drug use or selling drugs.”

In 2019, West Virginia lost 870 lives to drug overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2019 to 2022, the state’s overdose death rate went from 870 to 1,453, a 67 percent increase.

“So we built on it over the past year, but it was going to take a while for us to see those things go into effect again,” O’Connell said. “I think the hope is that we do stabilize and or see a downward trend.”

Haney said isolation encourages use and is one of the major problems with substance use disorders. Alternatively, peer recovery programs like the ones offered at PROACT, encourage people with substance use disorder to interact with fellow peers in recovery.

“Now that we’re coming out of COVID, we’re back to doing in-person services, people are going too, and a lot of things happen when you do in-person services,” Haney said. “There is that sense of accountability that patients have when they’re going to treatment. They also get to see other people who are in treatment, and they have that sense of shared experience.”

Advocates say a rise in methamphetamine use is concerning and took the lives of 786 West Virginians in 2021.

“There’s other factors, there’s the use of methamphetamine, the use of xylazine, the use of alcohol or marijuana,” O’Connell said. “And so there are other things that impact how we can determine the effectiveness of, or if there is any decrease because there are just so many factors at play.”

Five of the most frequently occurring opioids and stimulants – alone or in combination – accounted for 71.5 percent of overdose deaths in 2021. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl and methamphetamine topped the list with 28.8 percent of deaths.

The use of multiple drugs at once accounted for 52.1 percent of 2021’s overdose deaths on opioids and stimulants.

Erin Winstanley is a research scientist in the department and associate professor at West Virginia University in the Department of Psychiatry.

She also encouraged vigilance, especially against new cutting agents appearing each day.

“I think many clinical researchers and researchers working in the field of addiction are concerned about the increasing number of people using illicitly manufactured fentanyl,” Winstanley said.

While the decline in opioid overdose rates is undoubtedly positive, experts caution against complacency.

“I think from the national perspective, it is too early to say whether overdose deaths are declining,” Winstanley said. “So it does appear that the numbers are on a downward trend. But it isn’t clear if they’re going to return to a pre-pandemic level.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Recovery Advocacy Day At Capitol Offers Guidance, Hope

West Virginia is one of few states seeing a decline in overdose deaths.

Tuesday was Recovery Advocacy Day at the West Virginia Legislature. The capitol rotunda was filled with smiling faces, clear heads and hopeful hearts. The goal was to identify areas related to treatment, prevention and recovery efforts and lobby for impacting legislation.

Deb Harris explained the “what and how” of her addiction.

“Mostly pain pills and alcohol. But I did it all,” Haris said. “It started out as recreational use and fun, some rebellion at a young age and it just escalated and before I knew it I was too far in.”

Now 14 years sober and in continuing recovery, the Charleston wife and mother of four hit her so-called “rock bottom” when her life as a mother was jeopardized.

“I had actually gotten my kids taken away and gotten them back and realized that I had no idea how to live or raise a family, so I had a relapse,” Harris said. “I had a return to using and I woke up one morning, three months after that and asked God for help and have been clean ever since.”

Harris said she was rescued both by God, and one of the hundreds of West Virginia recovery facilities, many on display in the capitol.

Joe Deegan is the public policy chair with the West Virginia Association of Addition and Prevention Professionals. He said he was there in support of legislation like the patient brokering act that cuts down on unscrupulous treatment center “middlemen” who seek profit over providing help. He said he was also anxious to see results from the study authorized for a statewide count and analysis of West Virginia’s homeless population.

“We need to really study what the homelessness problem is in the state,” Deegan said. “Several counties, Wood, Cabell and Mingo, are really anxious about proliferation of beds in their communities, and then, they have some homelessness. So, we really need to get in the weeds and say what’s really causing that.”

What really helps short term recovery become long term sobriety? Experts like Joe Deegan sais you don’t leave your final treatment stay or stint without a detailed plan.

“When you finish, you have to have a plan, you have to have a follow through. If you have a plan for up to a year, there’s a high end for people that stay in recovery,’ Deegan said. “If they even get five years, it’s almost like you never had the addiction, because you end up in a way of life that you enjoy. You will want to do it. It’s not like you’ve got to do it, you’ll want to.”

Harris and so many others here said more people should understand that drug addiction and alcoholism are not conditions, they are certified diseases, medical illnesses.

“Substance Use Disorder is the disease that doesn’t make a person a bad person, they are sick,” Harris said. “Don’t look down on someone because of their illness, because they’re sick. Offer them hope, offer them love, offer them support. Let them know that you care about them.”

Harris and Deegan said West Virginia is one of few states seeing a decline in overdose deaths, countering those diminishing fatalities with new sober lives, all remaining in recovery.