Factors that impede women`s specialty care are being removed

These are trying times for those suffering with addiction, but also full of potential for professionals to make great strides in providing recovery treatment options. It’s important to address the problem for what it is. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) says that in 2013 there were 267,000 heroin addicts in the United States. Opiate addiction alone costs our nation $25 billion per year. Substance use in total, including all drugs legal and illegal as well as alcohol, costs $600 billion a year in healthcare expenses. A total of 46% of all healthcare costs were related to addiction and addiction treatment. Despite data that shows that every dollar spent in healthcare for substance use disorders ends up having a $7 return on investment for taxpayers, support hasn’t been adequate.

Meanwhile, a strong social stigma, financial barriers and political uncertainty are all leaving millions of substance-dependent individuals without the care they may need. Harm reduction for these diseases is being gauged in ways not seen by any other diseases… criminal behavior, sexually transmitted diseases, and other high-risk factors are all coupled into the long-term effects of addiction diseases.

Women are uniquely sensitive to becoming addicted. Worse yet, addicted women are having children at 2.5 times the rate of non-addicted women, passing this hereditary disorder on to their children who are born addicted. These children spend their first waking moments fighting withdrawal symptoms. If they’re born in a hospital, they are rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) to undergo detox, where they must be gently weaned off their substance dependency. This kind of care is one of the most expensive forms of healthcare on taxpayers and individuals. Nonetheless, even when successful, these children are still at a lifetime risk for increased criminality, poor school performance, and reduced social skills. Tracking of these children has historically been inadequate to provide for their growing needs. Unless informed by parents, many children grow up never even knowing they were born addicted, or how that could shape their future.

Slowly but surely, we’re unraveling some of the policies and stigmas that have set substance use treatment back for decades. In 2016, substance dependency was finally mandated as required coverage under healthcare plans. Treatment sites such as methadone clinics have provided safer alternatives to the detox methods of the past. Social campaigns, such as Facebook groups, Narcotics Anonymous, and many more, have sprouted across the country, providing not only the informational and tangible help that victims of addiction need, but also a social support hub with encouraging, dedicated communities to combat the disease at a local level. New, unique treatment centers with specialty services also exist, which offer community-based healing and recovery, including the option to care for children on site and to treat pregnant women, so mothers can recover without being separated from their babies. New Directions for Women, where I serve as Chief Executive Officer, is one such program.

This is especially important for women who have an addiction that is coupled with a history of other trauma, be it physical abuse, emotional abuse, or other hardships. Safe spaces and community-based healing centers offer a sanctuary that would be hard to find elsewhere, and encourage recovery in the most effective way possible—without exposure to additional substances, reducing chances of relapse and encouraging long-term growth. Recovered addicts who make it to one year of sobriety have an 80% chance of reaching five years sober. Those who make it to five years have a 90% chance to survive their addiction.

Yet prescription opioids continue to be a plague on the efforts of treatment centers. Prescription painkillers are the only form of healthcare where patients will line up hours before the clinic opens, desperate and addicted, for their prescriptions. With lobbying groups spending as much as $2.3 billion per year, reducing opioid addiction may be an uphill battle. Nonetheless, by cutting out the stigma of seeking help for addiction, and by opening a public discourse about substance use, we can change the way the public recognizes these diseases. We need to more fully integrate substance use disorders into the umbrella of mental health care where they truly belong, so we can begin dealing with the problem methodically, with researched and proven techniques. With a little thought leadership and a lot of social awareness, we might be able to help those in need find hope and healing when they most critically need it. Even if it’s just one mother who finds a service she needs, that could mean three children who have a brighter future ahead of them. I believe when a mother gets well, the family gets well. When a family gets well, the community gets well, and eventually the world begins to heal.