Reporting on addiction resources helps journalists approach alcohol use disorder with more accuracy and empathy

Reporting on Addiction offers an audio "Tip Sheet" for journalists who want to understand what alcohol use disorder is, address alcohol use stigma or enhance your community's understanding of the diagnoses.

Throughout April, which is designated Alcohol Awareness Month, journalists can access Reporting on Addiction's resources and learn the different parts of alcohol use, including prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery. 

The tip sheet helps reporters approach alcohol issues with more accuracy and empathy. According to Reporting on Addiction, when journalists engage in informed reporting, they benefit their communities by helping to:

• Reduce the stigma associated with alcohol use disorder.
• Make the public more aware of available help and support services.
• Foster more productive community discussions and effective policies regarding alcohol.
• Ultimately improve overall community health and well-being.

Reporting on Addiction is on a mission to improve how the media discusses and depicts addiction in the news. The collaborative service offers education for professional and student newsrooms that uses addiction science experts, research-based reporting resources, an expert database, and a network of media professionals passionate about decreasing stigma and improving the media’s portrayal of addiction and recovery. Access their materials here.

Class-action suit against The Salvation Army could help addiction sufferers access the two most effective medical treatment drugs

The Salvation Army is best known for
its holiday bell ringers. (Adobe photo)

Managing up to 25,000 Christmas bell ringers isn't the only thing The Salvation Army does. The charity also runs addiction treatment facilities whose care is at the "center of a legal fight that could set a precedent for all Americans seeking treatment for opioid addiction using two common and effective medications, methadone and buprenorphine," reports Lev Facher of STAT News.

The Salvation Army addiction facilities prohibit participants from using methadone and buprenorphine, despite the fact the "two medications are widely used to treat addiction and are vastly safer than the drugs they are meant to replace, like heroin or fentanyl," Facher explains. The class-action suit alleges its plaintiffs were "denied access to addiction treatment services because of their use of the medications."

The two drugs form the only medical treatment shown to effectively help addiction sufferers stop using opioids. The drugs also prevent severe fentanyl withdrawal, which can be physically and mentally excruciating.

Methadone and buprenorphine are often viewed by many Americans as "little better than street drugs," Facher reports. "As STAT found in the investigative series "The War on Recovery," many recovery-focused groups — including The Salvation Army and other rehabilitation centers, as well as 12-step recovery organizations like Narcotics Anonymous — remain opposed to the medications’ use despite the overwhelming evidence of their medical benefit."

Officials with The Salvation Army did not respond to requests for comments, according to Facher. 

Janet Herold, an attorney with the nonprofit Justice Catalyst Law, which sued The Salvation Army, told Facher, “The case has the potential to quite dramatically change the access situation for people with opioid use disorder." Facher adds, "The ongoing lawsuit, Herold said, could set a precedent that leads more treatment providers to offer the medications regardless of their ideological objections."

According to Facher's report, the "judge's ruling relies in part on the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, legislation that bars any group receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating against an individual solely on the basis of their disability."

Six months after Hurricane Helene, North Carolina is still trying to measure the loss while pushing recovery efforts

Flooding from Hurricane Helene wiped out homes and roads.
 (Adobe Stock photo)

North Carolina lawmakers are pushing Hurricane Helene recovery efforts forward despite not knowing the extent of Helene's damage or how much and when federal aid will be available. Brady Dennis of The Washington Post reports, "Officials seem determined to move quicker after Helene and avoid the mistakes of the past, even as North Carolina faces the most massive disaster recovery in its history."

Hurricane Helene hit western North Carolina six months ago, leaving a swath of decimation caused by extreme rain, flooding and mudslides. More than 100 people died and thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed. Flooding "wiped out bridges, roads, businesses and farms," Dennis reports. The storm left "an estimated $60 billion of economic ruin in its wake."

State officials still don't know how much federal aid will "ultimately arrive and in what quantity, even amid President Trump’s promises to speed help to the region," Dennis adds. "FEMA has helped more than 157,000 families and distributed $402.5 million to storm victims in North Carolina. . . . But the larger sums of funding meant to fuel long-term rebuilding that often follow large-scale disasters, historically takes months, if not years, to be fully implemented." 

