Opioid coalition hopes to attract new members

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

The Mon Valley Opioid Coalition hopes to bring in new members to work toward its mission of ensuring the long-term health, safety and well being of Valley residents.

Colleen Hughes, executive director of Westmoreland Drug and Alcohol Commission, and Monessen police Chief Jim Smith co-chair the coalition.

It began in 2017 and the pandemic cut into some of the organization’s programs over the past year.

“The coalition is important to bring education and awareness regarding the opioid epidemic that our nation, the county and Valley are facing,” Hughes said. “There is a lot of misinformation around persons that use substances, recovery houses and Narcan.

“We want Mon Valley residents to know how to access treatment, where to go to get help and to promote positive things about recovery.”

In Monessen, in some situations, when a person who uses substances is taken into custody by police, officers can call the Centers of Excellence — for opioid-related substance abuse through Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services.

Certified recovery specialists, who are actively in recovery themselves, will come to the police station and speak with the person in custody, who is then given the opportunity to accept treatment.

The person can go that day to treatment or a hospital if necessary, if they accept. 

The criminal process continues for whatever led them to be placed into custody, but when the person appears before a judge they’re able to say they sought treatment the day of their arrest. 

Smith said the opioid crisis is not something the country or the Valley can “arrest its way out of,” and looking for other avenues, such as promoting treatment, is a new way of addressing the problem.

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