The epidemic raging within the pandemic: Opioid addiction
by Salena Zito, National Political Reporter |
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August 11, 2020 10:20 AM
WEST VIRGINIA — Craig Hettlinger explains that he started drinking when he was about 16 years old. He escalated to stronger drugs three years later when he played Division I soccer at Marshall University. He started every game for a team that was ranked in the top 20 in the country at the time.
“My freshman year, we had just tied the No. 16 team in the
country. And what do you do after you tie No. 16 in the country? You celebrate
because you played a really good game. And so, that evening, we went to a party
and had a lot of alcohol and, me personally, had a good bit of cocaine,” he
explained. “I passed out that evening at 19, and when I woke up, I was 32 years
old in a homeless shelter in Richmond, Virginia, wondering how the hell I got
there. I had literally lost 13 years of my life.”
When COVID-19 broke out before his official open date, the
center temporarily served the homeless in his area in response.
“I remember watching Washington state and New York state
and watching the numbers just pile up, and I thought to myself, ‘I've got this 30-bed
facility, and we haven't got our grant money to open yet," he said.
"If this happens in our area, why won't the hospitals use us?" An
offer to Huntington’s mayor led to an eventual six-week partnership with the
City Mission to house 31 of Huntington's homeless.
“We transitioned to recovery on May 19. And out of the 31
homeless that we housed, 28 of them stayed. Maybe they were coming in initially
just for shelter, but by the time we got our hands on them and got to spend
time with them, almost 100% of them stayed to try to push them to a better
life, which is really, really cool,” he said.
Long before the pandemic came along, the nation, especially
Appalachia, was in the throes of a deadly epidemic: opioid and meth addiction.
It was a crisis that tore apart families, devastated communities, and destroyed
lives. As the pandemic continues, so does the opioid epidemic, with the
pandemic's widespread effects causing opioid addiction to escalate at alarming
numbers.
The Overdose Data Mapping
Application Program report published in May showed fatal
overdoses rose by almost 11.4% over the last year. In July, the American Medical
Association warned about an increase of reports from across the
country showing a dramatic increase in opioid-related mortality during the
pandemic.
Often, the very people who need the program's crisis care
facilities have lost their jobs because of the virus and cannot afford to pay
for critically needed help.
“In our business, the way our structure is, it's $500 to
come in for 90 days. And in all reality, that's the cheapest you'll find is
$5.50 a day. ... However, when you have a financial strain, it's difficult for
people to pay that money. So, it would be amazing if programs like mine and
other programs across the state could get some funding to accept people for
free,” said Hettlinger.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he has been
monitoring the collision of these deadly forces since the very beginning of the
COVID-19 shutdowns. It is what led him to introduce a bipartisan bill with Sen.
Cory Gardner of Colorado to amend the Community Mental Health Service Block
Grant to authorize a set-aside fund for crisis care services such as the one
Hettlinger runs.
The Crisis Care Improvement and Suicide Prevention Act,
Manchin said in an interview with the Washington
Examiner, would direct states to utilize 5% of their Mental Health Block
Grant for crisis care services.
The Wellbeing Trust projects
approximately 75,000 people are at risk of overdose death or
suicide directly due to coronavirus stress, with West Virginia topping that
list.
There's only one caveat in the Crisis Care Bill: The 5% set
aside for services will only happen after Congress increases that mental health
block grant by 5%. Manchin said what he does not want to do is take away any of
that important grant money from their current operations. “The number of
overdose cases, exponentially, is just out of proportion," he said.
"And they're rising tremendously from the opiate, and now with the
COVID-19, and suicide, more people are dependent on drugs or alcohol."
The increase in cases has created more of a workload that
many of these crisis facilities can’t handle. “They need extra funding for
that. So, the extra 5% bump will come through directly into the crisis care
centers, so they will have the personnel and be able to handle the growing
cases,” Manchin said.
The two-term West Virginia governor and longtime Democrat
said he and his staff have been hearing from both doctors and patients about
the increase of overdoses and suicides and monitoring the spike in numbers
coming through the state's Behavioral Health Bureau. He asked them what was
needed, “and the additional support was what was requested.”
It is the dual depths of despair that deeply concerns
Manchin. “We need to do something immediately, or we are going to lose more
Americans to drugs, alcohol, and suicide because of the added burden of
COVID-19. Without taking meaningful action as a nation, this epidemic within a
pandemic will be deadly.”
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