The storm's scope of catastrophic damage explains why recovery has been slow. "Disaster recovery is almost always frustrating, tedious and too costly for most states and localities to bear without a significant assist from the federal government," Dennis explains. "Lawmakers continue to hash out the final details of the state’s most recent — though almost certainly not its last — Helene aid package. If passed, it will include more than $500 million to help struggling farmers, jump-start a home building program and repair private roads and bridges."

Even with that progress, the state will need billions to get back on its feet. Gov. Josh Stein’s deputies admit "that serious hurdles remain," Dennis reports. "Among them: the staggering damage Helene inflicted, the lack of data in some counties about the actual number of damaged and destroyed homes and the difficulties posed by rebuilding amid mountainous terrain."

Expert, best practices resources for journalists from Reporting on Addiction are available and free

Reporting on Addiction is a collaborative movement staffed by media professionals working to decrease addiction stigmas by sharing leading practices for covering all types of addiction.

Photos can help readers connect and
remember. (ROA photo)

 

One of the project's best offerings is its website's visual guide, which allows journalists to access photo portrayals that illustrate addiction experiences from multiple real-life angles. This addiction-sensitive photography helps journalists report on substance use while sticking to a principle of "do no harm."

The photos also help readers develop a more memorable and connected understanding of how illegal drugs harm individuals and communities. Access their one-page visual style guide here.

Applying for Reporting on Addiction's expert database
takes less than five minutes. (ROA photo)

The project also gives options for newsrooms of various sizes, including professional and student newsroom training, research-based reporting resources, and an active expert database for question-and-answer sessions.

For journalists covering the opioid settlement's terms, disbursements and news, the site has a series of recorded "Fireside Chats" and a Slack channel to help reporters inform readers about where, when and how opioid litigation money will be handled in their community.

As added support, Reporting on Addiction offers downloadable, free resources that include:

• Language style guide
• Digital Security Toolkit
• Trauma-Informed and Empathetic Reporting Toolkit

They also offer one-to-one and group training for individual journalists or their newsrooms.

Cherokee Nation's mobile drug unit delivers life-saving care to some of its most remote-living members

A tribal member unloads the Cherokee Nation harm-reduction
van. (Photo by Shane Brown, Native News Online via The Guardian.)

A new program in Oklahoma is using a mobile drug unit to distribute harm reduction and drug safety supplies to rural Cherokee Nation members struggling with addiction, reports Elyse Wild of The Guardian. The traveling service is part of the tribe's overall "Native people taking care of Native people" effort to address the severe risks and lack of access facing Native Americans with substance-use disorders.

The drug unit van can be the first point of contact for an addicted tribal member to receive life-saving supplies and education. Coleman Cox, who drives the unit, stops along drug "hot spots" in remote northern Oklahoma and sets up tables "with black bins of naloxone, a drug to reverse opioid overdoses, along with testing strips, clean syringes and wound-care supplies," Wild writes. "The mobile unit typically sees 16 regulars from the community, he says. Some days, no one comes. It all depends on the patterns of drug use and the current drug supply."

The Cherokee Nation "is the largest of the tribes, with more than 450,000 citizens worldwide and 141,000 people living within its sovereign boundaries," Wild explains. "Mobile harm reduction is uniquely suitable for tribal nations. . . where culture and connection are measures of health, harm reduction mitigates the isolation of active addiction." Cox told Wild, "Native people heal as a community.”

With the mobile unit, the Cherokee Nation can reach more remote members who need physical and cultural help coping with addiction. "The effect of culture on addiction health in Native communities is not purely anecdotal," Wild adds. "A doctoral research project conducted by the University of Arizona in 1992 with the Shuswap First Nation community in Alkali Lake, British Columbia, found that employing substance abuse treatment with cultural practices such as sweat lodges, pipe ceremonies, drumming, singing and powwows were instrumental in reducing the tribe’s rate of drug and alcohol abuse by 95% from 1970 to 1985."

A young farmer and former addict offers hope for recovery: 'The only thing you’re not coming back from is death.'

Nathan Caburn, a successful Mississippi Delta farmer
and past opioid addict. (Photo by C. Bennett, Farm Journal)

Nathan Casburn could be a poster child for a drug-addicted prodigal son, who threw away his farm and family for oxycontin and heroin highs.

Casburn's story is a tale that resonates with opioid-ravaged families and reflects what the love of a father and the support of a rural community can do for addicts who want to go home and begin again, writes Chris Bennett of Farm Journal. "Casburn is a most unlikely survivor. He tells a hellish tale of loss and triumph on the farm — without a shred of blame cast beyond his own shadow."

