 Abledon Arnair is sponsored in part by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering neighbors with disabilities to be at home in the community. Additional support for Abledon Arnair is sponsored in part by Washington County Mental Health Services, where hope and support come together. Welcome to this edition of Abledon Arnair, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the different people. I've always been your host, Lawrence Saylor. Arlene is up today. Thank you to our sponsors. With us on this informative edition is the North Central Vermont Recovery Center. Why don't you guys introduce yourselves? All right, so I'm Stephanie Capizin, I'm the Executive Director of North Central Vermont Recovery Center. And I'm Daniel Franklin, the Assistant Director. Okay, what are the missions and goals of the North Central Vermont Recovery Center? Well, in the big picture, the Recovery Center is, the mission is to help support and serve individuals and loved ones who are interested in recovery from addictions. We do that in many ways. How do you guys handle that? Some of the ways? Mm-hmm. We're open every day, 365 days a year, and it's a safe place. A person can come in and talk with people, either volunteers or recovery coaches. They can come in and use our computers, read, and just be in a safe space. There's social activities and different things going on there. We also have a lot of different meetings and programs. Maybe Daniel could speak to some of those. Yeah, so we host a variety of both 12-step and non-12-step groups. What is the 12-step program for those that don't know? Yeah, so it's, you know, there's a couple of different models. There's things that are based on the big book, so focused on higher power and the text, also text-written by the founders of AA, for example, Bill Wilson and other academics, but we have a variety of groups from narcotics anonymous, alcoholics anonymous, over-eaters anonymous, and families anonymous. Would you be, can you explain, okay, so you have alcoholics anonymous, narcotics anonymous, okay, how does that, how do those groups work together with your group? So technically, they're independent of the center that we host them, but they're based on a peer-run model, often with facilitators and readers and so forth. But maybe you can talk about the 12-steps. Explain what a peer-run model is. So it's really designed around a person who has time in recovery, a progressive model of leadership, so often it's someone with time under their belt in recovery, helping others who are newer in recovery or new to recovery to find their way through the steps. And then you want to add to that? And in just these 12-step groups, they rent the space from the recovery center and work within their own program. And right, they're also, so as an entire organization, we are peer-run, but 12-step meetings work together as a peer. They are individuals who are in recovery, working with other people in recovery, following these 12 steps that help people find their way. Speaking about being in recovery, there's your program, I know we're jumping around a little bit, does your program have staff that are in recovery? And why is that so important to have staff in recovery when you're counseling people in recovery? We think it's very, it's very important and crucial and powerful at recovery centers that a person walking in the door, either a first time looking for help with addictions or not their first time, but are coming in and talking to people that already have lived experience in the same situation or the same issues they're having. And that it's a very, it's a very different dynamic than going to a professional counselor, which I think all are very vital and important. Great. The opioid crisis is huge in Vermont. Okay. How is your organization combating or working to combat the opiate crisis and pills and pill taking, et cetera? Would you like to speak to that? Sure. Yeah. Really, everything that we do is designed to be a part of addressing the opioid epidemic. The problem is that the opioid epidemic has captured the public imagination and the media and the funding because of the immediacy and the deadliness of opioids, things like heroin and fentanyl, which is most often what people overdose on or prescription. Fentanyl is an illicit drug that's usually used for end of life care for cancer patients, but now over 90% of fentanyl comes from China or Mexico. It's become an illicit drug rather than one just used in medical facilities, but it's also cut with other adulterants. It's about 50 to 100 times more deadly than heroin itself. And then there's another analog called car fentanyl, which is many more times that. And also, I know this is an old drug, but a lot of pharmacies stopped people from going to the pharmacy and asking for oxycontin, you know, as, you know, if you're taking that, they're also using that as a, you know, like popping candy. So since you said the opioid crisis, how was your are you educating people more on those particular things and like certain drugs that have really harmful effects? How are you really widening or or nipping? As I say, nipping in the butt, you know, in the butt. So