“WITHIN 72 HOURS after an overdose, the Quick Response Team—me, a faith leader, a counselor or peer coach, and a police officer—will go out to that individual, either where they overdosed or where they reside. We introduce ourselves and tell them they are not in trouble—we are not here for that. Then we ask if they’ve thought about recovery. If they have, we’ll lay out all the options and let them decide for themselves what they want to do.
We have been to homes that are a quarter of a million dollars all the way to abandoned homes that have no floors because they’re rotted out. Our oldest client was 78. All races, all tax brackets, it doesn’t matter.
The pastors aren’t there just to pray for somebody, but for any spiritual support. We do have a lot of clients who were brought up in the church who feel they’re not valued or that they’ve fallen away from God. Whatever they are feeling spiritually, the faith leader will be there to lift them up.
Huntington, at one point, was known as the overdose capital of the U.S. But today we are also the recovery capital as well. Around town you’ll see billboards for medication-assisted treatment. If you walk into the health department’s harm reduction program, you’ll see people who are in throes of addiction, but you’ll also see peer counselors, STD testing, and Narcan training. You’ll see both addiction and recovery, I will not sugarcoat that, but we’re slowly trying to let the recovery side take over.”
Larresca Cox spoke with associate editor Betsy Shirley about helping people with opioid addiction find recovery.
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