Opioid Crisis Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Health Care Providers Expand Substance Use Disorder Resources For Veterans

As fentanyl overdose deaths rise nationally, West Virginia health care providers are looking for new ways to support veterans struggling with substance use disorder or mental health issues.

As fentanyl overdose deaths rise nationally, veterans face new challenges overcoming historic barriers to health care.

Mark Mann, chief of staff for mental health services at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center (VAMC), said that West Virginia’s veteran community has been no exception to this struggle.

“The VA is doing a good job of curbing that, but we still are losing veterans every year to poisoning from fentanyl and other things that are mixed into the drugs,” he said.

Veterans have long faced bureaucratic difficulties and stigma when seeking support for substance use disorder. But the rising prevalence of fentanyl has also tested current mental health resources for veterans, requiring new strategies.

In response, health care providers at the VAMC are working to expand current resources to better serve veterans struggling with substance use disorder and other forms of mental illness.

On Friday, medical professionals and members of the local community gathered at the facility for a summit on substance use disorder among veterans.

The event featured discussions from both national and local medical professionals, who discussed substance use disorder among veterans at large and specific services at the VAMC supporting veterans’ mental health needs.

Those resources include traditional medical resources, like residential inpatient services, intensive outpatient programs and medication-assisted therapies, Mann said.

But it also includes providing a full “continuum of care,” supplementing medical services with social interventions and support.

In 2022, Mann said staff members at the VAMC helped advocate for the creation of a three-digit hotline number for suicide and mental health crisis intervention, 988.

Joseph Liberto, national mental health director for substance use disorders at the Department of Veteran Affairs Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, answers audience questions.

*Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Some veterans who contact the hotline are put in touch with the VAMC, who can then provide follow-up services and ensure they are safe.

Mann said providing a simple and remote resource like this has helped the VAMC provide more immediate support to veterans in need, and keep lines of communication open once patients step off the facility’s Martinsburg campus.

The VAMC has also created on-campus resources that provide counseling, like a chaplain assigned specifically to support veterans with difficulties surrounding mental health or substance use.

Roosevelt Brown, chief chaplain at the VAMC, said that the creation of this position allowed the VAMC to directly help local veterans, and point them to resources specific to their mental health needs.

“Part of what we’re doing now is trying to say, ‘Hey, how can we make sure we open the door and let them know that we have services available for them?’” he said.

As chaplains, Brown said that he and his colleagues offer spiritual or emotional guidance to patients at the VAMC, and also encourage them to access specific resources that could support them through periods of difficulty.

Brown said that fewer people used the VAMC’s chaplain services during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that turnout has returned to pre-pandemic levels with the creation of these new resources.

He added that he hopes this trend will continue, and that the VAMC will be able to further support veterans struggling with substance use disorder.

“We’re motivated to do something about those who need help,” he said. “My hope is that what we can do is [bring] a better quality of life [to] veterans.”

Submissions Open For Kids Kick Opioids Contest

Friday, May 3 is the deadline for the West Virginia Attorney General’s 8th Annual Kids Kick Opioids contest.

The deadline for a statewide student art competition focused on opioid awareness is quickly approaching. Friday, May 3 is the deadline for the West Virginia Attorney General’s 8th Annual Kids Kick Opioids contest.

The contest provides an opportunity for students to learn about the dangers and consequences of prescription painkiller abuse, as well as an outlet to share personal experiences of how opioid dependence has impacted their lives and that of their loved ones.

Last year’s contest received more than 2,000 entries from students at 66 middle and elementary schools across West Virginia.

Students can work individually or in groups. Submissions may include drawings, poems, letters or anything that would promote awareness.

The winning entry will appear as a statewide newspaper public service announcement. Regional winners will be displayed in the State Capitol.

W.Va. Children 5 Times More At Risk Of Drug Endangerment

The West Virginia Child Advocacy Group, or WVCAN, saw a nearly 10 percent increase in children served in the past five years.

The West Virginia Child Advocacy Group (WVCAN) saw a nearly 10 percent increase in new children served in the past five years according to a new report released on Thursday.

WVCAN operates 21 Child Advocacy Centers (CAC) which provide official service to 46 of 55 counties in the state.

Each CAC provides a safe, child-friendly facility where child protection, criminal justice and child treatment professionals work together to investigate abuse, hold offenders accountable and help children heal.

Kate Flack is the CEO of WVCAN. She said awareness of the program could account for the increase in new children served.

“Every time that we help build awareness, more children are disclosing to mandated reporters, more children’s cases are being investigated by CPS and law enforcement, and CPS and law enforcement make referrals to child advocacy centers,” Flack said. “So the children can come to a safe child-friendly facility to do a forensic interview with a trained forensic interviewer, who asks questions in a non-leading developmentally appropriate way.”

According to the report, children from 0 to six years old make up 25 percent of new children served at a CAC. Children ages seven to 12 account for 43 percent of new children served at a CAC. Finally, children ages 13 to 18 years old account for 32 percent of new children served at a CAC.

Flack said the majority of West Virginia offenders are over the age of 18.

“It represents the vulnerability that our children face,” Flack said. “That 96 percent of our alleged offenders were someone that child knew. So a lot of times when people think about child sexual abuse or physical abuse, they imagine stranger danger. And while there are, you know, cases of that, for sure, the majority, the vast majority of abuse that kids face, are people who are in positions of trust.”

The report shows 14 percent of the West Virginian children served were at a CAC because of allegations of drug endangerment. That is 4.7 times higher than the national average.

