Street roots., February 23, 2018, Page 5, Image 5

Street Roots • Feb. 23-March 1, 2018
News
Page 5
RECOVERY, fro m page 4
additional costs are also incurred, from
court processing to time spent in prison. In
Oregon, substance abuse costs taxpayers
more than $650 million per year in criminal
justice expenses alone, based on the most
recent calculation of statewide costs of
addiction, done in 2006.
There are also costs to the state’s
underfunded and overburdened foster care
system. Alcohol and drug abuse was the
single largest family “stress factor” among
households where child abuse and neglect
were present, according to the 2016 Child
Welfare Data Book.
Linda Wacker, a program manager at
Morrison Child and Family Services in
Portland, said she’s worked with parents
who have had to wait months to get into
treatment for alcohol and drug abuse.
Meanwhile, their children may be in foster
care. That day, she would tell lawmakers
that people in substance abuse treatment
programs are often a product of foster care
themselves, completing the vicious circle.
On the bus ride down to Salem, a young
father named Will Mora said he planned to
tell lawmakers that there should be more
treatment options for families. Beneath his
black wave cap and baby blue hoodie, Mora
had a twinge of sadness in his eyes as he
spoke about missing his four small children,
ranging in age from infant to 5 years old.
After being homeless, sleeping in tents
and a motor home for about two years, he
said his wife and children are now staying
with family while he’s in court-ordered
The Oregon Recovers coalition gathers at the state Capitol in Salem on Feb. 13 for lobby day.
P H O T O S B Y E M IL Y G R E E N
treatm ent. In the m eantim e, h e ’s separated
from them.
“When people have to leave their
significant other and kids, they’re more
hesitant to go into treatment,” he said.
The need for more residential treatment
facilities that allow families to stay together
came up repeatedly throughout the day as
Street Roots asked people in recovery what
they would like to see change in the state’s
alcohol and drug programs.
But resoundingly, the No. 1 problem
people in recovery said needed fixing is the
long wait lists for in-patient treatment.
For some people struggling with addiction,
waiting a few weeks to get into treatment can
be the difference between life and death.
Mykia Page said she’s lost a “few close
friends” to drug overdose. One of them was
on a waitlist for residential treatment when
he relapsed and died of a heroin overdose
about a year ago, she said.
Another issue that resurfaced again and
again throughout the day was the length of
time treatment programs last. Many people
in recovery said it’s misleading to tell
someone they are “graduating” from a
program after a certain number of weeks or
months have passed.
Recovery is lifelong work, and people
need support that stays with them long after
they exit rehab, many said. This is why
creating a system of long-term recovery and
support is a main tenet of Oregon Recovers
platform.
Nancy Lisicki said she’d like to see drug
and alcohol program providers adhere to a
“policy-bound method” of keeping in contact
with graduates long after they leave. Her
son had “graduated” from a 30-day
residential treatment program. But, she
said, “it wasn’t long enough. M y son died.”
Page went through residential treatment
Oregon Recovers members talk to Kristina Narayan in House
Speaker Tina Kotek’s office.
Gov. Kate Brown addresses the Oregon Recovers crowd, throwing a shoe into
the pile outside the Capitol. Each shoe represents a life lost to addiction.
programs three times before she was able to
stay off methamphetamine for good. The
first time, she stayed clean for six months.
But the second time, after graduating from a
program at St. Vincent De Paul that lasted
58 days, she stayed clean for only four days
after leaving the program.
“I felt OK. I was excited to get out,” she
said, “but 58 days wasn’t long enough for
me.”
The third time Page entered treatment, it
was after discovering while in jail that she
was pregnant. Now she’s been clean for 2 ¥2
years and works as a recovery mentor at the
4th Dimension Recovery Center. On Sunday
Shannon Olive talks to Sen. Lew Frederick (D-Portland) who
told Oregon Recovers members about how addiction has
touched his family.
afternoons, she leads a group for other
young single moms in recovery, where they
can vent and share their struggles.
Once the bus arrived in Salem, its
passengers joined a crowd of nearly 200
people, all either in recovery or there as an
ally.
Oregon Recovers co-founder and director
Mike Marshall said he was “thrilled” with
the turnout. The goal was to recruit 100
people, but they ran out of the Oregon
Recovers T-shirts and lobbying packets, and
they had brought 150 of each.
“This is our first year doing this, and it’s
been a huge success,” Marshall said. “To see
people in recovery stand up and turn
recovery into power - it’s amazing to watch.”
Marshall, former executive director of
City Club of Portland, has been in recovery
for more than nine years.
He said a big challenge for the state
moving forward is finding new ways to
connect people to treatment. Oregon has
long relied on the criminal justice system as
an intervention tool, but fewer people will
be incentivized into court-ordered treatment
now that simple drug possession is no
longer a felony for first- and second-time
offenders with no prior felony convictions.
See RECOVERY, page 7