As a teenager, Casburn obsessively played video games. He told Bennett, "I played every waking moment I could, to the point of fixation. I knew I was different from the other kids and not in a good way; I was geared toward escapes. In my case, an obsession with video games was a symptom of my unhealthy mindset.”

From video game escapes, Casburn went on to alcohol. Bennett writes, "In 2004, on backroad gravel, Casburn, a high school junior, broke two vertebrates in an alcohol-related car crash. The subsequent pain management became a party, legitimized by medical approval in the age of OxyContin. Casburn was in love. Welcome to the wonder world of opioids."

Casner wanted nothing to do with his family's Mississippi Delta farm in Tallahatchie County. He was all about the highs. "Next stop, 75 miles west to Ole Miss and Oxford, and a chain of descent in a college town: DUI’s, car wrecks, arrests, hospitalization, overdoses, academic probation, and legal woes," Bennett explains. "By 2014, with no job, no degree, and no prospects. . . . OxyContin and other legal pharmaceuticals were out of his price range. He responded with the most hellish economic decision of his life. Go home to the farm and tap the vein. Heroin."

"Rain or shine, addiction woke Casburn at dawn every day, demanding a morning fix," Bennett writes. "In 2017, at 29, Casburn’s body gave out. After two weeks in intensive care due to a heart valve infection derived from heroin use, he returned home, and checked into rehab. . . . Three weeks after rehab, Casburn was back on the needle."

Then death came knocking. Casburn told Bennett: "I had an out-of-body experience with no drugs involved. I saw everyone going on with life, and me stuck right there dying as an addict. Right then, in the library, I dropped to my knees and threw up a prayer in desperation, but I meant every word. I called out to God for mercy and forgiveness. I told Him that if He would help me, then I’d do everything He asked. That prayer was answered.”

He told Bennett, “All the people around me in our farming community came to help me in one way or another." Bennett adds, "Seven years after crashing to his knees, Casburn has earned a stellar reputation and built a thriving farm life. . . . In March 2024, he and his wife Caitlin were blessed with a baby girl — Nora." He is grateful for a "particularly stalwart source of support — his father, Rea."

Casburn wants people who are addicted to know there is always hope. He told Bennett, "Never, never believe that you can’t get out of drugs. You’re never too far gone. The only thing you’re not coming back from is death.”

Appalachian program helps people in recovery find a new life in construction work

Lindsey King works on a new home.
(Photo by J. Glendenning, IRJ)

Lindsey King is rebuilding her life by building homes in Kentucky. Her new career is a testament to a successful trifecta of efforts from the Hazard-based Housing Development Alliance's Hope Building Program, the Perry County Drug Recovery Court, and King's determination, reports Jenni Glendenning of the Institute for Rural Journalism. King will celebrate four years of recovery on Aug. 18.

Like many people in recovery circles, King experienced a "moment of clarity" when she "was only able to see her children once during her six-month stay," Glendenning writes. "She praised Perry Circuit Judge Alison Wells, who sent her to treatment after her arrest. King told Glendenning, “She seen things in me far before I’ve seen them in myself, and she pushed me to get there.”

King attributes part of her ongoing successful recovery to community support. She told Glendenning, "There’s no stigma over recovery anymore around here." Glendenning writes, "When King entered the Hope Building Program as a trainee, she and her children, now 8 and 7, lived in a one-bedroom apartment with one twin bed and a small closet. She moved up to a two-bedroom apartment and now owns her own home, where they all have a bedroom, and the kids have a place to play outside."

King likened recovery to building a home, which starts with a solid foundation and goes up from there. "She knew she wanted to be a carpenter after about a month of being involved in the Hope Building Program, even though she had never done construction," Glendenning explains. "King said that she has not been treated differently on the job because she was a woman. . . . Her advice for women looking to enter the trade is, 'Even if it’s something you think you can’t do, do it, go for it!'"

To become a carpenter, King attended Hazard Community and Technical College and "is the first person in her immediate family to attend college," Glendenning reports. "After King completed the program, the HDA hired her as a temporary assistant trainer for a year. Now she is a full-time assistant to lead trainer Josh Boyd; they work with a crew of four in the program."

