With record rates of overdose deaths related to substance abuse, including fentanyl, in California last year, the opioid epidemic is one of the state's most pressing issues, prompting those organizations working in Prevention and recovery from substance abuse are essential, especially in areas with high vulnerability.
Prevention and recovery, as well as the promotion of health equity, are essential in the fight against substance abuse throughout California, ensuring that care always comes before criminalization.
This was stated by Kaying Hang, president of The Center at Sierra Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization that strives to eradicate health disparities across the state, especially in the underserved San Joaquin Valley, during a briefing hosted by Ethnic Media Services.
Hang recalled that, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as CDC, in 2022, more than 109,000 Californians lost their lives due to an overdose, which is equivalent to filling the stadium six times over. Sacramento Kings.
?Overdose is the leading cause of death for non-elderly people in California. And, unfortunately, these numbers are only expected to increase? he stressed.
He explained that, historically, the federal and state governments have responded to drug use with incarceration and extreme policing of low-income black communities.
Thus, he said, in the 80s and 90s, the federal government criminalized drug use and possession through a series of punitive laws, causing people of color to suffer the consequences of many incarcerations for more than 50 years. and from low-income communities have been disproportionately harmed.
In that sense, he pointed out that people who use drugs have been deeply stigmatized and neglected throughout all of this. However, we know that people who use drugs deserve it.
However, Hang recalled that all of them deserve adequate attention, because beyond the illness, they are neighbors, friends and family.
?We sincerely believe that the people who are closest to the harm are in the best position to determine what the solution is and be able to provide transformative creative approaches to address the problem. “In our practice, we work with partners who support efforts to open many doors to care, so that people can go through this process to improve the view they have of themselves,” he said.
For her part, Mari Pérez Ruíz, who founded the Central Valley Empowerment Alliance (CVEA), a nonprofit organization that fights the impact of fentanyl and other addictive substances particularly in unincorporated areas of the Central Valley, noted that those who live In more vulnerable areas, such as agricultural areas where many immigrants work, they are greatly impacted by drug abuse.
He added that the fight against the lack of basic services for these communities in which many indigenous people also live is a trigger, such as the lack of affordable housing, access to health and sanitation services, among many others.
Thus, he said, the young people of these communities are deeply affected, which is why the foundation he heads constantly works with them.
?(The use of fentanyl) is a serious problem for us. Our rural community is the target of the cartels. Is it where many of the drugs are passed on? he said.
Given this, Pérez Ruíz highlighted that the objective of the foundation is to bring together the community and create safe spaces where very frank conversations are held with parents and their children, a place totally free of gangs and drugs, seeking to inform those who start using drugs. , they are already in it, or they sell, all from love and understanding.
Arlene Brown, founder of the Crossroads Recovery Center, based in Bishop in Inyo County, which serves Native Americans and other residents of said county and surrounding areas, highlighted that substance abuse is a reality for that community.
?As you may or may not know, Native Americans have some of the highest rates of fatal overdoses not only in California, but in the entire country and so it is a big problem. “We were the first victims of the war on drugs and it has been something that has been with us since colonization began a long time ago,” he stressed.
Thus, the Native American community needs services that serve them, from an indigenous vision and aligned with their own culture.
Isolation and stigmatization have pushed this community to be more vulnerable.
Therefore, this center maintains an indigenous model based on care to actively work with the native population who are using drugs.
?With the Western model of care, only a symptom, a piece or a part of a person is treated. And we know, as natives, that you treat the whole person, you treat the individual, the family and the community. We have never needed anyone to tell us what our ceremonies or healing practices are. For this reason, substance use services, like traditional ones, were not designed or created for us, because our healing does not take place within those four walls?, he pointed out.
For Braunz Courtney, executive director of the Alameda County HIV Prevention and Education Project, the fight against drugs must also be addressed from comprehensive health, including education, with best practices that benefit all communities that need it.
?Part of the enemy's primary goal is to break out of silos and create equitable access to medication assistance treatment. Our management goal is to get all the providers who offer Mat (FDA-approved drugs for the treatment of opioid dependence: buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone) in different ways to come together and talk about best practices.?
?We talk about equitable access and to start with we start the conversation about harm reduction and recovery from a bigger perspective, a lot of people think that means sobriety, so our goal is to get people openly in an ambivalent way about it. his relationship with his drug use. "Not everyone who is in recovery is going to get sober," he added.
Given this, he said, the situation must observe a much broader spectrum of how to confront and help those people who consume or are experiencing a transition to recovery.
"Some people will never reach a point of sobriety, but if they are doing something to manage their drug of choice in a healthier way that is their recovery goal," he clarified.
Finally, the experts called not to stigmatize or criminalize people who suffer from these addictions, but rather to understand and support, from their own spheres, so that people find safe spaces to advance in their recovery.
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