Substance Use Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Charleston to Participate In National Drug Take Back Day

West Virginia law enforcement will participate in National Drug Take Back Day giving West Virginians the opportunity to dispose of drugs safely.

Updated on April 24, 2024 at 3:18 p.m.

More Drug Take Back Day Activities Announced

The Prevention Empowerment Partnership (PEP), will host a National Drug Take Back Day event in partnership with the Huntington Police Department, Cabell County Sheriff’s Department and Marshall University School of Pharmacy from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., Saturday, April 27, at various area locations.

Drop-off locations for April’s Take Back Day include:

Drug Emporium, 3 E Mall Road, Barboursville
Cabell County EMS Station, 1133 20th St., Huntington
Cabell County EMS Station, 1766 Washington Ave., Huntington
Huntington Police Department, 675 10th St. Huntington.

Also, the Attorney General’s Office is coordinating with Capitol Police and the state Department of Homeland Security at a Take Back location from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the State Capitol Complex Safe Zone adjacent to the Culture Center at the Greenbrier/Washington Street entrance.

Additionally on Saturday, the Attorney General’s Office will assist the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office at 1078 Main St. in Elkview, the Vienna Fire Department at 609 28th St. in Vienna and the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office at 510 S. Raleigh St. in Martinsburg.

On Friday, April 26, the Attorney General’s Office will assist the Logan County Sheriff’s Office from 1-2 p.m. at the Man Community Park at the former Man Junior High School lot.

Original Story

The Charleston Police Department is partnering with the Drug Enforcement Administration to participate in National Drug Take Back Day on Saturday, April 27.

According to a press release, this is a chance for the public to turn in unused or expired prescription medication in a safe and responsible manner.

Medications can be turned in beginning at 10 a.m. and concluding at 2 p.m. at six Charleston locations:

Walgreens: 655 Washington Street West Charleston, WV 25302
Drug Emporium:1603 Kanawha Blvd. West Charleston, WV 25302
WV Drug Intervention Institute:118 Capital Street Charleston, WV 25301
Piggly Wiggly: 5003 MacCorkle Ave SE, Charleston, WV 25304
Fruth Pharmacy: 864 Oakwood Road Charleston, WV 25314
Krogers Ashton Place:1100 Fledderjohn Road Charleston, WV 25304

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.”

Advocates Celebrate First Year Of Narcan Vending Machine

Local harm reduction advocates celebrated the first anniversary of the installation of a Narcan vending machine in Charleston on Monday.

An unassuming former newspaper box sits unlocked at a church on Charleston’s west side. On Monday afternoon, the box wore a happy birthday hat with a balloon tied to its handle.

The box is filled with Narcan, an opioid reversal drug that can stop an overdose. Also available in this box are drug testing strips and plan B emergency contraceptives.

It was the box’s first birthday and advocates gathered to celebrate with a party.

The event is meant as a beacon of hope and celebration with music, food, dancing and chalk drawings and messages like, “We love you” and “You are valuable.”

Chelsea Steelhammer is a volunteer with SOAR, a Charleston-based community group that says it promotes the health, dignity and voices of individuals who are impacted by drug use.

Steelhammer said the box has helped distribute 300 Narcan kits, each containing two doses, in the year it’s been installed.

“People can come and get it and there’s no questions asked, there’s no real stigma about just coming into a church parking lot, walking around, coming back out, nobody knows what you’re doing,” Steelhammer said. “And you can get things that might save your life or a loved one’s life.”

Steelhammer said people have a misconception about Narcan. She says it should be treated like any first aid item.

“They’re like, ‘I don’t use drugs,’ but it’s not for you, because you can’t use it on yourself,” Steelhammer said. “So, it’s, it’s just something to have in your first aid box.”

Gail Michelson is a volunteer with SOAR and a lawyer who has watched the opioid epidemic unfold throughout the legal system and in her community.

“When it all began to come out about how these pills became available to people legitimately,” Michelson said. “I thought they had started a whole epidemic here and that we must do everything we can to stop it and keep people alive.”

Michelson said the vending machines are a more accessible and realistic way for people who suffer from substance use disorder to obtain harm reduction tools.

“Because people don’t want to go in to pay $60 or even if it was free and go to their local pharmacist and go ‘Oh, do you use drugs?’ It’s a very nice and anonymous way to get it done,” Michelson said.

The box was installed by SOAR, using grant money from the Women’s Health Center and AIDs United. The Women’s Health Center in Charleston also has a Narcan vending machine.