King with her children, Waylon and Iris
(Photo by J. Glendenning, IRJ)

The Hope Building Program is primarily funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Just Transition Fund for coal counties. "It aims to increase the long-term success rates of people in recovery while also rebuilding the local housing market," Glendenning writes. Shannon Gabbard, who runs the Hope Building Program, told Glendenning, “Ultimately, our goal is to help them transition into the workforce full-time. They must consistently pass random drug screenings, and the feedback we can provide helps to ease the minds of employers who may otherwise hesitate to hire employees who are in recovery.”

A criminal record can make it hard for people in recovery to find employers willing to give them a chance. Glendenning explains, "The Hope Building program does a background check, but Gabbard tells trainees, 'I don’t want them to stress about it because we haven’t seen anything yet that we haven’t been able to work through.' This offers a sense of relief, but once they are hired, 'they cannot have any new criminal charges after they begin the program.'"

Mindy Miller, HDA’s director of development and communications, whose own family has seen hardship from the drug epidemic, told Glendenning, “It's stories like Lindsey’s that give people hope. Her story is a lighthouse, a beacon shining in the night for every addict and for every person out there who loves an addict." Glendenning adds, "King considers the folks at the HDA her family and loves knowing that through her work she is giving back to her community by building something that is going to be someone’s home."

Kentucky's Appalachian counties getting $297.6 million for post-flood recovery housing

State funds are being used for road and utility work at the new high-ground development in Knott County called Chestnut Ridge. (Photo by Zack Hall, Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky)

By Jenni Glendenning
Institute for Rural Journalism, University of Kentucky

Matt Sawyers has $298 million to spend.

Sawyers, a native of southeastern Kentucky, is commissioner of the state Department for Local Government. That puts him in a position to help make a difference in his home region as he helps his boss, Gov. Andy Beshear, decide where to put the $297.6 million the state has in a federal community development block grant for recovery from the 2022 floods.

Sawyers described it as “a tremendous opportunity for so many generations of eastern Kentuckians that are invested in the success of the region and understand the challenges that have been faced by the collapse of the coal economy, and before that, timber.”

The state has received 10 applications for infrastructure for housing projects to help southeastern Kentucky recover from the 2022 floods.  At least two are “high ground” communities above floodplains and one “is very close to being awarded,” Sawyers said.

The first deadline for infrastructure for housing projects was July 1, but the state is still taking applications, and has until February 2030 to spend the money.

Matt Sawyers, commissioner, Department for Local
Government (Photo by Al Cross)

Housing projects using disaster-recovery funding must serve low- to moderate-income households, and such households must be the majority of those served by infrastructure projects.

The governor is the ultimate decision-maker on recovery grants, but the process involves local governments and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, so “There aren't necessarily a ton of decisions that need to be made,” Sawyers said. “We have the money that was allocated to us by HUD, and we want to spend the money.”

Sawyers said his and Beshear’s “main, only, sole driving purpose is to bring people up out of the floodplain, fulfill the governor's commitment to Eastern Kentucky that we're not going to leave one person behind. This is a long-term recovery process and we're going to get them to safety and put them back at home.”

The state got a head start because it had some money left from the $123 million it got from HUD for recovery from 2021 flooding. Logan Fogle, the DLG’s chief information officer, said most of that was used in western Kentucky, but some is being used in Letcher, Floyd, and Breathitt counties because they were eligible for both 2021 and 2022 funding.

For example, in Prestonsburg, $8 million is being used to build 33 new homes and rehabilitate a vacant home in the New Hope neighborhood.

Breathitt and Letcher counties are two of the five that the federal government has identified as being hurt most by the 2022 floods. The others are Perry, Knott and Pike. At least 80% of the recovery money must go to those five counties.

In Letcher County, $8.7 million in 2022 recovery money will be used to build 29 homes in Seco and Uz, and install infrastructure to support the new homes.

In Jackson, $2.3 million will be used to build eight homes for flood survivors and $1.5 million is allocated for water and sewer projects for future housing projects in Breathitt County.

In Knott County, state funds are being used to build  new roads and lay water and sewer pipes in the new high-ground development called Chestnut Ridge.

The other counties eligible for federal disaster-recovery money are Casey, Clay, Cumberland, Floyd, Harlan, Johnson, Lee, Leslie, Lincoln, Magoffin, Martin, Owsley, Powell, Whitley and Wolfe.

