Ensuring Recovery is Not Forgotten

The Current Epidemic

As we continue into 2017, the opioid epidemic continues to sweep through neighborhoods all across America. For Long Islanders, the epidemic has hit especially hard. Suffolk and Nassau counties continue to rank among the highest in opioid-related overdose deaths. There even exists an independent film this year that focuses on the heroin epidemic on Long Island called Adrift. With an 11 percent rise in drug overdose deaths nationally, 77 percent related to heroin, painkiller and synthetic opioid (fentanyl and carfentanil) overdoses, 2017 is in need of drastic measures to reverse the tragic outcomes that continue to ripple through our communities.

It’s not all grim news on the horizon, though. New and innovative measures are appearing at the local, state and national level that should not only minimize the number of opioid-related overdoses but also provide a place for recovering addicts to thrive. For these ideas to truly succeed though, the conversation must go beyond large funds for more programs. We must, as members of our communities, understand what happens to people after addiction treatment and realize the opportunity that exists to share the significant success stories that can come from recovering individuals and families who previously seemed to have lost all hope.

Addiction’s Effect on Family

As opioid-related deaths continue to increase, the number of people who know someone (family, friend, colleague, member of the community) who has died from an opioid-related overdose increases as well. As obvious as this may sound, the implications these types of tragedies have on families is something few are prepared for. Many in our communities are not informed or resist learning about the implications of addiction on the whole family system.

A common exercise enacted in professional development trainings related to how addiction affects family involves a mobile hanger, paper clips and some same-sized photos of fictional family members. When first completed, the mobile hangers are often well balanced since the strands and pictures generally weigh the same. Participants are then asked to attach paperclips to family members who exhibit behaviors that negatively impact their daily life. These behaviors are found in a vignette provided by the trainer detailing the fictional family’s current situation. The vignettes will include one family member who is addicted to drugs like opioids and additionally be either unemployed, have a criminal history, or has a history of frequent hospitalizations in addition to several other factors that may impede one’s resilience. As the paperclips add up, the balance of the mobile hanger is thrown off, affecting the family as a whole.

The family members of someone who is addicted to opioids usually become affected in ways that do not receive much attention. Often fingers are pointed at the addict. Without proper treatment, including family counseling, the underlying systemic causes of the issue at hand rarely arise to the awareness of the family. A family being involved, even if minimally, with the treatment of someone suffering drug addiction is crucial to building resilience that will continue to last beyond treatment and through recovery.

A parent with a drug-addicted teen, for example, may experience high levels of stress, anxiety, and often depression that goes untreated due to all the energy and focus put on the teen. A parent in this situation is often required to transport that teen to treatment three times a week if in outpatient or schedule their lives around hospital visits if inpatient. Fear begins to set in as parents of an addicted teen begin to “expect the call” from police or the hospital informing them their child overdosed or is in the hospital, again. Siblings exposed to an opioid addict may experience trauma if, for example, they find their sibling overdosed or simply high in the home. Family members often cut ties with the drug addict in the family, a decision that will always and forever stick within the conscious of those family members. These are just a few examples of how family dynamics are affected by addiction.

As the mobile hanger activity comes to an end, the facilitator asks the participants to demonstrate what happens when certain limits are reached. To represent, for example, what an overdose-related death looks like using the mobile hanger, participants are asked to cut the strand holding that family member’s paperclip laden picture which, at this point, is about to pull the whole mobile hanger down. Once the strand is cut, the recoil is so aggressive, the other family members are left shaking.

Importance of Recovery Centers

Prevention and treatment programs tend to the “before” and “during” of addiction proving to be absolutely essential to help those who are at risk of using or already addicted to drugs. The fact that, on a national level, funds are being commiteed to combat this epidemic is a milestone in itself. What will truly matter in the long-term is how we use these funds. Prevention and treatment programs seldom focus on, often due to a lack of resources, the “after” treatment phase; recovery. The need to focus on recovery is essential for prevention and treatment efforts to hold their value. Recovery Centers provide individuals and their families the hope and likelihood that, once treatment is deemed successful, they can have a place to go to surround themselves with positive people and activities. Recovery Centers like the one FCA is developing in Hauppauge with help from some key partners, will make it possible for people to rewrite their life narrative and tell their success story to the next generation.

