Recovery Story Archives - Page 3 of 8 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

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.

House Passes Transportation Requirement For SUD Facilities

Residential substance use disorder service facilities will be required to offer discharged patients a way home if Senate Bill 243 passes the Senate.

Residential substance use disorder (SUD) service facilities will be required to offer discharged patients a way home if Senate Bill 243 is approved into law.

SB 243 would require transportation back to a person’s place of birth, or other location where the individual has ties.

Opponents of the bill argue that it is unnecessary and a non-issue.

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, spoke against the bill on the House floor Wednesday. He said because the bill was considered by a Select Committee that met early in the morning, most lawmakers on the floor were unfamiliar with the legislation.

“Not many of you have seen this bill, I would imagine, because it passed through one select committee and then came directly to the floor. It’s not really clear, really what type of facility this would apply to,” Pushkin said. “But I would say with my familiarity with it, that it would only apply to treatment beds, it doesn’t apply to recovery beds, it only applies to facilities that actually can bill Medicaid.”

While speaking in opposition to SB 243, Pushkin told lawmakers that West Virginia already contracts with a company called Modivcare that provides transportation for Medicaid members.

“And the good news is, well, they’re already doing what we’re asking them to do in this bill,” Pushkin said. “We’re already doing it. What the bill now does, though, says you get 30 miles into a neighboring state, you got to kick them out of the vehicle.”

Pushkin said he thinks the bill is based on a false premise that West Virginia’s substance use issues are coming from outside of the state.

“And, unfortunately, that’s not the case. But see, when you blame other things outside of your control for your problems, I guess that absolves you from the responsibility of actually having to do something about it. So this bill is unnecessary,” Pushkin said.

No lawmakers argued in favor of SB 243 on the House floor Wednesday.

The bill passed the House of Delegates with a vote of 82 ayes, 13 nays and five absent or not voting.

SB 243 now returns to the Senate for further consideration.

Seminars Focus On Creating Healthy Workplaces For Employees In Recovery

A series of free virtual workshops will teach West Virginia employers to support employees recovering from substance use disorder.

The series is the product of collaboration among employment experts from Marshall University’s Robert C. Byrd Institute (RCBI) and Marshall Health’s CORE (Creating Opportunities for Recovery Employment).

Ashley Shaw is the director of CORE and brings a decade of experience in workforce development to her position.

“The focus of the webinars is to assist employers in improving strategies to recruit and retain employees,” Shaw said. “A part of that also though does include taking a look at some of the populations that are non traditional talent pools that maybe employers haven’t tapped into that might be able to benefit and serve as an asset and can be assets to employers across our region.”

Shaw said the webinar series has multiple components that make it an effective training tool to help employers see individuals as assets to their business.

“The other piece of it is addressing policy of organizations, their education, how they are training their staff,” Shaw said. “How are you ensuring that your culture is well so that not only can you assist folks that you might hire who are in recovery, that employers can take an active role in preventing substance use disorder within the workplace as well?”

A healthy workplace, or “well culture,” as defined by Shaw, focuses on policies that benefit employees and employers.

“Employers should take a look at their organization’s morale, work demands and working conditions. Are we using stigmatizing language? All of those things play a key role in building a ‘well culture’,” Shaw said. “Those are practical things that employers can put in place to better retain the staff that they do have and to better recruit into the workplace.”

The free hour-long sessions will be held Jan. 10, Feb. 14, March 14 and April 11. For more information, see RCBI’s registration form.

Monongalia QRT Part Of Region’s Response To Opioid Crisis

West Virginia has been at the center of the country’s opioid epidemic for years, but robust community responses have been built to tackle the issue head on.

The Monongalia County Quick Response Team was launched in 2019 as a collaboration among public health, first responders, and other health care and private partners. The main purpose of the QRT is to identify individuals who have overdosed, ideally within 24 to 72 hours, and follow up with them and connect them to treatment resources, or whatever they might need.

But Monongalia County QRT Coordinator Brittany Irick said QRTs encompass much more.

“An individual who is in active substance misuse, they might be neglecting a lot of other areas of health,” she said. “That could be dental, a lack of health insurance, vision, or maybe they don’t even have an ID. Connecting with an individual and an addiction is more than just connecting them to treatment for their substance use disorder. It’s also looking at their overall health and wel-being.”

This is part of a broader push for harm reduction in the substance use community. With an active HIV outbreak in the state connected to substance use, a holistic, head-to-toe approach to treatment is more important than ever.

“We view harm reduction as people who have an addiction, until they’re at that point in their life where they are ready to address and break that addiction, they’re going to continue to use,” Irick said. “So harm reduction is just an effort to keep them alive until they are at that point where they want to change. If they’re dead, we can’t help them.”

In the years since the team’s formation, their focus has expanded beyond community members in active substance use and in recovery.