Sawyers said the DLG works with local governments and supporting entities to develop their applications, and with HUD and the state Public Protection Cabinet, the Transportation Cabinet, and the Energy and Environment Cabinet, which is taking the lead on much of the planning for high-ground projects.

For decades, people in eastern Kentucky have wanted to see housing development on reclaimed strip mines. The flood and increased public pressure sparked some companies, families and individuals to begin making reclaimed land available for development.

Sawyers said that’s finally happening because of the tremendous investment being made in recovery by government and philanthropy. “We probably have a confluence of events” in developing entire new communities out of the floodplain,” he said.

A few wealthy Kentuckians and non-profit organizations have donated land or money for some of the housing projects. Sawyers says their team is “fully supportive of every resource that anyone can provide to fulfill the governor's promise to get people out of the floodplain, rebuild homes for them, and keep people in eastern Kentucky.”

Sawyers is a Lexington resident, but much of his family still lives in Clay, Laurel, and Perry counties. He said there is a cultural element to where people want to live, and many if not most of those uprooted by the flooding want to stay in their home areas, but on higher ground.

The state’s HUD-approved plan calls for $90 million to be spent on new single-family housing, which includes incentives to developers and assistance to qualified homebuyers; $25 million on owner-occupied rehabilitation or reconstruction, in grants up to $50,000 and up to $50,000 more in forgivable loans; $10 million in incentives to developers and builders for new multifamily housing, $5 million for rehabilitation or reconstruction of rental properties of seven units or less; and $134 million for infrastructure and related activities, including roads, bridges, drainage, publicly owned utility lines, and broadband for housing projects.

Also, $11 million is allocated for purchase of properties, $3 million in housing counseling and legal aid, $3 million in small-business grants, $1.5 million for resilience planning, and $15 million for administration of the program.

Jenni Glendenning, a Ph.D. student at the University of Kentucky, is the David Hawpe Fellow in Appalachian Reporting at UK’s Institute for Rural Journalism. Reach her at Jennifer.Glendenning@uky.edu.

Drug-use stigma among addiction treatment providers is a barrier to care; state policymakers can help create change

Many substance abuse disorder providers have stigmas
about drug use. (Photo by V.  Hryshchenko, Unsplash)

Even though many addiction treatment centers encourage participants to talk openly about their opioid or substance-use disorder, many patients encounter medical providers with drug-use stigmas, which present an obstacle to care, reports Kaitlyn Levinson of Route Fifty. Some state governments can use policy changes to help remove social stigmas as a barrier to addiction treatment.

Noa Krawczyk, an assistant professor at New York University, told Levinson, "At the individual level of a person choosing not to use those treatments because of negative perceptions around them, to the policies that regulate these treatments [and] to the protocols that exist in treatment programs for how these medications are delivered. . . .[Stigma is] ingrained in every single aspect of these treatments and plays a huge role as in terms of a barrier to care.”

Even when opioid treatment is available and affordable, facing a biased medical community can mean a substance disorder patient opts out of recovery treatment. "A recent analysis from The Pew Charitable Trusts suggests normalizing methadone treatment could help expand its accessibility," Levinson writes. "Some states are moving to align their methadone-related regulations to mirror the federal government’s efforts, including California where policymakers are considering a bill that would allow doctors — not just methadone clinics — to prescribe take-home doses of the medicine."

Making treatment more accepted and widely available may address some stigmas, but changing policy goals and language can also help shift attitudes.

Massachusetts policymakers are working to remove drug-use stigma dynamics when a newborn tests positive for drug dependency. "Under current law, hospital workers are required to notify state officials about babies whose blood tests indicate substance use from their parent," Levinson reports. "The new policy would only mandate such reporting if the infant was at imminent risk of abuse or neglect, WBUR reported. The bill also directs health officials to establish a plan for new parents managing their substance use disorder."

Addiction workers need to thoroughly understand addiction as a medical problem or many treatment facilities will fail to help patients. Frances McGaffey, associate manager of Pew’s substance use prevention and treatment initiative, told Levinson, "[Otherwise] there is a mismatch between the community the provider aims to serve and the population actually getting care."

