A veteran social worker shares insight on how substance use disorder can happen to anyone.
“I’ve been a social worker for about 28 years now,” says Capri. “Aventa, the not-for-profit organization I work for, has been providing addiction treatment exclusively for women since the ‘70s, so 55 years. We provide a live-in addiction treatment program that ranges from seven weeks to three months.”
With her nearly three decades of experience in the field, Capri wants to emphasize,
Problematic substance use disorder can happen to anyone at any time, at any age. It’s all ages, all cultures.
“And there are ‘different ways in’ to finding oneself with an addiction problem,” she says. “Perhaps it’s after a loss of a partner. Or loss of employment even. Several things that might break down in life that impact your ability to cope and just overload the system.”
Normal, everyday people can get sideswiped by life, find a respite in drugs or alcohol, unable to find their way out. Or a routine procedure introduces opioids, with no easy offramp once the prescription runs dry.
In addition to the complexities of the ‘way in,’ finding the way out is complicated by the stigma surrounding addiction. “Coming to treatment is saying that the issue is at a place where you need professional help,” says Capri. “Getting help for mental health, addiction, all of that, that internal guilt and shame—or external stigma—can be a barrier.”
Amid these challenges and the ever-increasing toxicity of the drug supply, Capri does have some good news. “There’s an increasing amount of opioid use, but we’re also seeing increasing access to medication-assisted treatments. Both professionally and personally, I’m seeing a greater awareness of responding to overdose and integration of naloxone training into first aid. That wasn’t a thing in the ‘90s.”
One piece of advice she offers: carry a naloxone kit. “If I’m out in the community and something happens, I want to be prepared to be able to assist,” she explains. “Years ago, there was a big community barbeque, and an individual went into medical distress from an overdose. It was traumatic and intense to see a person start to go rigid and blue and so forth. And nobody had naloxone. After that, I made sure that I did. Normalizing naloxone availability as a first aid response—I think it’s so important.”
