Kennedy, Raimondo lead conversation on substance abuse

Full house at Portsmouth Town Hall

By Jim McGaw
Posted 5/6/18

PORTSMOUTH — Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Gov. Gina Raimondo and other panelists got an earful about substance abuse and mental health issues at Town Hall Saturday.

They heard …

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Kennedy, Raimondo lead conversation on substance abuse

Full house at Portsmouth Town Hall

Posted

PORTSMOUTH — Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Gov. Gina Raimondo and other panelists got an earful about substance abuse and mental health issues at Town Hall Saturday.

They heard from two Portsmouth mothers who lost their sons — ages 22 and 25 — to drug addiction. 

They heard from another local woman who’s caring for both of her grandchildren because the parents lost custody due to addiction.

A leader of a local arts enrichment program said she’s seeing more and more young children struggling to lead normal lives because drug addiction and mental health issues have torn their households apart.

And another attendee proudly told them she’s been in recovery for two months and didn’t care who knew it.

Gov. Raimondo and Mr. Kennedy, a mental health advocate who sought treatment for an OxyContin addiction in 2006, joined policy-makers, treatment specialists, first responders and state health officials for a “community conversation” on substance abuse and mental health issues. Sen. Jim Seveney (D-District 11) of Portsmouth helped arrange the meeting, which was facilitated by Tom Coderre, the governor’s policy advisor who is in recovery himself.

Town Council President Keith Hamilton greeted attendees by pointing out that drug addiction doesn’t discriminate by locality. “Opioids don’t affect just inner cities. We go through a lot of Narcan and we have overdose deaths here in town,” Mr. Hamilton said, referring to the opiate antidote that first responders and families use when someone has overdosed.

Gov. Raimondo said Rhode Island has, for the first time in 10 years, seen a decline in drug overdose deaths, but there’s still much work to be done.

“Today we’re going to commit ourselves to doing more … until we tackle this problem and we beat it,” she said. “I can’t go anywhere without hearing about mental health illness and addiction.”

Pushes health parity laws

Mr. Kennedy, who arrived at Town Hall with his expectant wife, Amy, and their four children, joined the governor in Woonsocket Friday to promote her signing of an executive order to treat mental health and substance abuse issues the same as physical ailments. 

As a congressman, Mr. Kennedy championed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, legislation that requires insurers and group health plans to provide mental health coverage on par with medical coverage. Despite the law, Rhode Island treatment and prevention specialists say many people with addiction and mental health issues are still getting the short end of the stick due to the stigma attached to those diseases.

“What you’re doing here today is changing the paradigm of advocacy on behalf of these illnesses. We should have been way out there years ago on this issue, but we weren’t because of stigma,” said Mr. Kennedy.

He added it took Congress “a long time to realize that the brain was part of the body,” and labeled mental health and addiction parity laws as “medical civil rights bills.”

Rebecca Elwell, director of the Newport County Prevention Coalition, said health parity laws strengthen the work she and other prevention specialists do. She urged support for longterm strategies so people are “living their best, healthiest safest lives” years from now.

Tom Hill, CEO of The Journey for Hope, Health and Healing, which recently opened a methadone treatment facility in Middletown, agreed. “The thing we struggle most with right now is stigma,” Mr. Hill said, adding that the shame keeps many people from seeking the treatment they need.

However, anyone can become an addict, he said, noting that he recently met a CEO of a multimillion-dollar corporation who was on methadone.

‘Safe Stations’

Another panelist was Capt. Zachariah Kenyon of the Providence Fire Department, a Little Compton resident whose daughter attends Portsmouth High School.

“The addiction problem we have is not limited to Providence; it’s everywhere,” said Capt. Kenyon, who started the Safe Stations Program in that city. Available 24/7, the free program allows anyone to visit one of Providence’s 12 fire stations and immediately get connected to treatment support and services. 

“There’s a lot of stigma involved with people looking for recovery in an emergency room,” he explained. 

