Addiction and overdose are among the most serious social and health issues facing our country today. Just this week Attorney General Jeff Sessions called drug overdose deaths “the top lethal issue” in the U.S. with preliminary data showing nearly 60,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2016.
With overdose deaths rising, and friends and loved ones battling addiction, it’s not uncommon to feel helpless and hopeless. What can be done to slow and stop this epidemic? Today we focus on hope in the face of addiction and substance use. In the first part of the broadcast, a mother tells us the story of her son’s addiction and subsequent recovery. Lisa Hillman is the author of Secret No More, A True Story of Hope for Parents with an Addicted Child. Later in the hour, we hear about substance use drop in nights; a new program model to immediately connect individuals and families with substance use treatment, counseling and education.
Guests on the program are Gail Wilson, Health and Human Services Director of the Town of Mashpee and also Chair of Mashpee’s Substance use Task Force, and Jen Monaghan, Addiction Program Coordinator at the Community Health Center of Cape Cod. Mindy Todd hosts.