Fatal opioid overdoses are rapidly climbing across the United States, claiming tens of thousands of lives every year. Millions more Americans are struggling with addiction, doing everything they can not to fall on even worse times. The opioid epidemic is serious, it is now, and it needs to be stopped.
A recent news piece from NewsChannel 13 in New York explored how opioid addiction can be combatted. It highlighted three approaches that are the key to recovery: community involvement, early education, and rehabilitation.
Together a Community is Strong
Opioid addiction is not a problem that impacts just a certain group of people. There are people from virtually all walks of life trying to overcome their addiction to prescription painkillers, street-level drugs, and other forms of opioids. There is simply no clear demographic to target when wanting to stem opioid addiction.
The silver lining to opioid’s impact on so many people is that it means so many can come together to help each other. Rehabilitation groups can bring together entire communities to discuss their stories, hardships, concerns, hopes, and more. With community support, an individual can more easily beat their addiction and, in return, help hold up the next person who wants out of their opioid cycle.
Early Education for Young Children
Groups like D.A.R.E. are shifting their focus and attention to new methods for anti-drug-use education. D.A.R.E. in particular was heavily criticized in the past for being ineffective at actually convincing children to not begin drug use. The sheer size and intensity of the opioid epidemic makes it a challenge the likes of which D.A.R.E. has never encountered. Yet the organization is hopeful.
Education is being geared for younger and younger audiences. Children in kindergarten are being told about the dangers of peer pressure and simple ways to resist it. This information will be reinforced each year, right up to high school. The goal is hitting drug addiction at its root – peer pressure, emotional depression, and other societal complications – rather than simply trying to vilify drugs themselves.
Teenagers are also being introduced to more direct ways to underline the dangers of drug addiction. Certain counties have modified school buses into traveling educational centers about what can happen to people who become addicted to opioids, complete with a mock jail cell in the back of the bus. Prescription drug abuse is a serious crime that can lead to lengthy incarceration, high fines, and other legal penalties. Since teenagers are beginning to develop their world views, it is believed that seeing real-life consequences firsthand is more effective than trying to improve their resistance to peer pressure.
Rehabilitation Centers Act as the Final Stage
Opioid addiction cannot be battled just in the classroom. The vast majority of people addicted to opioids are adults who were given opioids as part of a medical prescription. In order to help these people move towards a brighter future, rehabilitative treatment programs and therapies are necessary. This is the stage in which rehabilitation centers play a major role.
The thought of a rehab center might conjure up images of white, sterile rooms and generally uncomfortable settings. However, rehabilitation centers of today have changed and are continuing to improve. Breakthrough rehab centers – like The PAC Program in Prescott, Arizona – are taking a different approach to rehabilitation and recovery, basing what they do on a family atmosphere that creates a solid structure and accountability. Since the opioid epidemic is a problem never-before-seen, rehabilitation has met it with solutions never-before-imagined, and with encouraging success so far.
(Interested in viewing the full NewsChannel 13 report out of New York? Feel free to click here to visit the newsgroup’s official website.)
Create Your The PAC Program
Are you a man aged between 18 and 30 who is looking for help to overcome an opioid addiction, or an addiction to another drug or alcohol? The PAC Program in Northern Arizona is here to help you find a safe, quiet space in which you can start down the road to recovery. We use a variety of patient-focused holistic treatments and groundbreaking therapy options, like art therapy and anger management sessions. If you believe this sounds like the right path for you, we would love to hear from you to explain more about what we do and how it can benefit you.
Contact our Prescott drug rehab specialiststoday for more information about treatments and therapy. The PAC Program accepts most major insurances.
