treatment

“I am here to rebuild my life”

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At the George Rosenfeld Center for Recovery dedication ceremony, Amy, a 29-year-old Family Center client spoke about her experience at Odyssey House. Below is the text of her speech.

Mother opioid recoveryGood morning, my name is Amy. I am 29 years of age. I am the mother of a beautiful 1-year-old girl. I am here to rebuild my life for both of us.

At 22 I didn’t see my life being taken down by a medication that was supposed to help me. I had just graduated from an excellent college with a degree in psychology and sociology. My future was ahead of me and it looked bright.

Soon after I graduated college, I developed some health issues that needed surgery.  The procedures were routine and I expected to make a full recovery. Little did I know then, this would be a turning point in my life.

While I was recovering from surgery, I was given opiates to manage the pain and help me recover.  They did that and I definitely needed them.  What happened next was so fast I didn’t see it coming – soon I was dependent on opioids for more than just physical pain – they had become my emotional support. I was addicted.

Life quickly became a wild ride of juggling jobs, losing jobs, going into short-term rehab, getting out and doing the same thing again. Each time my addiction got more serious and more damaging. I lost sight of myself, of my values, and I hurt and disappointed my family.

Within a few short painful years, I started using heroin. Heroin took over my life completely. Everything I did, every day, was to support my growing habit. Eventually, this led to an arrest and I was sitting in jail in full withdrawal. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was also a life-changer.

I was fortunate that my family was still willing to help me get treatment – and I needed it more than ever. Shortly after I left, I found out I was pregnant.

After speaking to countless medical professionals, I understood the only way I was going to have a healthy baby and get off heroin safely was with medication. That medication is methadone. My daughter was born with methadone in her system but she was also born 7lbs and healthy. She stayed in the hospital for a month while they weaned her off. It wasn’t easy watching her go through the pain of withdrawal, but the doctors and nurses got both of us through it. I am so grateful to them.

I am also grateful to Odyssey House and its program for women with children. It is saving my life and giving us a future. For the first time in a long time, I am incredibly hopeful, and that is because of this program. I am so thankful to be talking to all of you today on this important occasion. Thank you for supporting me, for supporting Odyssey House, and caring about the young mothers who are here now and those who will be here after me.

Thank you.

“Creating a place of sanctuary”

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More than 200 people came out to Ward’s Island on a beautiful spring day for the George Rosenfeld Center for Recovery (GRCR) dedication ceremony. The 231-bed residential complex opens following a major restoration undertaken in partnership with New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS). The renovation project reclaimed and enhanced the original historic structure, built in 1915 as a hospital for psychiatric patients, to create a modern family treatment center for women, parents with young children, and adults 55 years of age and older.

“The story of this 100-year-old building is one of realizing potential, learning from the past, and creating a new place of sanctuary and healing,” said Odyssey House President Dr. Peter Provet at the dedication ceremony. “Its story, like those of the people who come here for help with substance abuse and related problems, is also a symbol of endurance and overcoming the odds.”

The GRCR is named in honor of George Rosenfeld, who for more than two decades has helped lead – and shape – Odyssey House. His visionary and compassionate public service leadership as Chairman of Odyssey House (2002-2012) and then as Chairman of Odyssey Foundation has helped save the lives of thousands of vulnerable men, women, and children suffering from substance abuse and mental health disorders.

Visit our Facebook page to see more photos from the ceremony!

 

George Rosenfeld“Here was a building … that could be renovated and rehabilitated to house those most in need of rebuilding their own lives and setting a better course for their children.” -George Rosenfeld

 

Our Spring 2017 newsletter is now available!

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News opioid recovery programThe Spring 2017 edition of Odyssey House News is now available online. Read about our new street outreach grant in Harlem, how we’re expanding recovery services in the Bronx, and more. You can even get a sneak peek inside the George Rosenfeld Center for Recovery, opening in May on Wards Island. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments or on our Facebook wall. Click here to read it (pdf).

If you’d like to receive a copy in the mail, please email your contact information to info(at)odysseyhousenyc.org.

New community and outreach center expands recovery services in the Bronx

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This spring, Odyssey House will be expanding its recovery services in the Bronx with the opening of a new Recovery Community and Outreach Center (RCOC), providing a community-based, non-clinical setting that is safe, welcoming, and alcohol/drug-free. The center will promote long-term recovery through skill building, recreation, wellness education, employment readiness, civic restoration opportunities, and other social activities.

Dr. Peter Provet, president of Odyssey House, said, “We’re pleased to build on the success of our Bronx-based services and provide individuals and families on the road to recovery with the services they need, where they need them most – in their own community.”

Recovery center staff will help individuals and families navigate the addiction treatment system and secure insurance coverage. The center will provide an opportunity for individuals and families to connect with peers who are going through similar challenges so that they can benefit from shared experiences and commitment to common goals for recovery.

