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It wasn't long after he became addicted in 2006 that Aaron
Chaffins started looking for a way out - short-term treatment wasn't
working, and every residential treatment center he called in his
home state of Kentucky left him feeling more hopeless than ever.
"It's discouraging, when you call a place because you want to change
your life, and you realize you can't get in, Chaffins said. "I know
that, for a while, it made me feel like there weren't any good
people out there. It made me feel like nobody cared.
It wasn't until after he was arrested in 2010 that Chaffins found
The Healing Place of Huntington, now called Recovery Point, and
entered its long-term residential treatment facility. Sober since
February of 2013, Chaffins has worked as a peer mentor for Recovery
Point since graduating from the program, and said the long-term
facility and his continued involvement in others' recovery have made
and kept him drug free.
"I was born in Kentucky, but West Virginia saved my life, he
said.
In a way, Chaffins is lucky - many addicts never make it to
treatment. According to a study published by the Bloomberg School of
Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, only 22 percent of opioid
users in the U.S. participated in any form of addiction treatment
between 2009 and 2013.
In West Virginia, about 15,000 people received some form of drug
or alcohol abuse treatment last year, according to the West Virginia
Behavioral Health Providers Association. In contrast, nearly 60,000
West Virginians were identified as in need of substance abuse
treatment, according to the state Department of Health and Human
Resources.
Nearly 2,900 West Virginians have died after overdosing on
prescription painkillers or heroin in the past five years, according
to the West Virginia Health Statistics Center. West Virginia has the
highest drug overdose death rate in the nation, with nearly 34
deaths per 100,000 people - more than twice the national average.
Heroin and prescription pain pills, such as oxycodone and
hydrocodone, caused nearly 90 percent of those drug overdose deaths
since 2011, according to the Health Statistics Center data.
There are about 750 treatment beds in West Virginia, according to
Kim Walsh, deputy commissioner for the West Virginia Bureau of
Behavioral Health and Health Facilities. Those beds are in several
types of facilities:
* About 130 beds in detox/crisis stabilization centers, which
keep users for an average of seven to 10 days while they work the
drugs out of their system.
* About 100 beds in residential programs that are 28 days or
longer.
* The rest are in recovery residence programs, which usually
cater to those who have detoxed and need long-term recovery support,
Walsh said.
West Virginia has about 140 new treatment beds slated to open in
the coming months, she said.
Recovery Point of Huntington, the largest long-term facility in
the state, with more than 100 beds, has a waiting list that is four
to six months long.
Others are even longer - Carl Sullivan, vice chairman of West
Virginia University's School of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry,
said the state provides good clinical services, but there just
aren't enough clinics and therapists to help everyone that has a
drug abuse problem.
"If you have an opioid dependency, unless you have lots of money,
you're in trouble, Sullivan said.
Sullivan said WVU Medicine's call center has recently started
putting people on a waiting list when they call for opioid abuse
treatment. The center used to have a first-come, first-served
policy, but drug abuse patients have overwhelmed the call center. A
month after the wait list was created, there is a year-long wait for
treatment, he said. The waiting list is filled with callers who were
willing to wait, while others may have decided not to put their
names on it, Sullivan said.
"And we don't advertise that we treat opioid addiction, he said. …
