by Audrey Freshman, Ph.D., LCSW, CASAC
The holidays were busy in unimaginable ways for many families on Long Island. During the Christmas break I fielded 3 separate calls from parents, each resembling the next, and detailing the following request:
My son is a student at a state university. He is currently in the hospital having said that he “tried” some drugs at a party. He almost overdosed. Unbeknownst to us he has become addicted to opiates. He is now ready to be discharged and we need to bring him home. What do we do next?
I need help for my 10 year old who is very anxious and getting in trouble in school. Actually, there is a lot going on in my family. My older child is a nursing student. She is now in a de-tox for the past few days but plans to return to school for the January semester. She is addicted to opiates and other drugs that help her “study.” I feel desperate about her returning home. What should I do now?
My husband has been acting strange. It started last year when he injured his leg and was placed on medication. Now he is slurring, and spends days in the basement. He refuses to stop seeing his doctor who is giving him “the stuff.” He does not think there is anything wrong with him. Is he depressed? What should I do?
The holiday week culminated with the New Years Day reports of yet another Long Island pharmacy death, this time the Seaford shooting. The public is alarmed. Pharmacists are frightened. Lawmakers are calling for action. All of us want to know, “what should we do next?”
From 2007 to 2010, a report cited in the The New York Times released by the New York State Attorney General’s office indicated that oxycodone use has increased 82% in New York State; all other narcotic pain medication increased an additional 36% during the same time period. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) notes that there were enough prescription painkillers prescribed “to medicate every American adult around-the-clock for a month.” In spite of this, New York State Senator Charles Schumer had to recently issue a warning to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) against approving another, and even more powerful version of hydrocodone known as a “super painkiller” according to the Associated Press.
Yet, it is the failure to connect these storylines that remains central to the ongoing plight of opiate addiction on Long Island. The reality behind the distressed phone calls shows us that the face of the “addict” belongs to the student in our high schools and universities, who become exposed to the insidious epidemic of pharmaceutical availability through a friend’s locker or a parent’s medicine cabinet. It is the face of one of the adults in our community who receives a prescription for pain medication from a local physician or pain clinic that paves the way for iatrogenic addiction. It is the face of the younger sibling witnessing the chaos in their family that becomes the next in-line to medicate their fears.
We need to respond by acknowledging that the problem is “ours” and begin to own our “next steps.”
At the Adelphi University School of Social Work’s Department of Continuing Education, our goal is to recognize the contagion of addiction and to elevate the professional workforce capacity to address the urgency of the problem. Our Postgraduate Certificate Program in Addictions will enable interdisciplinary behavioral therapists to receive specialized training in addictions that can lead towards the Credential of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor in the State of New York. We expect that with additional training these professionals can bring their skills to each and every practice setting from the public health centers, to the criminal justice institutions, to the education systems, and into the private counseling offices.
This spring, our continuing education workshops will look at the co-occurrence of substance abuse and trauma, which is one of the most common overlapping mental disorders. We are continuing our quest to partner with private and nonprofit drug treatment organizations to bring leaders and researchers in the field of addiction to our campus to address issues of drug use in our communities and schools.
The treatment of addiction is complex. It requires an integrative family-based model of treatment along with a contemporary understanding of the current evidence-based research, community resources and supports that are in place to sustain recovery.
Most importantly, it requires a knowledge base that can diagnostically disentangle complex psychological, social, and economic issues in order to best respond to the question, “What do we do next?”
Dr. Audrey Freshman, Ph.D., LCSW, CASAC, is the Director of the Adelphi University School of Social Work Office of Continuing Education and Professional Development. She has nearly 30 years experience in conducting interventions, diagnostic assessment, and treatment of adolescents, adults and families coping with issues of substance use and abuse. Prior to Adelphi, she was the associate director of Tempo Group, a New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (OASAS) agency located on Long Island.