Odyssey House is one of five sites selected by the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services, each of which will receive $350,000 annually over five years to provide health, wellness, and other critical support to individuals and families who are recovering from a substance use disorder. These model recovery centers are a key piece of Governor Cuomo’s aggressive, multi-pronged approach to addressing substance use disorders in New York State.

“Addiction devastates the lives of too many New Yorkers and their families, but recovery from addiction is attainable with the right support,” Governor Cuomo said. “New Yorkers in every part of the state will now have the recovery-focused resources and supports they need to make their recovery possible, bringing us another step closer to a stronger and healthier New York for all.”

Connecting New Yorkers to treatment services

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Harlem drug treatment outreachYesterday, Odyssey House hosted a press conference announcing a new program designed to improve addiction treatment services in East Harlem. The NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) has awarded $190,000 to Odyssey House and Mount Sinai Behavioral Health System to support a new peer engagement specialist initiative.

Speakers inOpioid treatment Harlem announcementcluded OASAS Commissioner Arlene Gonzalez-Sanchez, Odyssey House President & CEO Dr. Peter Provet, and Teri Friedman, Director, Mount Sinai Behavioral Health System. The two peer engagement specialists, Anita Kennedy (Mount Sinai) and Mark Fowler (Odyssey House), also addressed the crowd, describing their experiences within the recovery community and how they plan to conduct outreach to connect individuals in East Harlem with treatment services.

You can find more information in the press release.  Below is the press coverage from the announcement:

Breaking the cycle of addiction, one family at a time

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In celebration of our 50th anniversary, each month we will be sharing a story that highlights one of our programs or treatment populations. This month we are highlighting our Early Educational Center.

Moms battling drug and alcohol addiction often face a tough choice: taking care of themselves or taking care of their children. At Odyssey House, they don’t have to make that choice, because pregnant women and parents with children can stay together, helping to build stronger families.

Mothers addiction treatment family servicesIn mid-2016, Jacqueline, 36, pregnant with her third child, nearly had to make that choice. Unable to find a program that could help her in her hometown of Boston, and desperate to get sober, Jacqueline came to New York and began treatment at Odyssey House.

Like other parents in our program, Jacqueline is learning to create a nurturing relationship with her son while addressing a wide array of issues, including managing emotional stress, tackling medical and mental health issues, and identifying safe and secure housing.

While Jacqueline engages in clinical services, our Early Educational Center focuses on assisting children like her son in reaching their full developmental potential in five on-site, licensed daycare and preschool classrooms, serving children from two months to six years of age. “The teachers are wonderful,” says Jacqueline. “They’re great with the kids and very hands-on. It’s reassuring to know that my son is safe and in good hands while I’m in group sessions.”

Being in treatment with her son keeps Jacqueline focused on her recovery. “Having my son with me is so motivating. I’m not sure I could do it without him – thinking about him all the time would be too distracting,” she says. “But here I can work through my issues and work towards my goals, so I can be the best mother I can be. I wasn’t able to raise my two older kids, and I don’t want to lose the chance to raise him too.”

Through the Family Center of Excellence, Odyssey House strives to break the cycle of addiction one family at a time.

Top 10 Primer Points for President-elect Trump on Addiction Treatment

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President-elect Trump takes office in the midst of a devastating opioid epidemic. As he begins to grapple with the causes and solutions of this growing national tragedy, Odyssey House President Dr. Peter Provet offers ten fundamental points to anchor his efforts.

1: Treatment works. But there isn’t enough of it. Approximately 14 percent of Americans with substance abuse problems are able to get the appropriate treatment they need to stop using drugs, maintain a drug-free lifestyle, and be functional – and contributing – members of society, at work, and in the family. This means of the 21.7 million adults and teenagers who are addicted to legal and illegal substances, only 3 million people get the help they need.

2: Addiction does not discriminate. Substance abuse is a health problem that destroys the lives of men and women, young and old, from all ethnic backgrounds and communities. Today’s opioid epidemic is devastating families across the country. Prescription pain reliever overdose deaths among women have increased more than 400 percent from 1999-2010, compared to a 237 percent among men, and the number of deaths from heroin among women tripled from 2010 to 2013. Adolescents are using prescription pain relievers for nonmedical needs in large numbers: in 2015, 276,000 teenagers were current nonmedical users of pain relievers, with 122,000 having an addiction to prescription pain relievers.

3: Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US. Of the 47,055 lethal overdoses in 2014, opioids claimed the lives of 29,467 Americans, with prescription pain relievers related to 18,893 overdose deaths and heroin 10,574. In all, opioid overdose deaths claim the lives of 91 Americans a day.