we have, we actually have an employee who's called a Pathways Guide, and she works specifically with the hubs and spokes that do medications, assistive treatment or work with people with opioid use disorders. So we have a whole person devoted purely to helping people with opioid use disorders. But in general, we do a lot of education with materials throughout the center. We have recovery coaching for people with opioid use disorders and just we have narcotics anonymous. So we have a lot of things that are built specifically to address that. The culture has shifted a lot around opioids, you know, with the laws that went into effect and on July 1st of 2017, it resulted in significant reduction in the prescribing of opioids within medical facilities. But it's, you know, for for many people, prescription opioids like Oxycontin, Oxycodone, Morphine and so forth are a way in which they're introduced to the opioids, which affect the brain in a very different way from other drugs and and alcohol and have tremendous addictive capacity. And so a lot of Vermont to start with really didn't have a lot of pill mills per se, like other states. What is the pill mill? There are places where doctors were prone to prescribe really exorbitant amounts of prescription opioids for minor things like toothaches and, you know, other injuries, minor injuries that really didn't necessitate that level of pain relief. So there are states where the pharmaceutical companies like Purdue Pharma that created Oxycontin went in and incentivized them to prescribe more of these opioids. So often we hear the story of someone who had started out on prescription opioids and then either when their supply was cut off or sometime within their use of those prescription opioids moved over into heroin and other illicit drugs in order to to deal with their pain, physical or emotional. Because also when you mix alcohol with pills, it becomes a double double whammy or even a triple whammy sometimes clean needle programs. Another big problem. Well, you know, needles and heroin. Do you believe in the clean needle program in Vermont that's happening now? Why or why not? We're we believe in it, both as individuals and we've chosen to support it as an organization. We were the first Recovery Center to partner with Vermont Cares to provide a harm reduction, a mobile syringe exchange program, the harm reduction van that was funded by the Elton John Foundation. So we once a month they come and provide syringe exchange services and a whole bunch of other harm reduction services example, like wound care kits and condoms and lots of other self care products, fentanyl testing, fentanyl testing strips, which is going to become increasingly important in this state. We believe in it. So there's really two sides of this of the syringe exchange program. So there's there's organized, there's there's Vermont Cares, which has the mobile vans and then some stationary sites around the state, but really started grass roots working with individuals using injected drugs around the state and other drugs around the state. And then there's the safe recovery program and in Burlington. So there's really two kind of sides to this. There's one that people are concerned that the having these services available can sort of enable drug use or promote drug use. The other side is addressing the cost people are talk about, hey, you know, how is it becoming a call? Sure. So so they'll say like, you know, you give you give somebody who's injecting heroin and needle and they're just going to keep going. Well, that's really a misnomer in the sense that these things are going to go on either way. But using an unclean needle can lead to numerous hepatitis C and endocarditis are the two big ones. So I want you to think about this, like to be able to supply needles to someone to clean needles reduces these infectious diseases and including HIV, which we were down to about 15 new cases of HIV in the state of Vermont per year, which is pretty incredible. But I know they're dead. I know that there are drugs to try to yeah, combat HIV. But you know, how does that work into that? Right. So actually, the drugs for HIV, the really expensive cocktail goes along with hepatitis C and endocarditis. So those two, those two illnesses are often come from using unclean needles. What do you mean by that? Well, right now, like, it's a pretty significant regimen to be able to to treat HIV aid. So there's a number of drugs that are involved in in treating that they're much more effective than they've ever been, but have been disproportionately available to people who either had Medicaid or had a lot of money. Now our care system for that is much better than it's ever been certainly than it was in the 1980s when we really had the last injection heroin epidemic. But with hepatitis C and endocarditis, there were each run of those drugs to treat those diseases can come with a price tag of about $150,000. So when you look at the possibility of saving someone's life and of providing a clean needle for $2 versus $150,000 for a course of medication to treat those diseases, to me, that's a no brainer. Now, what is VT CARES? Yeah, since you