Addressing the Opioid Crisis in Post-COVID America
Andrew Therens, 35, had a few things he wanted to accomplish in the U.S. Army: jumping out of airplanes, being stationed in Germany and fighting for his country. Between his first deployment in 2008 and his last day in the military, May 2, 2011—the day Osama bin Laden was killed—he did all three and more.
Therens recalls one traumatic experience in Taliban territory when mortars launched at his patrol base missed and hit kids playing soccer nearby. The patrol performed medical care; two of the children survived, one died. “I don’t care who you are or what country you’re from,” he says, “when you see kids hurt, it tears you up inside.”
As his military career came to a close, Therens started to experiment with drugs, notably heroin.
“I was always a pretty hard partier, but looking back at it now, I realize I came home from Afghanistan a different person. I didn’t have any coping tools or skills,” he says. Therens began to self-medicate, falling into a cycle of criminal charges, treatment centers, sobriety and relapse. “Trying to solve my issues with heroin was like throwing gasoline on a fire.”
An Omnipresent Crisis
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, opioid addiction had become a growing crisis in America, impacting every corner of society, from veterans like Therens to teenagers just starting their young lives. More than half a million Americans died from opioid overdose from 1999-2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), with the yearly death toll doubling from over 21,000 in 2010 to nearly 48,000 in 2017.
The number remained steady in 2018, then exploded to close to 69,000 in 2020 during the first year of the pandemic. From April 2020 to April 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, with nearly 75% the result of opioids, according to estimates from the CDC.
For Therens, addiction led to other struggles: hunger, isolation, lack of proper hygiene. One day in 2016, when he was staying in Oberlin, Ohio, he wandered into a place that would change his life. Weighing just 96 pounds, he visited a local Salvation Army looking for food. In addition to a meal, he received much more.
Unaware, Therens had found one of the Adult Rehabilitation Centers (ARCs) operated by The Salvation Army across the country that offers spiritual, emotional and social assistance through programming that not only addresses the root causes of the problems of substance abuse disorder, but also provides hope. Through these ARCs and Harbor Light Center detox facilities, The Salvation Army serves over 150,000 people battling problems relating to the disorder.
“What makes The Salvation Army’s programs so impactful is they focus on emotional and spiritual literacy first.” — Mark Fahringer, Founder and Director, The Salvation Army’s 49-9 Project Prison Ministry
Mark Fahringer, 61, understood Therens story before he heard it. He too went through a period of legal issues and homelessness. Fahringer’s troubles led him to The Salvation Army’s Wooster, Ohio, emergency center in 2005, where he later became an employee.
“The Salvation Army Officer at the time knew I had a lot more to offer the world than I thought I did,” he remembers. Seventeen years later, Fahringer is the founder and director of The Salvation Army’s 49-9 Project Prison Ministry, which aims to help people who are in and out of correctional facilities and drug treatment centers, like Therens.
“We realized along with prison and reentry outreach, we needed to start addressing the opioid crisis and the people caught in it,” Fahringer says. He was able to get Therens into detox, and while he received treatment, Fahringer and his team worked with local judges on his court cases.
More Than a Label
Fahringer’s hands-on approach to helping those in need is indicative of The Salvation Army’s person-centered rehabilitation services. Their multifaceted services work to overcome cognitive, physical, social, emotional and character challenges impacted by substance use, trauma, and the lifestyle and survival habits associated with addiction.
While various organizations offer drug and alcohol rehabilitation and counseling services, The Salvation Army’s programs—particularly their ARCs—use uniquely holistic and spirituality-based methods. “What makes The Salvation Army’s programs so impactful is they focus on emotional and spiritual literacy first,” Fahringer says. “The point is to get back to the person you are deep inside and move past the label of ‘addict.’ Unless you address that piece first during the treatment process, you’ll rarely succeed upon reentry into society.”
The Harbor Light program is a residential treatment program that also has halfway and quarterway houses to help people going through rehabilitation transition back into working and living a sober, healthy lifestyle. Rehabilitation programs offered at the organization’s ARCs are centered around spiritual counseling and work therapy. The Salvation Army has Harbor Light Centers nationwide and more than 80 ARCs that are free of cost to clients and are funded through sales from The Salvation Army Thrift Stores.
With the opioid crisis surging across the country, more effective avenues of addressing abuse disorders are needed now more than ever.
Therens himself had a relapse in 2020 and fought his way back to sobriety. Frequent check-ins from Fahringer and others at The Salvation Army helped him redouble efforts on his journey toward long-term recovery. Now almost two years sober, he’s worked to earn a peer support certificate that allows him to help other veterans also struggling with addiction. Therens uses his traumatic experiences to “spring forward and try to help others, instead of tearing myself down.”
“Andrew was—and is—an exceptional case,” Fahringer shares. “But he’s very much like others seeking help from The Salvation Army. Andrew came to us for food, others sought us out for utility or financial support. But once they walk through the door, we’re able to talk to them, find out why they’re struggling and get to the deeper root of the problem. The Salvation Army is everywhere and has such a wide range of programs. We’re usually able to help beyond just surface-level assistance.”
Originally posted by the Wall Street Journal:
https://partners.wsj.com/salvation-army/love-beyond/addressing-the-opioid-crisis-in-post-covid-america/