4: The tragedy is that a great many of these lives can be saved and for as little as $75 or less. Treatment centers, hospitals, police forces, fire departments, and other community organizations are training their personnel in the use of naloxone – a life-saving, easy-to-administer drug, proven to reverse opioid overdose death. A 2013 survey of organizations who provide naloxone to laypersons who might witness an overdose, including persons who use drugs, their families and friends, and service providers, received reports of 26,463 overdose reversals. The role of naloxone in saving people from a potentially fatal opioid overdose is dramatic: a 160 percent increase in the number of reversals reported; a 243 percent increase in the number of local sites providing naloxone; a 187 percent increase the number of laypersons provided naloxone kits; and a 94 percent increase in states with at least one organization providing naloxone.

5: While the human cost of addiction can be devastating, the financial burden on all Americans is staggering. The US spends more than $700 billion annually in costs related to health care, lost work productivity, and crime. Abuse of illicit drugs alone costs $193 billion.

6: The cost of treatment for substance abuse disorders pales in comparison to the costs of abuse. Publicly-funded, residential treatment administered professionally using evidence-based programs costs $62 a day. In-hospital opioid detox starts at $1,000 a day. In 2012, New York City paid $460 a day to feed, house, and guard each inmate, the majority nonviolent drug offenders.

7: Funding for treatment has not kept up with demand. When the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act (CARA) was passed into law in July 2016, it was the most significant federal legislation on addiction treatment in 40 years. CARA received overwhelming bi-partisan support in Congress and the Senate. It was hailed as the most comprehensive effort undertaken to address the opioid epidemic, encompassing all six pillars necessary for such a coordinated response – prevention, treatment, recovery, law enforcement, criminal justice reform, and overdose reversal. But the funding request was drastically reduced from $1Billion to $181Million.

Now we have cause to be hopeful that funding will be restored. Just this month the US House of Representatives passed HR 34, The 21st Century Cures Act. The legislation provides $1Billion over several years to states through the existing grant program for prevention, treatment, prescription drug monitoring programs, opioid treatment programs, and workforce development. The bill creates federal drug courts and programs for alternatives to incarceration for individuals with SUD. It also encourages the integration of care for SUD with primary care.

This landmark legislation – a turning point for addiction treatment and prevention – has now been signed by President Obama.

8: As demand for treatment increases, we are faced with a growing workforce crisis in the addictions field. This crisis is due to a variety of factors, including stigma, an aging workforce, and inadequate compensation.  A report to Congress from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) warned that the addiction services field will need to fill more than 330,000 jobs to keep pace with demand for care.

9: Addiction is a brain disease to be treated, not a criminal justice issue to be punished. A decade or more of scientific research has conclusively shown addiction is a disease that affects both the brain and behavior. Science has identified many of the biological and environmental factors and is beginning to search for the genetic variations that contribute to the development and progression of the disease.

10: Voters in eight states approved passage of marijuana laws ranging from full legalization of recreational use of marijuana to approving or easing of restrictions for medical marijuana laws. These laws will have undoubtedly increase marijuana use – and misuse. Keeping marijuana out of the hands of youth is everyone’s concern.  Ensuring prevention and treatment programs are ready to help those, is everyone’s commitment.

Dr. Provet on the Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health

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It couldn’t be clearer. The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health (The New York Times, Nov 17) is a wake-up call that we are facing a public health challenge that is ‘taking an enormous toll on individuals, families, and society.’ The financial costs of alcohol and illicit drug use combined are $442 billion. But the personal costs are much, much greater. At least 85 people a day (some reports say over 100) are dying from opioid-related overdoses.

Addiction costs infographicIt can’t go on. The death rate from what is a preventable, and treatable disease, is unconscionable. The financial costs are unsustainable.

Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy makes a strong case for at last treating addiction as a public health not criminal justice issue. This is critical. Stigma and punishment combined have stopped people from getting help; have tied up our law enforcement agencies in a vicious and dangerous cycle of recidivism; and have claimed the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.

Let’s bring addiction out of the shadows of shame and commit to treating it like any other medical or mental health issue.

The ER department fighting the US opioid crisis

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By Thomas Urbain
AFP

Opioid abuse has turned into a public health crisis in America, blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. But one hospital is determined to reverse the epidemic.

Since January, St Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, which boasts the largest emergency room in New Jersey, has stopped prescribing opioid painkillers in all but essential cases, slashing overall use by more than 40 percent.

While these powerful drugs are an “excellent” medication for terminal cancer patients or those with a broken leg, for the vast majority there are far safer courses of treatment, says emergency medicine chief Mark Rosenberg.

“In our first 60 days, we were absolutely shocked,” Rosenberg told AFP. “We had 300 patients. And out of those 75 percent of them did not need opioids.”