mentioned, yeah, Vermont CARES is a it's an organization that works with that provides a lot of services. They have an office in St. Johnsbury and one in Burlington, their headquarters in Burlington, and they have this mobile van that was funded by the Elton John Foundation. And so they, again, several individuals were traveling around the state to places like Rutland and going into the hard communities to out of their own vehicles to meet with people with substance use disorders and to provide these types of peer to peer or one to one care to help try to save their lives when they knew, you know, there was a real trust issue of people who were going in the throes of addiction didn't want to work with medical professionals or legal professionals. They were afraid of of of the consequences. So they were path breaking in helping to reach vulnerable populations. Do you want to add anything to that about Vermont CARES? Yes. I think Daniel covered it and we it's it's an organization that we support and supports us. Yeah. Right. Do you have any specific programs within your organization that deals with birth defects and drugs? And are our babies born addicted? And like, is there a myth behind that door? Yeah, just talking about that. Yeah, there is. So and I think in general, this comes to the idea that there is a difference between dependence and addiction. So babies cannot be born addicted. They are not doomed to a life of addiction. But if it's through the mother takes drugs while pregnant, then what happens? Yeah, so they are able, they are dependent in the sense that they are born with with dependence, which can be treated right from the moment of their birth to not have it turn into withdrawal. So there is a chemical dependence. And so when they when they're born, the doctors will immediately act to counteract the withdrawal symptoms, which can be deadly. But they are not going, you know, they are not capable of engaging in drug seeking behavior to address those problems themselves. What Okay, so since you say that, what are some withdrawal symptoms? Or for those that don't know what what withdrawal is? For example, there was a movie based on Ray Charles's life with Jamie Foxx. And Ray Charles went into withdrawal, you know, the sweats, the certain that the high temperature or low temperature, the pacing, certain itching, that type of thing. So what? What is some withdrawal symptoms, based on what I've said? You describe them pretty well. And flu like symptoms. And the things you you said feverish and there's itching and dry mouth just I think feeling terribly like you probably have the worst flu ever. And that's what we learned. And that's what actually you, you see a lot of the, a lot of the reasons that people addicted, who are addicted, continue to search and need to take more and more of their or need the substance, right, is about not getting dope sick, they get to a point where really it's about not having that thing happened to them more than anything else to get through their day, you know, and if they are working or they're, they might be parents, you know, taking care of children at home. They're this, this illness does not does not discriminate on who, you know, what people in terms of the media is going to that. How has the media portrayed drug addiction? Going way back in the 80s to now, how has the media on portrayed drug addiction? Do you think it's a good portrayal or bad portrayal? Or is it, you know, according to script? I think there's two ways the media has really fed, fed us on what people see or think of as addiction, or people who are they, you know, using terms like addict and alcoholic and junkie. And we had another one we were just talking about, but they label, they create an image when people think of those labels, and it has a lot to do with people who are in poverty, and that it's always linked to crime, and it's always linked to behaviors that, which is true in a lot of ways, but there are so that's just the tiniest proportion of the people that this it's not what people think of when they think of the words. You said that. And then the other though, what the media portrays is about what we were talking about earlier in so many shows and movies and commercials and stories, you know, the normalization of always having the drink in their hand and or this buds for you not to do with just Budweiser but like, you know, a frosty beer or a beer and a pretzel together at the ballpark. Not only that, you know, yes, you have commercials, but alcohol is just way expensive. For one for one beer, for example, at the ballpark with lots of ice, talk about seven bucks. That's not cloudy. Including the food. So you know, and restaurants, they don't just make money on their food. They make more money on their alcohol. Absolutely. Yep. Yeah. I mean, Vermont, for example, the alcohol tax in the lodging tax is 910%. So, you know, I mean, can you talk I mean, is alcohol, I mean, it's an expensive habit as far as drugs and alcohol is concerned. Can you explain about that? I mean, it's that any any addiction and things like smoking, for example. Yes. I mean, if you think of the individual, the cost to the individual, you know, we, alcohol