Addiction and recovery experts joined Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., in Dunbar on Friday for several panel discussions focused on where West Virginia stands in the ongoing drug and overdose epidemic.
The summit was attended by local and state legislators, representatives of nonprofit organizations working in the areas of recovery and addiction, members of law enforcement and health officials, among others. Capito moderated three panels – one on recovery, one on research and prevention and the last on law enforcement.
Most of the presentations and discussions at Friday’s summit were general overviews of how the addiction epidemic is affecting different parts of West Virginia and how some organizations have tried to respond. Speakers shared personal experiences that motivate their work, as well as barriers to care and critical funding and resource gaps that make this work hard.
On the Recovery Panel, panelists said stigma continues to be one of the biggest challenges in supporting people with substance exploit disorders.
“Stigma is still one of the bigger ones [challenges] This is what we’re facing and no one really wants to talk about it,” said Michael Cole, the founder of Lauren’s Wish, a Morgantown nonprofit that connects people with substance exploit disorders to treatment and recovery programs.
As stigma prevails, said Amy Saunders, the executive director of the Marshall University Center of Excellence and Recovery, policies that limit the services available to people with substance exploit disorders create increasing barriers to care to ensure they enter recovery safely can reach.
“We still have to expand harm reduction, we have to look at that these guidelines [in West Virginia]said Saunders. “There has been a lot of great work, yes, but there is still a lot of work to be done.”
Tim Czaja, Community Corrections Coordinator in Berkeley County and board member of the West Virginia First Foundation, said one of the biggest barriers to keeping people away from dynamic addiction is money. If someone is unhoused, can’t find transportation to keep their job or can’t afford the treatment they need, it’s harder to keep them sober, Czaja said.
“There are a variety of different obstacles that people face in recovery, most of them [interventions] “I need money,” Czaja said. “People in early recovery don’t have the $1,400 to spend to get to a place… We have access to some resources, but there’s always a need.”
In Berkeley County, some county employees and community members have banded together to form Friends of Recovery, a nonprofit organization that raises money to meet the daily needs of people returning to communities from facilities.
Czaja, who is in long-term recovery from addiction, said there are compact costs that often hold people back when trying to maintain their recovery, especially in the early stages. The money raised can lend a hand individuals avoid falling behind on their utility bills, pay for car repairs that allow them to commute to work, or purchase equipment such as steel-toed boots needed for certain jobs. These are expenses that often cannot be covered by other grant programs – whether from governments or private organizations – but are imperative to helping people maintain and thrive in sobriety.
“These are things that can make people want to use them again [drugs]said Czaja. “We can use this money and help with a variety of causes like this, and that’s pretty awesome.”
Friday’s summit was a condensed version of a similar meeting Capito held in Martinsburg in 2015not long after she was first elected to the Senate.
“I thought we really hadn’t put it all together yet to see where we’ve gotten to and what still needs to be done. [Doing this] every 10 years is too long. Obviously we’ve learned more and more about it in recent years, but [it’s changed] We passed a lot of laws,” Capito said. “So we decided to do it here in a more compact forum… I thought it would be really useful, but there are still so many unanswered questions, I think.”
Capito is preparing for her 11th year as a senator, where she will hold the fourth-highest leadership position in the Republican Party-controlled Senate. In addition to being the up-to-date chairwoman of the Republican Policy Committee, she will also be chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, which is responsible for distributing National Institutes of Health funding to local governments is responsible.
These dollars provide critical funding for organizations across the country struggling to respond to the ongoing drug and overdose epidemic. Capito has been a member of the committee for two years now and said her goal since her tenure has been to ensure that West Virginia’s needs are taken into account when government agencies propose funding.
“I obviously have a great relationship with the NIH. I influence your budget. I could do this for things that are important to me, [and] This is one of them – more money for drug treatment and drug response,” Capito said. “…You can’t always do everything for everyone, can you? But I think once we started highlighting this issue, looking at the stats for West Virginia and realizing that we’re number one in absolutely the wrong category, then you can see that here’s a big part of this development takes place [in funding] was created in the last 10 years.”
For Capito, Friday’s talks were no surprise. She understands the toll addiction takes on West Virginians and the challenges they face, particularly when it comes to seeking treatment and recovering from substance exploit disorder. Despite this knowledge, she said, it is never simple to deal with the losses that families suffer every day due to the epidemic.
“This human tragedy literally breaks my heart every time,” Capito said. “It’s just so sad.”
