By Elena Cleaves, Staff Writer
By
Elena
Cleaves,
Staff
Writer
(© freshidea - stock.adobe.com)
In rural Missouri, being rural strong means being proud of one's
resiliency and ability to keep going when the going gets tough.
However, it's important to distinguish that resiliency means
recognizing when help is needed and having the courage to seek
it. The Health Care Collaborative (HCC) of Rural Missouri and its
Live Well Community Health Centers offer a grant-funded
program to treat opioid addiction focusing on education, stigma
reduction, and support. The Rural Community Opioid Response
Program (RCORP) connects opioid addicts to physical and mental
health care providers and community resources to support
whole-person care. The program also includes two peer
counselors with firsthand mental health and addiction
experiences who help addicts navigate recovery.
This program is especially integral as overdose-related deaths
were declared a national public health emergency in 2017, with
the opioid epidemic continuing to wage its own war right
alongside the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020, drug overdose
deaths accounted for more than 80,000 deaths in the U.S.,
50,000 of which were opioid-related. According to the National
Association of Counties (NAC), roughly 130 Americans die of
opioid overdose daily.
Opioids are often prescribed for pain, making them easily
available to not only the person suffering from injury but to those
with access to their medicine cabinet. Prolonged use over time
increases tolerance to the drug so eventually a higher dosage is
required to get the same, or any, desired effect. Because of this,
opioids are extremely accessible and addictive to people fighting
severe or chronic pain. Opioids are also found on the street and
can be taken multiple ways including intravenously, which allows
opportunities for further health complications if needles are dirty
and/or shared. Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl may also be
mixed in with the product unknowingly to the user and prove
fatal. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), manufactured fentanyl, an infamously fatal synthetic
opioid, is on the rise. Between May 2019 and May 2020, it caused
an increase of overdose deaths by 38.4%.
As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic causes increased rates of
substance use due to stress, experts and prediction models
PAGE 04 April Issue 2021
