By JIM ROSS
The State Journal
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, (R-W.Va.)brought a Trump administration official to Charleston Thursday to show him two different settings to help women through the recovery process from drug addiction.
They started at Rea of Hope and ended at Recovery Point Charleston. In between they attended a private roundtable where they heard from a variety of people involved in the opioid addiction problem, including parents who lost children to addiction and from people in local government.
(Photo by Jim Ross)
Joining Capito was Lawrence “Chip” Muir, general counsel and acting chief of staff for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
“We just saw a need that six months was not enough for these women to clear up so much wreckage,” she said.
Beaver told Muir that about half of Rea of Hope’s annual budget of $642,000 comes from state government. Some of the rest come from fees paid by the women who live there. The women are expected to find and keep jobs, and they are charged for their stay from the first day, Beaver said.
Rea of Hope has had a variety of women go through the program. Some have been high school dropouts. Some have been nurses, and some have been doctors, she said.
Rea of Hope is a highly structured, abstinence-based program with a strong emphasis on accountability, Beaver said.
Beaver said she has copyrighted the Rea of Hope program and sold it to a couple of other recovery centers.
“We’ll sell you the secret recipe, but if you burn the chicken, it’s not my fault,” she said.
Their last stop of the day was at Recovery Point on Charleston’s West Side. That operation opened on Nov. 4, 2016. It has 100 beds for women in various stages of recovery. As of Thursday, it had 78 women in the program. Eight have graduated so far, said Matt Boggs, executive director.
Capito and Muir talked to several women in the program there. One said she had been in several treatment facilities. It took detoxing in jail and pressure from the legal system to get her into recovery, she said.
Boggs told Muir that most expenses for the women are paid by the state. Medicaid pays for their physical and mental health services, he said.
After the roundtable that occurred between the two visits, Capito said West Virginia needs to be aggressive in dealing with addiction and related problems.
“We’ve got a lot of good things to talk about. We have a lot of good people who are working to solve the problem that had some success, but I think the one thing we’ve done best is to realize we’ve got a serious problem,” she added.
President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency was welcome, but there is more to be done, Capito said.
“I would like to see specific things, but I think what I’ve realized in the whole thing is it’s a spectrum of solutions. You can’t arrest your way out of it. You can’t treat your way out of it. You have to have all,” she said.
The same day Capito visited those two recovery centers, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond published a report on the extent of the opioid addiction problem in West Virginia and its economic impacts.
Relying on statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Richmond Fed said West Virginia had the highest death rate from opioid abuse in the nation in 2015 at 41.5 deaths per 100,000 people. The next highest state was New Hampshire at 34.3 deaths per 100,000 people.
The report noted that opioid misuse leads to other problems, such as neonatal abstinence syndrome, the spread of HIV and hepatitis C and public health costs such as emergency medical services.
“What I’m seeing in West Virginia is that you all have reacted very quickly to how bad the epidemic is here, and you’re taking matters into your own hands, and that’s impressive,” he added.
Muir said he remains confident that in time West Virginia will make “some dramatic impacts” in the fight.
“Every option is on the table. Every option is being thoroughly vetted,” he said.
Local people know local problems and local needs and can develop better solutions than would be available from a one-size-fits-all-model from Washington, he said.
Rep. Evan Jenkins, (R-W.Va.), was with Capito for her visit to Rea of Hope and for the roundtable. He was involved in starting Lily’s Place in Huntington for infants born to addicted mothers.
He said he has seen good things in recovery, and he has seen things that authorities must watch out for.
“I have been in touch in the last few years down in Huntington with our chief of police and others who have raised concern about some of the homes that hold themselves out as recovery homes but maybe not have the structure, the oversight,” Jenkins said.
As new facilities open, the question is what sorts of regulation and oversight are needed, Jenkins said.
Muir said, “That is something the states are going to have to do.
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