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Recovery in the News
Addiction recovery success stories celebrated
Barbara Blake
Asheville Citizen-Times
September 14, 2008
ASHEVILLE – Nadine is a recovering addict, a woman once in and out of institutions and county jails, frequently flirting with death in her endless search for more drugs, a hopeless pariah to family and friends who would no longer allow her into their homes.
On Saturday, she told a cheering crowd at Martin Luther King Jr. Park that those days are over.
“I am no longer locked out of houses,” she said with quiet dignity. Instead, “I have keys to houses.”
Nadine, who was helped by Narcotics Anonymous, was among more than 200 recovering addicts, family members, service providers, law enforcement officers, government officials and other community members who came together for Recovery Awareness Day, a celebration of successes combined with a demand for more mental health and substance abuse services.
Organized by the Mountain Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, the “Recovery Rocks the Mountains” event featured music, food, children’s activities, information booths and, most importantly, a universal rallying cry for a restoration of funding for services.
“In 2002, we had a huge setback in this state,” said Dr. Paul Martin, an addiction specialist and chairman of the Buncombe County Drug Commission. “With (mental health) ‘reform,’ we lost 60 percent of providers, and we really undid a lot that had been accomplished in the previous decade,” he said.
Ronnie Collver witnessed that firsthand when his wife became addicted to cocaine and heroin. As a resident of McDowell County, she was lucky to receive residential treatment at the Swain Recovery Center in Swannanoa, and has been clean for more than a year. But many residents of smaller counties outside of Buncombe are not so lucky.
“In McDowell County, they have Drug Court, but there’s really nothing else there for us,” Collver said. “They want to build prisons, but they won’t spend money for rehabilitation. If someone wants the help, the help should be there instead of having to travel three hours to get it. It shouldn’t be just the wealthier counties with all the services,” he said.
Push for more services
Donna Cotter, who heads the RecoveryNC campaign, said her organization’s goal is simple: “This state needs more treatment and more recovery support services.”
“We have 100 counties here, and services are not available in all areas,” Cotter said. “There were 518,000 adults in our state last year who needed, but weren’t able to get, support for alcohol and drug addiction recovery.”
To make their voices heard in a more visible way, the crowd left the park to march to the front of Asheville City Hall, carrying placards and banners with sentiments such as “Recovery Rocks,” “Just For Today,” “No Hope in Dope” and, simply, “Hope.”
When the exuberant marchers arrived at the government buildings drenched in sweat from the three-block walk under a hot sun, they were greeted by Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy, Buncombe County Commission Chairman Nathan Ramsey and Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan, who pledged support for the cause.
Duncan said there have been accomplishments in the past year, including the establishment of crisis intervention teams and a crisis stabilization unit to provide care as an alternative to Broughton or Dorothea Dix mental hospitals. The county detention center now has caseworkers who execute action plans to help substance abusers “instead of just sending them out the door,” he said.
“Only 9 percent of those who’ve had a case worker have returned to the detention center, but 26 percent who didn’t go through (the program) came back,” Duncan said. “Today is a day to celebrate the ground we have covered in the last year, and we’re going to work to have that many more things to be grateful for next year.”