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Your Voice MOV holds first forum

PARKERSBURG — Addiction can take many forms according to participants in a community meeting regarding the area’s drug abuse problem.

Your Voice MOV held a meeting Sunday at the Boys and Girls Club of Parkersburg where people from around the community, with different backgrounds and experiences, came and discussed the many aspects of the area’s opioid and drug abuse problem.

Over 50 people attended the meeting, including recovering addicts, people involved in counseling services, people in the health care field and others from around the community to discuss the various views of what drug addiction looks like in the community and possible ways to deal with it. Many people remained anonymous.

“Something needs to be done and we need to find solutions,” said Moderator Doug Oplinger of Your Voice Ohio. “This is an opportunity to share things.”

The opioid and drug abuse problem is killing over 5,000 people a year in Ohio and West Virginia alone, he said.

Those in attendance were first asked what does drug addiction look like.

Many people said it can look like anyone as the problem affects all classes from the poor to people with a variety of educational backgrounds. One teacher heard from one student about a friend of her mother’s who died of an overdose, they see a student’s parents listed in news reports of a drug bust and they see a lot of students who have to change schools as a result of a parent’s addiction. The teacher said there are students in the middle schools who are dealing with addiction issues, but many of the problems are still with the parents.

A local professional who works with children on a daily basis said there are many parents who are so addicted to drugs they are unable to take care of their kids.

“Many of these kids are unparented,” he said.

Many may end up being raised by a grandparent or a great-grandparent.

“Many children are raising themselves,” he said.

Many people who grew up in this area said the drug problem has fundamentally changed the town from what they remembered as drug abuse is more out in the open with people abusing drugs out in public and with needles being left out in public places.

One recovering addict said, in the beginning, drugs gave him confidence to do the things he couldn’t do before. Another said the drugs helped them escape the unhappy reality of their daily lives.

Another recovering addict who originally came from the southern part of the state said there are not a lot of recovery options in poorer areas which made getting help more difficult as many people are continually surrounded by the people and the circumstances that kept them addicted for a long time. Others said the country’s health care system is unprepared to handle the problem.

Many people also blamed the rise of technology in how people seem more interested in what is happening on their phones rather than interacting with their families.

“There is a lack of personal connections,” one person said.

Others felt a lack of jobs and the deterioration of the American middle class have also help lead the way for many drug addictions.

“People feel hopeless,” one person said.

People said that big pharmaceutical companies were bringing drugs into the state, motivated more by profit than people’s wellbeing.

One person said people do need to take more responsibility for what they do.

“You don’t see some oldtimers in AA blaming Jack Daniels or Jim Beam,” he said. “We have to take responsibility”

There is still a belief by many that the problem doesn’t impact them and that it is someone else’s problem, one addiction treatment specialist said. Those thoughts are keeping some early intervention education programs out of schools because officials and parents don’t believe the problem is at their school.

“That denial is killing those kids,” he said.

Some of the addiction specialists have blogs and videos that have thousands of followers on social media as a way to get the message out. One said many kids would benefit from having a class taught by someone who has had to deal with addiction themselves.

One student said schools might hold events talking about the dangers of drug addiction, but as the person is hitting the discussion points, students will be on their phones and not paying attention to what is being said.

Many people wanted to see drug abuse treated as an illness rather than a crime.

One addiction specialist said more could be done to share the stories of those who are succeeding in their treatment as a way to inspire others.

Patrice Pooler, Executive Director/CEO of the Mid-Ohio Valley Fellowship Home, said events like this get the community involved in addressing the problem.

“I think it was awesome that we had a chance to ask the questions and look for solutions and have it be a community effort,” she said. “We should do this more often.

“Recovery matters and we do have the ability to be part of the solution as a community.”

Rich Walters, Addiction Treatment Specialist, said the biggest hurdle many addicts are facing is getting to that point where they need to ask for help.

“Their ego has to be smashed,” he said. “They have to be ready to be broken, they are out of choices and they have nothing left.”

The next problem is finding resources to get help. Walters said many people try to apply a one-size-fits all approach to treatment. However, it is different for each person. What worked for one person may not work for someone else.

“We need to meet the addict where they are,” he said. “It is not a cookie cutter approach and we can’t expect everyone to fit in that same mold.

“There are multiple pathways to recovery. We are losing people at such an alarming rate, we have to do something unconventional.”

Another Your Voice MOV meeting will be 6-8 p.m. today at the Belpre Masonic Lodge at 1411 Putnam Howe Dr. in Belpre. In Marietta, the meeting will be 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at the Washington County Fairgrounds clubhouse at 922 Front St.

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