Efforts from 2016 to Combat the Epidemic

Necessary and overdue steps were taken this past year in regards to the opioid epidemic. Back in July, congress passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). The bill’s goal is to expand access to medication-assisted treatment MAT and the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, although it does not provide funding.

On December 13th President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act into law. The act, which took congress about three years to pass, is partially expected to provide $500 million in funding (in 2017 and $500 million more in 2018). The funds will be used for addiction prevention and treatment programs to reach more Americans and for additional research to be conducted on finding more effective addiction treatments. Additionally, the act is expected to create stronger oversight regarding how opioids are prescribed for pain.

For Long Islanders, the agencies leading the way in the fight against the opioid epidemic include, but are not limited to, Family and Children’s Association (FCA), Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD), Families in Support of Treatment (FIST) and the Long Island Recovery Association (LIRA). Back in June of this year, FCA thanked Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Commissioner Arlene González-Sánchez for choosing FCA to lead one of six new sites across New York State to operate a new facility for people in recovery and families impacted by addiction. The Long Island Recovery and Community Outreach Center (LIRCOC) will be based in Hauppauge, NY and is expected to open by February 2017.

About Family and Children’s Association (FCA)

Family & Children’s Association is a not-for-profit agency helping nearly 20,000 of our neighbors each year. For more than 130 years, we have worked to protect and strengthen vulnerable children, seniors, families and communities on Long Island.

Through an integrated network of services and counseling, Family & Children’s Association provides help and hope to under-served and disadvantaged individuals struggling to build better lives. We offer Addiction Treatment and Behavioral Health Services; Educational Opportunities and Life Skills for Youth; Strategies for Building Family Success; Counseling, Services and Support for Adults and Seniors; Shelter and Services for Homeless Youth, Adults and Veterans; and Innovative Approaches to Strengthening Communities.

Family & Children’s Association has been nationally recognized as a model of excellence, fiscally sound, well-managed and possessing an impeccable reputation in providing community-based social services. We embrace more than 200 individual volunteers, corporate groups, community groups and sponsors who join with us to be part of something bigger than them.

About Long Island Council for Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD)

LICADD was formed in 1956 with a mission to educate the general public on the nature of alcoholism, with attention to therapeutic treatment for alcoholics and their families. As LICADD continued growing, they implemented a wider array of services from relapse prevention, family-based addiction support groups, anger management, and more. LICAAD’s Positive Connections program is designed to help individuals who are HIV positive that are not currently enrolled in substance use or mental health services. The mission behind Positive Connections is to get those in need of these services connected to treatment in an effort to build quality of life and reduce negative outcomes. LICADD is an affiliate of FCA.

About Family in Support of Treatment (FIST)

Families in Support of Treatment (F.I.S.T) is a non-profit corporation created to help families who have loved ones that are struggling with the disease of addiction. Addiction causes devastation to individuals as well at their families. Often family members don’t know where to turn for help. Help is available and F.I.S.T was developed to help family members find and access help for themselves and their loved ones.

About the Long Island Recovery Association (LIRA)

Founded in January 2000, the Long Island Recovery Association is a grassroots organization of people concerned about the rights of those in recovery from or seeking help for addiction related illnesses. They look to bring together individuals in recovery, along with all impacted families, friends and allies, to advocate for the rights and needs of those affected by addiction.

Through education and advocacy, LIRA aims to eliminate the stigma around addiction, achieve genuine parity and treatment on demand for those seeking help to ensure that a compassionate, well-informed understanding of the nature of addiction becomes the norm not the exception among legislators, institutions, family members and society in general.

Addiction is a public health issue, the evolving science behind addiction is finally driving a system change away from a cruel and failed criminal justice focus to a healthcare approach.