Some opioid settlement money is used to raise salaries and replace other funding; victims' families say that's wrong

Addiction recovery advocates say redirecting funds isn't
in the 'spirit of the settlement.' (Adobe stock photo)

As opioid settlement funds hit state, county and city coffers, some have been diverted for staff salary increases and already-established budgets. Victims' families and addiction treatment advocates argue the practice, formally known as known as supplantation, is not what the money was intended to do, reports Aneri Pattani of KFF Health News. "Local officials say they're trying to stretch tight budgets, especially in rural areas. But critics say it's a lost opportunity to bolster responses to an ongoing addiction crisis and save lives."

Commenting on what many see as misguided spending, Robert Kent, former general counsel for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told Pattani, "To think that replacing what you're already spending with settlement funds is going to make things better — it's not. Certainly, the spirit of the settlements wasn't to keep doing what you're doing. It was to do more."

Opioid disbursements in Scott County, Indiana, are an example of how the money and disagreements on how to spend it are playing out. "In 2022, the county received more than $570,000 in opioid settlement funds," Pattani writes. "According to reports it filed with the state, it spent about 45 percent of that on salaries for its health director and emergency medical services staff. The money usually budgeted for those salaries was freed to buy an ambulance and create a rainy-day fund for the health department."

On balance, throughout the national waves of intense addiction trials -- from prescription to heroin to fentanyl -- many cities and counties redirected thousands of dollars to respond to the crisis. Now that settlement funds are coming in, "They want to recoup some of those expenses," Pattani reports. Some states have "restricted substituting opioid settlement funds for existing government spending, according to state guides created by OpioidSettlementTracker.com and the public health organization Vital Strategies."

While community spending can be complex, there are tools to help citizens identify the amount of opioid dollars their community has received to date. Pattani adds, "Use our searchable database to find out. Then, ask elected officials how they're spending those dollars. In many places, dedicated citizens are the only watchdogs for this money."

The overdose crisis isn't over, it's evolving

Suboxone is less effective in treating
some additions. (Drugs.com photo)

Powerful synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, xylazine and stimulants are undercutting the effectiveness of prescription drug treatments, leaving programs and patients struggling, reports Taylor Sisk of KFF Health News. Vermont, a state that pioneered prescription addiction treatments, is facing new challenges to help substance-abuse victims avoid overdoses and succeed in recovery.

Vermont's "Hub and Spoke" program is part of the statewide Blueprint for Health, with "hubs in relatively populous areas of this largely rural state," Sisk writes. "A patient enters the system for assessment and initial induction at one of nine hubs and then, once stable, is transferred to a spoke. If that patient relapses or needs more intensive care, they can be transferred back to the hub. The spokes typically offer Suboxone — the brand name for a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone -- and the most effective for those with mild to moderate opioid dependence — but not methadone, which is more regulated."

The mix of street drugs combined with their potency limits the impact of prescription care. "Suboxone has proved less effective against fentanyl, and commonly used doses can trigger violent, immediate withdrawal," Sisk explains. "Neither Suboxone nor methadone is designed to treat addiction to xylazine or stimulants. . . . The nation has also seen a significant increase in overdose deaths from co-use of stimulants and opioids."

Without effective prescriptions as part of a withdrawal plan, people with an addiction are less likely to succeed during the early days of recovery. "Those who seek help breaking their addictions face treatment options rendered less effective by the prevalence of fentanyl, xylazine, and other synthetic drugs," Sisk reports. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that of the more than 111,000 drug-overdose deaths in the U.S. in the 12-month period ending in April, more than 77,000 involved fentanyl and other synthetic opioids."

Jess Kirby, director of client services for Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, which offers services to counter substance use disorder, told Sisk: “There was a time when we couldn’t have pictured things being worse than heroin. Then, we couldn’t picture things being worse than fentanyl. Now, we can’t picture things being worse than xylazine. It keeps escalating. . . . We have a drug supply that’s contaminated with xylazine and fentanyl, and we know that people are struggling a lot more and are at a lot higher risk. It’s not just an overdose to be concerned about anymore. It’s life-threatening wounds and infections."

Tony Folland, clinical services manager with the Vermont Department of Health’s Division of Substance Use Programs, "said fentanyl is now implicated in about 96% of overdose deaths."

'Recovery-friendly' employers can help both those healing from addiction and the broader community

Cafes and catering businesses can offer flexibility and
support for people in recovery. (Photo by K8, Unsplash)

By providing a job and a supportive structure for people transitioning into drug-free living, employers are helping their broader community, reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. "Rural communities ravaged by substance misuse could benefit from people in recovery being active members of the local workforce, say experts in criminal justice, substance misuse, and labor studies." Sometimes called "second-chance workplaces," these businesses offer employment and a place of meaning without drugs.