is ubiquitous in our culture. You watch the Super Bowl and it's 10 times more beer commercials than than anything else. It is all around us. It's acceptable. And alcohol is still our society's number one addiction. We it is saturated into our whole lives at our center and most of the centers in the state. We see a majority alcohol use disorder. In our case, about 75%. So as much as the opioid epidemic is taking all of the attention and gets the funding, it's alcohol that is a major force. And in terms of cost to our society, it cost last year about $600 billion, whereas opioids cost $191 billion. So we're talking about a vast difference in terms of the cost that alcohol has to our society versus any other drug. I mean, just a comment here. The Bible mentions alcohol, you know, I'm Jewish and it mentions certain celebratory situations where wine, you know, the four cups of Elijah, then you have Jesus turning water into wine, but that was a completely different thing. To illustrate a point. But you know, do you think alcohol, do you think people to get their fix? Do you think it goes way out of a proportion sometimes has like when people hit rock bottom? Is there how do you know when you to for your organization to step in in terms of when people hit rock bottom? Is there a certain point where you just step and say, hey, we need to help you? How does that work within your organization? Well, at our organization, people come to us because they have decided or determined or the law has decided that they're the law. What do you mean? Perhaps they're in they're in legal trouble, either, you know, getting driving under the influence of violations or other thing crimes or things that have happened that they come to realize are directly linked to their substance use or their alcohol use. So that might be one reason or a family member, a grandparent, child, mother, father comes in to talk about their family member that is being and their family being negatively effected by the use of drugs or alcohol. So people are usually coming to us because they've gotten to some point that they need to talk about it or look for help. So we don't really determine anyone's level of where they're where they're at and when they might need help. But we have lots of different and actually it would be great to come back a little bit to some of the different services and supports that we have at the Recovery Center, which other than it being a safe place to come in, which I talked a little bit about in the beginning. There also are and the 12 step meetings we talked a little bit about, but there are also other different types of meetings, some that are more conversational style. We have one called Refuge Recovery, which is twice a week and it's a Buddhist based addiction recovery program. You said Buddhist? Mm hmm. That includes meditation and reading and and converse and discussion. So we also have a number of health and wellness programs, which we've launched this past year, which include, let me see here, Reiki, AccuDetox, Yoga, Tapping, I'm not sure if I can think of some more. So those happen all throughout the month and they are also avenues that people find really useful in their recovery for alternative to all those things. Yes, alternative because we believe in dressing addressing the whole person. So we continue to create more and more holistic avenues for people that because I don't believe in any way that there's one way for anyone to to come into and sustain recovery because it is about your whole person and how you ended up there. So briefly, let's talk about what are some of the misconceptions around alcohol and drug addiction that besides, besides the media, what are some misconceptions? Any interest in speaking on that? You know, there is a lot of stigma around addiction that simply doesn't exist around certain other issues. And there's, you know, for a long time, addiction has been affiliated with choice and a lack of self control with crime with, with hopelessness with the with the sort of hijacking of the person that that person's never going to amount to anything or, or move beyond that, you know, there's the word junkie, which has come to describe mostly drug users as opposed to alcohol, you know, people who have substance alcohol use disorder talk speaks to the sense of worthlessness of discarding and marginalization and isolation. So there's, you know, there's a lot of stigma that result that that really is is based around a lot of myths. The reality is people in recovery have there are far more people in recovery than there are in the throes of addiction that even though we believe in the United States that there are about 23 million people with substance use disorders in the in the state of Vermont. Right now, 8,000 people are in treatment for opioid use disorder. We believe that there are about 20 to 30,000 people with substance use disorders in general. But all around us are people in recovery who are living their lives and doing amazing things. And there is a culture not only of redemption but of paying it forward. And that is just these pure based models that the recovery center are at the core of what recovery centers