“If you can reach out to SOAR, we could probably get you some funding or hook up with partnerships so that you will be able to be a community lifesaver as well,” Steelhammer said. “And even if you’re not interested in a whole box, but you want training or your church or business or organization, we can provide that for free so that you’re able to better serve your community.”

SOAR is working with CareSource, a health insurance agency, and other partners to place more than 50 naloxone vending machines across the eastern states, including West Virginia this year.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.

W.Va. Peer Recovery Support Specialist Wins National Award

A peer recovery support specialist at a Marshall-based recovery program has won the Cornerstone Award.

The award honors an individual or organization that has gone above and beyond to support students in recovery.

Aaron Blankenship is a West Virginia Collegiate Recovery Network (WVCRN) team member and recovery support specialist at Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College.

“Through his unwavering dedication and tireless efforts, Aaron Blankenship exemplifies the essence of the ARHE Cornerstone Award for Student Support,” said Dr. Pamela Alderman, president of Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College. “His commitment to going above and beyond in supporting students in recovery transforms lives and serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration for our community. We celebrate Aaron’s profound impact and recognize him as a cornerstone of support for those navigating the recovery journey.”

The WVCRN is housed within the Marshall University Research Corporation with support from the Marshall University Center of Excellence for Recovery.

Blankenship will accept his award at the National Collegiate Recovery Conference in San Diego, California this summer.

According to one of his peers, Hattie Newsome, student success coordinator for Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College, Blankenship’s own recovery gave him the empathy and drive to work passionately with students and the recovery community.

“He inspires those in recovery by showing them they can achieve sobriety, goals and their dreams can come true,” she said.

Group Receives ARC Grant To Strengthen Community Health

A new grant will help train and place community health workers to strengthen behavioral health systems in 20 W.Va. counties.

Last week, the Community Education Group (CEG) was awarded $7.7 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) for their new project, Help Our People Expand the Ecosystem (HOPEE).

This multistate initiative comes from the ARC’s Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE), which drives economic transformation through collaboration.

For their project, CEG will be working with the Kentucky Rural Health Association (KRHA), Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) Kentucky, the West Virginia-based SUD Collaborative (SUDC), and the Virginia Rural Health Association.

Together, CEG and their HOPEE project partners will work to train and place new community health workers to strengthen behavioral healthcare systems in a 56-county region. Twenty West Virginia counties will be included.

According to Executive Director of CEG, A. Toni Young, this project will expand on CEG’s community health worker training program, CHAMPS, which trains individuals with lived experience in substance use disorder recovery to become community health workers.

“So what we wanted to do is to take individuals from towns, hollers, communities networks, and say, if we trained you to do the HIV screening, trained you to do the hepatitis C screening, trained you to do motivational interviewing or networking, could we train people that folks knew and were comfortable with and could listen to,” Young said. “And those folks may be more willing to come back into the community or come back for treatment for HIV or screening for HIV, or for some sort of a medically assisted treatment and management before or some other behavioral health services.”

According to CEG, its overarching goal is to improve socioeconomic disparities in Appalachia while addressing pressing and overlapping syndemics eroding the region’s broader economy, workforce and health outcomes.

A syndemic is two or more illness states interacting poorly with each other and negatively influencing the mutual course of each disease trajectory.

“Many things coming into effect one person, or one community, or one town or one state, that we’re taking a syndemic approach,” Young said. “So rather than saying, we only want to talk to the individuals about substance use disorder, right, we only want to get them to that MAT (Medically Assisted Treatment) provider to deal with substance use, we don’t want to just do that. We want to get them to there to talk about HIV, and when get them there to talk about hepatitis C, and we want to get them there to talk about PrEP.”

CEG said it will work with its partners and health care and behavioral care providers, including Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) providers, will train, hire, and support community health workers. The project will build capacity in communities to address the substance use, HIV, and viral hepatitis syndemic and increase support and infrastructure for health care providers–all while providing coinciding workforce development and job training support.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.

Veterans Counselors Have Opportunity To Collaborate

Mental health providers and substance use disorder counselors are coming together to share information between those who may work with veterans in the community.

The Martinsburg VA Medical Center Mental Health Program is hosting a community mental health and substance use disorder summit virtually and in person.

On Friday, April 19 at the Martinsburg VA Medical Center, health professionals will gather to discuss treatment methods and interventions for veterans suffering from mental illness or substance use disorder.

The event will bring together mental health providers and substance use disorder counselors to share information and provide educational tools to those who may work with veterans in the community.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more than one in 10 veterans have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder.

Participants wishing to earn their Continued Medical Education (CME) certification will need to email Theresa Crawford at theresa.crawford@va.gov.

Those who will not be earning a certification are not required to register.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.