Kristina Brant, assistant professor of Rural Sociology at Pennsylvania State University, told Eaton, "[These are] employers hoping to adopt specific policies and practices that are going to be supportive of people who are in recovery from substance use disorder. They want to create an environment that's structurally and culturally going to help people in recovery thrive." Eaton adds, "Stable and meaningful employment is a goal for many people in recovery – not everyone, but many people, she said."

Drug misuse recovery can be harder in rural places because of stigma and a culture of "everybody knows everybody's business." Eaton reports, "Being in recovery can still hurt peoples' chances at getting a job, acquiring a place to live and even making friendships, Brant said. . . . Logistics also play a role. Someone in treatment court may be required to attend court several times a week, and a recovery-friendly workplace would be conducive to that."

Black Sheep logo

Some business models are flexible and can adjust to addiction recovery needs. "Brant said there are many examples of recovery-friendly workplaces. Cafes are popular options. One example is Black Sheep Brick Oven Bakery and Catering, located in Jackhorn, Kentucky," Eaton reports. "The restaurant hires. . . folks emerging from incarceration created by the opioid crisis." Brant told Eaton: "You're serving this dual purpose of creating a place that people know will be a supportive work environment, but also bringing something positive to the community. I think that's a really nice model to focus on."

Douglas Swanson, associate extension professional in the Labor & Workforce Development Program at the University of Missouri Extension, said, "Rural communities and employers have greater challenges due to the shallower pools of available workers." Swanson told Eaton: "You can't hire workers who aren't there. This dynamic puts rural employers in the position of needing to look at the potential an employee may have instead of their past."

A new kind of cafe and a new fellowship offer rural help at the intersection of courts and recovery

A group discussion (Shutterstock photo)

Gatherings at cafes aren't new, or are they? Meet the Recovery Cafe and its intersecting partner, The Reaching Rural Initiative. Recovery Cafes offer "no-cost get-togethers in which people can have a meal with a small group of individuals who are in recovery from something, said Mike Rentfro, a fellow at The Reaching Rural Initiative, which is working at the intersection of substance use and those engaged with the justice system," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. The new approach has been catching on in rural areas that often have fewer gathering spaces and a cultural stigma that discourages asking for help.

The Recovery Cafe offers a circle of recovery. Rentfro told Eaton: "They come in, they connect, they have to do what we call an hour of give back time. So they actually volunteer at the cafe to maybe wash dishes after the meal or even help prepare the meal. And they have to participate in one recovery circle a week. So all that recovery circle is a support group for whatever you've identified as what's keeping you from being your truest self."

Jessica Perusse from Camden, New York, is planning a Recovery Cafe. Eaton reports, "Perusse learned about Recovery Cafes and thought it would be a less adversarial role. . . . She said that over recent years, Camden has been known for its high levels of child protective cases and has been a 'hot spot' in Oneida County for opioid overdoses, which has led to grandparents parenting young children."

The town's resources are limited, and seeking help is discouraged. Perusse told Eaton: "There is a huge amount of stigma about receiving any type of support services including mental health/addiction treatment, medical care as well as food resources and financial supports . . . The Camden Life Center provides outreach to the five town courts within the coverage area. . . . Being present in court is one of the few opportunities where people gather and may be in a place [to] consider treatment." The Camden Life Center could house a Recovery Cafe and fill a dramatic gap for residents who receive court recovery orders or are self-referred.

"Both Rentfro and Perusse are among the nearly 70 fellows at The Reaching Rural Initiative, which started in December 2022," Eaton reports. "The Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the State Justice Institute co-sponsor the year-long fellowship. Tara Kunkel, whose organization, Rulo Strategies, helps lead the fellows, told Eaton: "It's a true marriage of public health and public safety. So all the projects are working at the intersection of substance use, and people who are engaged in some way in the justice system. . . . [For the fellows] Sometimes, what they just need is someone to cheerlead them and encourage them to get through doing the actual work on their project."

The Reaching Rural Initiative plans on another cohort. Kunkel told The Rural Blog, "We have not officially released the application, but anyone interested can sign up to receive a copy of the application once it is released by clicking this link."