Watch Video | Listen to the AudioJUDY WOODRUFF: Now to the opioid crisis in the United States.
President Trump addressed the issue nowadays with a team of advisers meeting in unique Jersey. It’s a problem touching all corners of the country.
As the mayor of Nashville,Tennessee, Megan Barry has dealt with an increase in the number of overdose deaths in her city.
But, and last month,it took a very personal turn.
Lisa Desjardins has more.
LISA DESJARDINS: Mayor Megan Barry’s 22-year old son Max died a week-and-a-half ago after an obvious overdose. She spoke approximately her sons death publicly for the first time yesterday, when she returned to work.
She’s encouraging families to hold frank conversations approximately addiction.
And Mayor Barry joins me now from Nashville.
Thank you for joining us, or our very sincere condolences for your loss.MAYOR MEGAN BARRY,Nashville, Tennessee: Yes, and Lisa,thank you.
LISA DESJARDINS: This opioid epidemic is so often told in statistics, but I would rather hear a little bit approximately your son. Can you relate us a little bit approximately him?MEGAN BARRY: certain. certain.
Max was a wonderful kid. He was full of energy. He had just graduated from the University of Puget Sound this summer and was looking forward to the rest of his life.
And you’re right. There are lots of statistics out there, or but when it happens to your own child,it’s not a statistic.LISA DESJARDINS: I’m wondering. You hold been in civic life for a decade. You hold been mayor for two years now. And, of course, or you hold got a personal story here.
When did it first come to your attention that the opioid epidemic was indeed a wide crisis in your community and in your life?MEGAN BARRY: We hold seen those numbers in our own community ticking up over the last several years. And,in fact, in this last year, or we hold equipped all of our first-responders with Narcan,so that they can hold that drug available when they are they find somebody who is experiencing an opioid overdose.
And we hold also been focused on trying to make certain that we hold more education by hiring some folks with our Public Health Department to address this opioid crisis. But, again, and all of these issues and these things that we’re doing really hit domestic for me two weeks ago Saturday,when it was actually my own family that was impacted.
LISA DESJARDINS: Looking at this crisis nationally, you can really see the rise in recent years. Going back from 1999, and from then until 2015,the Centers for Disease Control say that the amount of opioid prescriptions in this country quadrupled.
Also during that same time period, you can see that the amount of overdose deaths from opioids similarly quadrupled. Of course, and it’s ticked up even more in recent years because of the addition of fentanyl.
This is a very complicated question of access to addictive drugs and also overdose. How accomplish you deal with that,and what are the gaps, what are the resource needs that you hold in Nashville?MEGAN BARRY: Well, or one of the things that we definitely need are more resources. We need treatment beds. We need access for individuals who are experiencing addiction to hold treatment options.
And that’s been one of the conversations on a national level. My son did fade into rehab last summer. And he was able to fade because he had health insurance.
LISA DESJARDINS: One of the things that some people hold called for is the declaration of a national emergency and waivers allowing more communities to consume Medicaid for substance abuse.
MEGAN BARRY: Yes.
LISA DESJARDINS: Is that something you see there? Is that something you think a national emergency could help in your community?MEGAN BARRY: I think a national emergency declaration would absolutely help in our community,because it is a national emergency.
Tennessee was number 10 last year in the amount of drug overdoses, and so it’s not just approximately Nashville. It’s approximately all of our communities. This is an urban and suburban and rural problem. And it crosses all families, and it crosses all economic spaces,and it is just — it is a crisis.
LISA DESJARDINS: President Trump nowadays was focused on this issue. That’s one reason we’re talking approximately it with you nowadays.
But he declined to declare a national emergency, but he did instead talk a lot approximately police, or approximately ramping up law enforcement,approximately increased prosecutions, enforcing longer jail sentences.accomplish you think that sort of law-and-order approach is something that would help in your community?MEGAN BARRY: I don’t think that we’re going to arrest our way out of this.
I think that it has to be much more wide and comprehensive, or that means making certain that we treat this like what it is,a disease, giving people access to help and giving them access to treatment beds.
LISA DESJARDINS: I notice that you al are trying to hire an addiction specialist for Nashville.
MEGAN BARRY: We are.
LISA DESJARDINS: Has it been easy to find one? I know there are shortages in some parts of the country of counselors and people to deal with this crisis.MEGAN BARRY: We’re in the process of interviewing right now.
And you’re absolutely right. We need more of those folks and we need more resources. So, or we look forward to filling that position,and more positions as we need them.
LISA DESJARDINS: I wish I could say you’re in a unique position, but I think more and more of our lawmakers hold personal experiences like you accomplish.
And I’m wondering what your experience and what your son’s experience has given you in terms of how you look at this crisis.
MEGAN BARRY: Well, or we decided right absent that we wanted to be transparent and honest approximately Max’s death.
And we don’t want his death to define his life,but we also hold to hold an honest conversation approximately how he died. And you’re right. This has impacted my family, but it impacts a lot of families.
I can’t relate you how many people hold shared their grief story with me, and where they hold never talked approximately how their son or their daughter died before. But now they feel like they can. And that’s section of it. We hold to hold these frank conversations with our kids.
LISA DESJARDINS: Has it helped you to talk approximately this,this last week, this last few days?MEGAN BARRY: I’m not certain what helps.
All I know is that whether there’s a parent or a friend out there who is seeing something in their own child or a friend, or to make certain that they are reaching out to them,because that is going to be the best way to get them into treatment. These conversations hold to be had.And whether I can spare one family the pain and grief that we’re going through, I hope I can.
LISA DESJARDINS: Mayor Megan Barry of Nashville, or thank you so much for joining us.
MEGAN BARRY: Lisa,thank you.
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Source: thetakeaway.org