BURLINGTON — Western Racine County will be the venue for a conference this week that focuses on the national opioid epidemic that is hitting rural and urban populations and people from all walks of life.
The Transitional Living Center and Aurora Health Care are sponsoring the conference called “Responding to the Opioid Epidemic,” which is to take place from 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday at Veterans Terrace at Echo Park, 589 Milwaukee Ave., Burlington.
“We have seen a rise in those served who are battling an opioid addiction and the devastating effects it has had on them and their children,” said TLC Executive Director Christen Chafee. “TLC felt the need to bring this issue to the community to raise awareness and to find ways to close gaps in services. We are thankful that Aurora Health Care has joined us in presenting this topic and we are hopeful it will encourage future discussions and bring about necessary changes.”
Two Aurora physicians, Dr. Matthew McNett and Dr. Robin Munson-Dupuis, are scheduled to speak during the conference.
McNett is the system director of clinic standards for pain management for the entire Aurora Health Care system. He was formerly the medical director for chronic pain.
Monson-Dupuis is a psychotherapist and substance abuse counselor with 29 years in field. She is also the director for outpatient behavioral health services at Aurora Health Care and was previously the director for outpatient behavioral health services.
Both doctors have extensive experience working with those with substance abuse disorders and will share their experience with conference attendees.
Rise of opioid addiction
McNett began his career in addiction treatment in 1982 while working in a methadone treatment center, and has worked on and off with addiction treatment throughout his career.
“There are far more people addicted now and it’s much more rampant now than it used to be,” McNett said. “Heroin is about five times as potent as it used to be. Fentanyl is 100 as potent as heroin. The number of overdoses in Wisconsin went up by 37 percent in the last year.”
McNett said the opioid addiction began to skyrocket in 2001 when the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations adopted very aggressive expectations of hospitals for treating pain.
“Doctors have been told it’s their responsibility to write prescriptions for painkillers over the last 15 to 20 years,” McNett said. “The addiction has developed as a side effect because of that.”
McNett said the large majority of people quit taking painkillers when they feel better, even though he says there is no evidence that opioids work on pain after two months. McNett said some people continue to take opioid after because they believe they are in pain and it will help.
This, he believes, has caused opioid addiction to skyrocket.
“Patients believe they are in pain and we have no good way of saying they are not,” McNett said. “Last year, more Americans died from opioids than died in the entire Vietnam War. Every three weeks, more Americans die of opioids than died in 9/11.”
McNett said other treatments are effective and doctors need to focus on using those and only prescribe opioids when they need to.
Removing the stigma
One of the most important aspects both doctors wish to address is the stigma that is often associated with those suffering from a substance abuse disorder.
Monson-Dupuis takes the issue particularly to heart, as her son died from an accidental drug overdose 15 months ago after an eight-year battle with addiction.
“Since my son has died, I’ve been committed to do whatever I can my goal to do destigmatize heroin addiction and get the word out that is a brain disease, it is not a lack of willpower, not a moral failing, it is not a character flaw,” Monson-Dupuis said. “One needs treatment to recover like you would cancer.”
McNett agrees with that sentiment, stating that people often have a skewed perspective of people who become addicted to opioids.
“People have the presumption that people with addictions behave in ways that are immoral, and people assume that it is that person’s immorality that led them to the addiction,” McNett said. “In fact, addiction is like a computer virus that takes over your brain. It is the virus that creates the immoral acts.”
Monson-Dupuis cites our “altered state” culture as a reason that the opioid epidemic has hit the country so hard. She says people often lose themselves in media, music, the computer and their phones in order to escape from emotion.
“As a culture, we need to destigmatize addiction,” Monson-Dupuis said. “This is a nationwide problem that does not choose its victims based on where you live, how much money you make or what car you drive.”
Mental health and support
The Transitional Learning Center, which has been serving Western Racine County for 25 years, has seen how addiction and mental health can sometimes be tied to one another.
“Women that are housed at TLC are facing many challenges,” Chaffee said. “But mental health and addiction complicate things even further.”
About 40 percent of people with a substance abuse disorder may also struggle with a mental issue, such as anxiety and depression, Monson-Dupois said.
Monson-Dupois says this is called a dual diagnosis. “I think when you are in pain in terms of depression and anxiety, it is tempting to use something that mitigates that pain,” Monson-Dupois said.
At the conference, the doctors will address how to recognize a loved-one addiction in a person and how to get that person help. They will also discuss medication-assisted treatment.
“Medication-assisted treatment helps the person addicted to opiates recover so their brain can recover from opioid addiction,” Monson-Dupois said.
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