“It’s just a remarkable change of our prescribing habits and our management of patients’ acute pain,” he added.

In 2014, 14,000 people died from an opioid overdose in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since 1999, these powerful painkillers have caused 165,000 deaths.

The problem dates back to the 1990s but critics accuse President Barack Obama of being slow to respond to the scale of the epidemic, comparing his delayed reaction to Ronald Reagan’s sluggish response to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Back in the mid-1990s, drug companies, professionals and authorities promoted opiates as a compassionate medicine that would end pain and minimized concerns that they were addictive.

“It led to the epidemic that we’re dealing with today,” says Andrew Kolodny, chief medical officer at Phoenix House Foundation, which treats addiction, and executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.

Clean for three months, former heroin addict Erik Jacobsen, 24, is determined to turn his life around after getting hooked on the class A narcotic.

– Endless cycle –

It all began when he popped a quarter of one of his grandfather’s painkillers in order to impress a girl he fancied.

“She was using it,” he told AFP at Odyssey House, a treatment center in New York’s East Village. “That’s why I got into it.”

He never tried to get them legally from a doctor. He didn’t have to, they were so easy to buy on the street in Gordon Heights, a hamlet an hour’s drive from celebrity summer resort the Hamptons on Long Island.

“There were so many kids that would get 200 pills a month and they’d sell it. And then they’d still owe their dealers because they were using more than they were selling. It would just be an endless cycle.”

That was until local authorities realized there was a problem, doctors clamped down on prescriptions and the police got involved.

“There was one night I couldn’t find any pills. So I tried heroin. And from there, I never went back,” he said.

He knew three people who died of an overdose, including a close friend.

“I just kind of accepted the possibility that one day I might die,” he said. “It’s horrible… It’s just crazy what it does to your body,” he said.

– White problem –

He got help when he was arrested and hauled before a judge, who ordered him to enter a treatment program or go to jail.

He likes Odyssey House and their approach but he is full of regret.

“I lost everything,” he said. He and his fiancee broke up because of his drug use and three of his best friends still refuse to talk to him.

“I want my life back,” he said.

He believes America’s opiate addiction is getting worse and wants to do more to help others before it’s too late.

“It’s scary,” he said. “The people that were young in my town at least, they didn’t realize what they were getting into,” he said. “You don’t really comprehend how intense it is when you try this thing.”

Experts say the opioid epidemic is a white problem. While heroin use is on the decline in inner city New York, painkillers are most abused in suburbs and rural areas — generally wealthier, whiter areas.

Rosenberg says St Joseph’s one-year fellowship, offered since January to New Jersey professionals, teaches safe alternatives, how to support patients to best manage pain and explain to them the dangers of opioids.

Next January, the program will expand to doctors, nurses and educators from across the United States and around the world, with enquiries already in from Britain, Canada, Scandinavia and Turkey.

“If you can sleep, if you can walk, then pain is not going to be your enemy. That’s what our goal is, to make you functional in pain, not to eliminate it completely,” said Rosenberg. “We need to do something.”

Chasing Heroin

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On Tuesday night, PBS aired a new Frontline documentary, “Chasing Heroin,” chronicling the impact of the opioid epidemic as well as the efforts of law enforcement, social workers, and public defenders and prosecutors to save the lives of addicted people without locking them up. The entire documentary is streaming online and will air on WLIW/Channel 21 (PBS’s sister station) on Friday, February 26that 7pm.
The documentary was accompanied by four feature articles, which you can access below.
Drug Czar: Treating Substance Abuse as a Crime is “Inhumane” –  As the first former addict to run the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Michael Botticelli has a different perspective from any of his six predecessors. In this interview, Botticelli talks about his own struggles with addiction, the nation’s heroin and opioid epidemic, and why he says “we can’t arrest our way out of our problem.”
How the Heroin Epidemic Differs in Communities of Color – People develop addictions for a variety of reasons, which makes it difficult to gather concrete data on what’s happening in each community. Frontline spoke to experts and community outreach workers around the country to try to understand the differences. While some have followed a similar trajectory as the white community, a closer look at the epidemic in some communities of color reveals a different story.
The Options and Obstacles to Treating Heroin Addiction – For decades, treatment has centered on an abstinence-only approach, consisting of detox and rehab, accompanied by counseling or group therapy, many inspired by the 12-step model. But as deaths have surged, many experts have begun rethinking that approach, arguing that opiate addiction should be treated the same as a chronic disease — like diabetes or depression. Abstinence and counseling is not enough; medication must also be an option.
How Bad is the Opioid Epidemic? – The epidemic didn’t happen overnight. Over the course of more than a decade, it has grown into a problem destroying lives across the nation, regardless of age, race, wealth or location. Here’s a look at how it happened and who is most affected.