A COVIDripple effect: a rise in deaths from overdoses
The dire situation with COVID-19 has created a crisis of overdose deaths.
This year 306 people have died from drug overdoses in Montgomery County alone, more than in 2019.
Families’ lives are forever altered — parents, children, loved ones now face an indescribable, senseless loss. Addiction (substance use disorder) is a disease recognized by the American Medical Association, not a moral failing or a lack of willpower. Yet the stigma prevents families from seeking help.
Many in recovery need structure to maintain sobriety, yet amid the COVID pandemic many support meetings, counseling, employment and educational classes have been canceled, reduced or switched to streaming.
Additionally, those who are perhaps “functioning alcoholics” or able to barely maintain their drug addiction at work, find themselves with days in which there is no accountability. COVID-19 causes more than virus deaths. It causes overdose deaths.
FOA Families of Addicts is unique within the recovery community because those struggling with addiction, those in recovery and the families who love them meet together, currently via Zoom.
The most neglected component in the fight against substance use disorder is how it affects families. There are so many unknowns when the family member starts this journey, and answers often lie in shared information from others who have lived through it. Meetings involve open discussion and speakers/ workshops on relevant topics.
Family members are often blindsided by a loved one’s addiction, with no idea how to cope. How can they access help for that person? How do they deal with relentless demands for money, lies, thefts? How do grandparents adapt to raise grandchildren because of this?
How can people in recovery (many now with criminal records), upon returning to society, deal with the stumbling blocks to get jobs, find housing, pursue their education?
FOA’s relationships within community and government agencies help locate and facilitate assistance for those dealing with these issues.
Many people do not know how to access treatment options. Often it isn’t until a nonfatal overdose occurs that treatment is arranged. FOA Families of Addicts is a connector to treatment, works with and is respected by treatment providers and many others within the addiction field. This an area in which FOA excels but for which it receives almost no funding.
Public funding and insurance exist for treatment programs. Because FOA connects people to treatment but does not provide treatment, many funding sources are eliminated. FOA relies heavily on individual donations; however, they struggle to make ends meet.
People who have no personal experience with addiction may not understand how substance use disorder affects their families.
However, there is a personal financial burden placed on everyone. Taxes support overburdened foster programs, overburdened first responders, medical care and more. There is a financial cost to the business community in terms of poor attendance, accidents by impaired employees or simply underperformance. Whatever the reason, FOA Families of Addicts helps our community diminish the devastation that addiction causes.
SandraWoodruffis the president of the Board of Directors of FOAFamilies ofAddicts. She is a former college math instructorwho became involved with FOAto help and better understand a close friend’s addiction. For more information on FOA, call 937-329-2865, email AnitaK@FOAFamilies.org or visit FOAfamilies.org.