Morgan County, West Virginia Keeps Recovery Specialists Funded

Morgan County officials in West Virginia approved $10,740 to help keep Life or Drugs Tri-State Support Group running. The money covers two part-time recovery and support specialists while the nonprofit deals with the loss of a grant.

Life or Drugs is based in Berkeley Springs. They opened in 2013 to assist locals who had few drug recovery options. It’s a reminder that small community organizations fill gaps between formal treatment.

Recovery Specialists in Action

Recovery specialists help patients access care in their neighborhood. They help locate programs, connect families with resources, or encourage those after setbacks.

Build a Recovery Network

The county’s decision reflects one way some state governments can use opioid settlement money locally. Rather than focusing only on a single stage of care, communities invest in services that help folks remain connected to care.

Individuals and families know that finding local help is the first step. Treatment and recovery resources may include detox, residential and outpatient programs, medication services, counseling and peer support.

Drug use and mental health conditions often mingle. Anxiety, depression and stress can complicate recovery while untreated addiction can do the same vice versa. That’s when peer support helps folks stay engaged with behavioral health and addiction services. 

Recovery specialists encourage continued treatment, help someone prepare for appointments and recognize when a behavioral health concern may have underlying conditions. In this case, the $10,740 award pays for staffers to help residents locate treatment and maintain continuity of care. A person may leave detox or complete an outpatient program and need transportation, find meetings, manage stress or deal with setbacks.

Using Opioid Funds to Stabilize Recovery Support

The Morgan County decision shows how opioid settlement money supplements services that are difficult to fund. That stability is particularly valuable in rural areas, where treatment and mental health services are already limited.

Families looking for treatment should ask whether a facility provides mental health and substance use evaluations, accepts Medicaid or offers sliding-scale payment and has a discharge plan. When contacting a provider, ask whether the facility offers medication services when appropriate and provides a clear plan for continuing care after the initial program ends.

Our treatment directory can make the process easier. Simply browse listings to compare addiction and mental health treatment facilities anywhere in the USA. 

Another tool is calling our helpline at 800-908-4823 (Sponsored) to chat with an expert.

Author

Terri Beth Miller, PhD

Author, Award-Winning Post-Secondary Teacher

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Terri Beth received her PhD in English literature from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and is an educator and disability studies scholar. For more than a decade, she has written extensively in the fields of mental health and addiction recovery and fiercely advocates for the destigmatization of mental illness.

Editor

Peter Lee, PhD

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Peter W.Y. Lee is a writer and historian of American history during the Cold War. His primary focus is the relationship between youth and popular culture and its impact on U.S. society during the twentieth century. He has published widely on how the public has used popular culture as a mechanism to address political and social shifts throughout time