“We focus on prevention, and just getting out into the community, and educating about substance use disorder and how it affects a lot of people,” Irick said. “We’ve been able to connect a lot of individuals to treatment and resources, getting lots of Narcan into the community and doing a lot of education.”

That includes events like Save a Life Day this past September, where Irick and her team handed out more than 1000 kits of the overdose-reversing medication to the public. And QRT, just like the opioid crisis, doesn’t stop just with Monongalia County.

“I think that we’re pretty close to every county having a QRT,” Irick said. “I don’t think that every county has their own, but each county has the ability to have some sort of coverage, even if that’s a coach from another county that can link an individual to treatment or a resource.”

She said there has been an increased interest in harm reduction from the public in recent months, including greater access to testing strips.

Joe Klass is the assistant coordinator for the Monongalia QRT. He said the increased public interest aligns with the recent increase in fentanyl.

“Fentanyl seems to be involved in a lot of our drug overdose cases,” Klass said. “What is, I think, really important to understand is that it’s not just being put into opioids. So that’s really why we’re pushing the fentanyl testing strips.”

He said the recent spike in fentanyl content in everything from the party drug ecstasy to counterfeit Xanax and cannabis products has created an opportunity to increase awareness around harm reduction practices.

“For a lot of the college students, it’s really kind of given us another in as far as kind of making contact with them, and seeing what’s going on in that community,” Klass said. “We weren’t really sure how much interest there would be in fentanyl testing trips, but it’s simply another tool just to make sure that you’re hopefully not doing something that has fentanyl in it.”

The stigma surrounding substance use can often complicate necessary conversations of treatment or even overdose prevention. But the QRT team said they’ve seen that change as well, in part because of the surge in fentanyl-related overdoses.

Chris Arthurs is a Peer Recovery Support Specialist, one of the team members that reaches out to recent overdose survivors to provide support and resources.

“I think as people start to understand substance use disorders more and recognize it as a disease that needs treatment, they’re more open to the conversation, anything substance use related, including testing strips and preventative measures,” he said.

Arthurs will celebrate six years of sobriety later this month, and has been involved in peer recovery for four years.

“The beautiful thing about peer recovery is, it’s about that lived experience,” he said. “So a peer recovery support specialist is someone that has been through addiction in their own personal lives.”

Arthurs said in that time the recovery landscape has changed significantly, and it’s not just in conversations, but substantively. He said things are different from when he sought out treatment, and hopes to see the changes continue.

“Just in the last five or six years, we’ve seen treatment facilities open. We’ve seen a growth in the recovery community, we’ve seen sober living houses open up. And we’ve seen peer recovery coaches hired,” Arthurs said. “I think, having witnessed that just in the last five years, that’s what I hope to see continue to happen for the foreseeable future.”

Healing Appalachia Festival Supports Recovery

This weekend sees the return of ‘Healing Appalachia’ in Greenbrier County. The music festival features performances by eastern Kentucky music sensation Tyler Childers, singer/songwriter Margot Price, jam band Galactic, Arlo McKinley, Lucero and others.

But the festival has a larger mission than just a good time. Inside Appalachia Producer Bill Lynch spoke with festival organizer Charlie Hatcher about the roots of the festival and what it hopes to accomplish.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Lynch: Charlie, first off, tell me what is Healing Appalachia?

Hatcher: Healing Appalachia is an event that is organized and put on by Hope in the Hills. Hope in the Hills is a 501c3 nonprofit that’s behind Healing Appalachia. Healing Appalachia is the event.

Lynch: So, Hope in the Hills, tell me about that.

Hatcher: Well, Hope the Hills was created back in 2016. In 2016, we started this thing.

Basically, I have a friend of mine — her son had passed away. I dealt with a lot of deaths, I felt, that year from friends of mine that had passed away due to overdose, drug abuse.

And when my friend called, that was kind of the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. At that point, I just sat there and thought to myself, I want to be a part of the solution to this and not sit on the sidelines. I wanted to start helping my neighbors and start helping my friends, start helping my family.

If you live in Appalachia, everybody knows somebody. I always say whether it was your brother, your preacher, your teacher, your mother, your cousin, if you live here, you’ve been affected by it in one capacity or another [by drug use].

It’s hard to sit back and watch it go down like this.

We’re proud people. We’re hard workers. Whenever there’s a disaster, such as, you know, flooding that’s going on, you always see communities come together and lift one another up, you know?

I guess one of my personal goals with Hope in the Hills was to capture that feeling and keep it going year-round.

Lynch: The first concert, the first festival, what year was that?

Hatcher: 2018. It took us about a year-and-a-half to get the whole thing together and go through the process to become a nonprofit, assembling a board and figuring it out, you know? Because we are a true definition of a nonprofit. We’re all-volunteer.

I had to leave the board because it became way too much. And I’m the only paid employee of the board. I’m just an independent contractor. And that’s mainly because [Healing Appalachia] is here in Lewisburg, where I live.

