Portland observer., July 05, 2017, Page Page 4, Image 4

Page 4
July 5, 2017
All Weather Turf for Soccer--
A new synthetic turf field is giving soccer players a
place for year round use. The new Lents Park turf soccer field in southeast Portland is now open!
The Portland Parks and Recreation site is available for drop-in play or to be reserved for league
and rental use.
On the Front Lines
C ontinued from f ront
effort brings together clinicians,
social workers, mental health pro-
fessionals and peer counselors to
assist those struggling with chron-
ic opioid addiction and success-
fully reintegrate into society.
One of the most unique as-
pects of the program is its use of
peer-recovery counselors, who
have struggled with addiction in
the past. Their life experiences
help them to relate to and under-
stand the needs of those currently
suffering from a SUD.
O’Nesha Cochran is one of
the peer counselors working with
Project IMPACT. She is employed
by the Mental Health Association
of Oregon, which is contracted by
OHSU to provide peer support.
Cochran suffered from an addic-
tion to crack cocaine for more
than 20 years, and has been in re-
covery since 2012.
“I don’t think a lot of people
really know what it’s like to be an
addict,” Cochran said, explaining
that many SUD sufferers who
are coming off of a high can be
confused and disoriented. “They
don’t want to talk about treatment,
and they don’t want to talk about
whether they have a warrant.”
Many clinical environments
can be intimidating to SUD pa-
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tients, and Cochran adds that hav-
ing a peer in the room can help al-
leviate tensions between patients
and care providers.
“You have this room fill up with
all of these people who are highly
professional and come from really
privileged backgrounds,” Cochran
said. “While their hearts are filled
with compassion, and they want to
help this person, it’s very hard to
hit them with that.”
Having undergone similar life
experiences helps the peer men-
tors connect with their patients.
“When I, as a peer, come in
there, I can say, ‘I remember
what it’s like, being homeless
and turning tricks to get high and
not having anything to eat or not
taking a shower for 10 days,”
Cochran said. “They then see me
blending in with this professional
crowd, so it gives them a little bit
of hope.”
Citing the strict rules of conduct
associated with many in-patient
addiction counseling programs,
Cochran says that peer support is
essential to successful treatment.
“We have to teach them behav-
ior skills. The skills I have right
now, I did not receive from ther-
apists, counselors or a treatment
center. I got them from my peers,”
Cochran said. “I got them from
other drug addicts.”
While peer mentors are a sig-
nificant part of Project IMPACTS
success, Englander says that the
program’s implementation of a
multi-disciplinary approach has
helped the successful treatment of
patients. The program has served
500 individuals since it began in
July 2015.
“The power is in the inter-pro-
fessional nature of the team,”
Englander said. “It’s not just the
peers, but it’s the peers, the physi-
cians and the social workers.”
Both Cochran and Englander
say that federal, state and local re-
sources allocated toward dealing
with the opioid epidemic are in-
sufficient. They stress the impor-
tance of creating more in-patient
care options for SUD sufferers.
“With all of our passion and
with all of our different connec-
tions, we could search for a bed for
one person for a whole work day,”
Cochran said. “We still may have
to scrape up the money from a dif-
ferent agency to put them in a hotel
for a couple of days, and hope and
pray that they can come up with
safe place to go on their own.”
Englander echoes her senti-
ment, and adds that in many cases,
the stigma associated with receiv-
ing addiction treatments can deter
patients from seeking the help that
they need.
“Education is key,” Cochran
said. “I wish that more people
knew that addiction was a disease.
I wish that more people knew that
it isn’t a moral issue.”