Capt. Kenyon also urged people to educate themselves on the availability of Narcan (the brandname of the drug Naloxone). “Ultimately, if prevention doesn’t work, we’re looking at second chances,” he said.

Laurie MacDougall, creator of Resource Education Support Together (REST), which supports families dealing with substance abuse issues, said the group offers a family crisis toolkit that includes a dose of naloxone along with a 12-panel drug test. “Eighty percent of Narcan in the past year was administered by a lay person,” Ms. MacDougall said.

REST wants to start a campaign to stop families impacted by substance abuse issues from being stigmatized, she said. “We’d like to change it from telling us we’re powerless, to empowered,” Ms. MacDougall said.

Attendees speak out

After hearing from the panelists, the discussion was turned over to the packed audience. Linda Ujifusa, a member of the Town Council who said she was speaking as co-chair of Rhode Island Healthcare Access & Affordability Partnership, urged state officials to support a single-payer healthcare system.

“A major barrier to treating a crisis is our multi-payer healthcare system,” said Ms. Ujifusa, who added there are more than 40,000 uninsured people in Rhode Island. “Even for people who have insurance, coverage has been inadequate,” which may have exacerbated the substance abuse and mental health crisis, she said.

Gloria Crist of Tiverton is president of the nonprofit CORE (Creative Outreach Reinventing Expression), which provides arts enrichment and wellness programs throughout the East Bay, including for Portsmouth elementary school students. She said more attention needs to be spent on young children coming from households devastated by mental health and addiction.

“I am personally here to tell you that the impact and residue of mental health and drug addiction starts at a very early age,” she said.

Ms. Crist said she has come across young children who have lost parents or had relatives who were addicts. “They didn’t know how to function in a normal household,” she said. “Our young children are coming into our school systems just trying to be 4, 5, or 12 or 15.”

A Portsmouth woman piggybacked on those comments, saying she cares for two grandsons — one an infant — because their parents lost custody due to substance abuse issues. She asked what the state’s plan were for babies born to addicts.

“By the time they get to kindergarten, they’ve missed out on that attachment,” she said.

“I think you’re exactly right,” replied Gov. Raimondo, who said the state is trying to increase the number of foster families so those children don’t go into institutional settings.

‘Not ashamed’

Another women got up to say she’s been in recovery for two months.

“I am not ashamed of being in recovery,” she said. “I am not ashamed of being an addict. If I didn’t walk the walk that I walked, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.”

Just then, she spotted a familiar face in the front row — a District Court judge she had appeared before in the past. “Hello — I didn’t even know you were here. That’s funny,” the woman exclaimed.

Several people urged state officials to find more money for local prevention coalitions, as well as school staff members who provide crisis intervention support.

Carol Wilcox, whose son Kevin James Medeiros died at 22 of a fentanyl overdose on Christmas Eve 2016, said more funding is needed for prevention efforts at the middle school level. That was when Kevin first started experimenting with drugs, she said.

“Middle school is the most difficult part of kids’ lives; they’re trying to figure out who they are,” said Ms. Wilcox.

That’s why a full-time student assistance counselor is needed at the middle school, she said. The district’s only student assistance counselor, Kelly O’Loughlin, spends 20 percent of her time at the middle school, the rest at the high school.

“That’s such a disservice to the high school kids and to the middle school kids,” Ms. Wilcox said.

Another parent of an addicted child who spoke was Debbie Lawrence, whose son Bradley Lawrence died at the age of 25 on May 10, 2017.

“I couldn’t save my son and I saw all the warning signs,” said Ms. Lawrence, a recovering alcoholic and nurse. “Families need a voice. I’m keeping my son alive by letting you know it’s still out there.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Mr. Coderre replied. “We want to prevent those things from happening going forward. This is an issue that affects everybody.”

Portsmouth Prevention Coalition, substance abuse, Newport County Prevention Coalition,

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.