are, are all built around helping each other of lending a hand of pulling people from the depths of the worst moments of their lives, hitting rock bottom, hitting rock bottom. And some people's rock bottom is different than others for some people rock bottom is is getting a DUI. Some people it's it's losing everything, their friends, their family, their homes, their cars, their everything. You know, everyone's rock bottom looks different. It's it's the moment that someone realizes irretrievably that something has to change that they have to progress that they have to learn from their experiences and move forward, enter recovery, rebuild their lives and do amazing things and help others. And so every day we're we're inspired by the people that we get to work with who are showing what recovery is and what what's possible. Let's talk briefly about some of the history of your organization. So our organization back in well 2010, maybe even the end of 2009, a group of professionals came together that decided or came to the understanding that that there should be something in the Boyle County that helped and served and supported people with addictions trying to enter recovery. And so the state of Vermont came to agree with that and helped fund the beginning of what we now has have in the Boyle County as North Central Vermont Recovery Center. We have 12 recovery centers in Vermont right now. Are you guys working with CVH, the hospital? We work really with Copley Hospital. That's in our community. Other recovery centers work with the other big hospitals. Like I said, there are 12 of them in Vermont, which is pretty incredible. And they're connected with the hospital in their area. So we are really connected with Copley Hospital and and this recovery center, like the others, I'm sure started out with a maybe one staff member and a handful of volunteers and in the years since 2000 and fall of 2010 is when we opened and since then we have grown to having four staff members, maybe 15 recovery coaches, which we didn't talk about yet. And what's the recovery coach since? Recovery coaches are our trained people. They're also peers trained to work individually with individuals and family members. We have recovery coaches for family members. So they work individually with them helping the person see what would they like their life to look like? What are the barriers in the way and how can they work together on the different goals for their recovery? Now, what are your we only have a little bit of time left? What are some some of your future goals of your organization? Yeah, we want to talk about those. Sure. You know, as Stephanie mentioned, we believe in whole people and recovery is about a person's whole life, you know, whether they've been in our have been or will be incarcerated, whether they're coming out of, you know, another situation, treatment, for example, that's a episodic moment in their lives. Recovery is about the entire rest of their lives and their whole their whole family, you know, addiction is a family thing. And so our goal is to provide is to be able to work with people in a lot of different facets of our lives. So we've focused a lot on groups and recovery coaching and social activities and so forth. Our goal is also to work on people's health. So we're adding health and wellness programs, including hopefully an exercise program. There's a group. The Phoenix has been occurring here in Berlin and is expanding to Hyde Park in in March, which is providing a group exercise activity for people to live a sober and healthy lifestyle, looking at nutrition, looking at financial wellness. So really helping people rebuild and build their lives across the board and all facets of their life. Well, I'd like to thank you for joining me on this edition. Thank you. Thank you. For more information, for more information on the North Central for My Recovery Center, where can they reach you? Well, you could reach us by calling our phone number, which is 802-851-8120. Can you repeat that again? It's 802-851-8120. But we really love to really love to lead people to our website, which is www.ncvrc.com. Can you repeat it one more time? Yeah, it's www.ncvrc.com, which is the acronym for North Central for My Recovery Center. And on there, you will find so many things about what we're doing, what we're about. You can see schedules of daily things going on, gosh, all the different programs and other resources. You can see information about our staff and our board, and it's really a great site. We're located on 275 Brooklyn Street in Morrisville. Brooklyn Street in Vermont. Yeah. Well, again, thank you for joining me on this edition of Abled in an Air. Well, this puts an end to this edition of Abled in an Air. I'm Lauren Seiler. Arlene is off today. Thank you to our sponsors. See you next time for another informative edition of Abled in an Air. See you next time. Abled in an Air is sponsored in part by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering neighbors with disabilities to be at home in the community. Additional support for Abled in an Air is sponsored in part by Washington County Mental Health Services, where hope and support come together.