We’re a granting organization. We’re not doctors. We’re not a recovery center. We grant out money to those that are working in fields of recovery.

Lynch: With doing this stuff, with doing this festival, have you gotten any pushback?

Hatcher: Nobody ever tried heroin or meth for the first time and said, “Hey, I want to be an addict.” You don’t go into it thinking that’s the case. And back up to these needle exchange clinics — it’s a public health thing more than anything.

The rise of hepatitis, the rise in AIDS, diseases that are spread through intravenous drug use, are all a public health crisis. And if we can do anything to curb that, then we should.

And it’s hard for folks to understand that. I have to say I was guilty of it, too. I did not understand until I actually sat down and listened and looked at the statistical data behind it. And if you look and you see where the highest rates of AIDS transmission, hepatitis transmission are, they’re all in areas where there are not these needle exchanges.

Folks that want to do drugs are going to find a way to do it. They are, but if we can get them into these clinics, where we’re giving them clean supplies, and getting a moment to talk, it was all worth it because if that one moment stuck, and they said, “You know what, man? I’m ready. I’m ready to make the change. I don’t want to be like this anymore.”

Then it was all worth it.

If you look at these areas where these clinics are available to folks. The hepatitis and AIDS numbers are down.

A big problem with drug abuse is, you know, people break into your tool shed and steal your weed eater and things of that nature. People get angry, and they should be but be a part of the solution. Sitting back on the sidelines and throwing stones at folks is not going to get us anywhere.

Lynch: Getting folks to be part of the festival — has it been hard?

Hatcher: Well, fortunately, I worked for a company called Whizbang, which is the management company that does Tyler’s career. And Tyler is a friend of mine. I know Tyler. I think we first met in 2016. And I spoke with Ian Thornton. He’s Tyler’s manager and he said, “Well, let’s talk to Tyler and see if this is something that he would be willing to be a part of.”

And he’s been a great partner. He grew up in Appalachia. He knows what it’s like. And he’s always, anytime we’ve ever been there in need, he was always there to help us. And he’s been a great partner in this.

Also you look into the music community. You know, the unfortunate thing is substance use disorders are very prominent in the music industry. I mean, look at all the greats that we’ve lost due to drug abuse, alcohol abuse over the years.

So for folks, it becomes easier when they understand who we are and what we do.

Lynch: It’s not just about music though. You’ve got some of the things happening during the festival, right?

Hatcher: Oh, yeah, it’s definitely not just about. We have over 30 service providers from eastern Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, southeastern Ohio, Pennsylvania.

There are people that come in — we don’t advocate for one type of recovery, because each person is different. We advocate for what works best for you. So, that’s why we have different service providers coming in from all over the place. In hopes, someone might say, “yeah.”

And another thing, too, we have over 20 … I think it’s 31 states represented in ticket sales this year.

So, maybe someone comes in and says, “Oh, man, you guys are in our neighborhood. My cousin he’s not doing so good. Maybe we can get him down to talk.”

You know, that’s the hook behind it all. It’s a hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And my hope is that everyone can see that. It is a hard path, and it’s a hard road, but people do recover, man. I’ve got friends and they’re, you know, they’ve got 10, 11 years of sobriety and recovery, and it’s a struggle for them every day, but they stay strong and they’re prominent people.

I mean, they’re out here. Folks that you never thought would ever hold down a job. They’re out there having two or three jobs, you know, taking care of their kids, getting married, taking care of their neighbors, looking after people.

So, it is possible to recover, and the hope is that someone will find one of these recovery booths or places of recovery at our event and maybe be able to help a friend.

The Healing Appalachia Music Festival runs Friday through Saturday. Limited tickets are still available. For more information about the festival or Hope in the Hills, visit HealingAppalachia.org.

Mountaineer Recovery Center Set To Host Outdoor Event For Substance Use Disorder Awareness

Recovery in the Park is an outdoor event featuring local vendors, food trucks and other activities. But the event is meant to provide resources and education about treatment to the Eastern Panhandle region.

The Eastern Panhandle’s Mountaineer Recovery Center is helping raise awareness for substance use disorder recovery this weekend in Martinsburg. It’s the center’s second such event, which aligns yearly with National Recovery Month in September.

“We want to celebrate the people in recovery. But also not forget the people who never got that far either,” said Kaitlin Huff, a medical assistant at the center.

Huff will be one of the event’s speakers, alongside other local community members and leaders like Martinsburg Mayor Kevin Knowles. She said helping those with substance use disorder is a community effort, and putting on the event is one way to let those struggling know there is help locally.

“I think a lot of people don’t know what there is to offer. And I kind of just want to tell people like that, there is help and they can change,” Huff said. “Your life is worth way more than this addiction, and there is help.”

The event is set for this Saturday at War Memorial Park in Martinsburg, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Activities like a cornhole tournament and face painting are scheduled until 3 p.m., with the speakers scheduled through the rest of the event.