“Knowing that with poly-victimization, with the risks that kids face, if they are drug endangered, not only for neglect, you know, so not receiving adequate supervision, but it increases the risk of other types of abuse,” Flack said.

Flack said she is committed to her work and hopeful for state and federal investment into the program.

“The CDC lifetime costs to society for each victim of abuse is $210,000,” Flack said. “And so I mean, if the average cost for services for each of these children from the CAC is between $1,000 and $2,000 per kid, and so really, I mean, a little, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound, or an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

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

Conference Aims To Help Teachers Teach Troubled Students

School mental health professionals from across the state had the opportunity to learn how to address mental health challenges and more in their classrooms.

The state Department of Education hosted a conference in Charleston to raise awareness of trauma, opioid addiction, and mental health challenges in schools, and to provide teachers, school counselors and other professionals with tools and strategies to address these issues.

The Student Support Conference is being held Nov. 29 through Nov. 30 at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.

David Lee is the director of student support and wellbeing for the West Virginia Department of Education. He said teachers, and especially new teachers, aren’t always equipped to handle what they see in a classroom.

“So how do I know what to look for, for the emotional problems of a child? How do I address those issues? How do I learn to de-escalate situations in my classroom?” Lee said.

The conference is a chance to support professionals who are working in schools by teaching them ways to identify and address mental health and trauma in their students to better help them succeed in school and life.

“We’re dealing with kids that are coming from very difficult situations at home, and they’re walking in school, and we’re expecting them to just be normal, and that’s not possible with some of the situations that they are facing,” Lee said. “So how do we address that? How do we work with the counselors? How do we work with communities and schools?”

According to Lee, student mental health issues continue to rise because of the ongoing opioid epidemic in the state and recovery from the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve got to start teaching behaviors because we got kids that come to school that have no clue about behaviors,” Lee said. “Did COVID have a lot to do with that? It did, yes. But we’ve had these problems before. They’ve been masking a lot of ways, but now they are really showing their true colors right now, because of the isolation that kids went through.”

Lee said he hopes this training makes teachers proactive in their classrooms and teaches them to act instead of react to potential behavioral issues that may arise from problems at home.

“You’re not gonna solve all the problems in high school right now, that’s not going to happen,” Lee said. “But you’ve got to start a building block and I really think in the K through three, teaching those behaviors, modeling those behaviors and what it should be like, is a good foundation.”

Federal Monies Proposed To Address Opioid Crisis And Child Care Costs

The Biden-Harris administration is asking Congress for domestic supplemental funding to assist with the opioid crisis and child care costs — some of which would come to West Virginia.

If adopted, West Virginia would receive an estimated $39 million to counter fentanyl trafficking and strengthen addiction treatment, overdose prevention measures and recovery support services.

Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in West Virginia, about 76 percent of the overdose deaths that occurred between May 2022 and May 2023 are due to synthetic opioids, primarily illicitly manufactured fentanyl.

“From this year to the previous year, West Virginia saw, I think, almost 1,500 deaths from overdose, most of those opioid overdoses, and the lion’s share today is driven by fentanyl,” Becerra said. “And so the $1.6 billion that the president is requesting in emergency funding for opioids would really help us target fentanyl. And let states try to make sure that they can catch someone before they overdose.”

According to provisional data from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, for a 12-month period ending in May 2023, 1,184 West Virginians died of an opioid overdose.

West Virginia also stands to gain $107 million for child care, if the domestic supplemental funding request is adopted by Congress.

Becerra said pandemic-era child care stabilization increased the labor force participation for mothers with young children by an additional three percentage points.

“The president’s request is to help extend funding for many of those child care centers, over 61,000 children and their families in West Virginia benefited from those funds, and at least 1,600 childcare providers,” Becerra said. “I think the average cost of childcare in West Virginia is somewhere around $9,000. And we know that the stabilization funds end up saving families over $1,000 a year in their childcare expense per child.”

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the price of child care for an infant in West Virginia is $8,736 per year.

Organizers Celebrate Success Of Save A Life Day

The number of Naloxone doses distributed on Save A Life Day more than doubled this year.

All 13 Appalachian states hosted more than 300 events on Save A Life Day and distributed more than 45,000 doses of naloxone.

Naloxone is a medication that works to reverse opioid overdoses. One common brand is Narcan, an easy-to-use nasal spray.

In 2020, the first Save A Life Day was organized by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP) in partnership with SOAR WV, a Charleston-based community group with the stated goal of promoting the health, dignity, and voices of individuals who are impacted by drug use.

This year, the Bureau for Behavioral Health provided $600,000 worth of naloxone in West Virginia and distributed 29,438 doses to community organizations and individuals across the state.

“The expansion of Appalachian Save a Life Day across multiple states underscores our relentless pursuit of saving lives and providing hope to those affected by the opioid crisis,” said Rachel Thaxton, Interim Director for DHHR’s ODCP. “Together with our partners, we have not only made naloxone more accessible but have also opened the door to a brighter future for individuals and families in need.”

Three years since the effort began in just two counties, more than 180 counties across 13 states participated and distributed more than 45,000 naloxone doses throughout Appalachia.

According to Iris Sidikman, the Appalachian Save a Life Day Coordinator with SOAR, about 20,000 doses were distributed last year.

“One of the most moving things about Save A Life Day, to me is watching people take this idea, this idea that we had and this work that we’ve done, and bring it to their community, all the way up and down the country,” Sidikman said. “That, I think, has been the most meaningful part to me.”

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