State DDAP secretary visits Monessen
Dr. Latika Davis-Jones took part in a roundtable discussion at St. Vincent de Paul and observed a session about teen drug use at the Monessen Family Center.
Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs Secretary Dr. Latika Davis-Jones participates in a roundtable discussion Tuesday at the St. Vincent de Paul Society banquet hall. Jeff Helsel / Mon Valley Independent
Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs Secretary Dr. Latika Davis-Jones spent time in Monessen Tuesday listening to substance-use-disorder treatment providers, recovery community organizations and others discuss the challenges they face in Westmoreland County.
Davis-Jones’ visit was part of DDAP’s statewide tour to gauge how each of Pennsylvania’s counties is handling the overdose and opioid epidemic.
The secretary spent about 90 minutes Tuesday morning in a roundtable conversation at the St. Vincent de Paul Society banquet hall about various issues affecting substance use treatment and recovery. In the afternoon, she visited the Monessen Family Center, where she observed a session about substance use in adolescents.
The substance use epidemic has plagued the Mon Valley and Westmoreland County for many years, but the treatment and recovery options continue to improve.
“Take Westmoreland County for example. You know that the overdose rates are higher here than in the majority of other counties across the state,” Davis-Jones said. “There is no one size fits all approach to tackling this work. This work is not easy, but it is necessary.”
State Rep. Eric Nelson, R-Hempfield, said the county is heading in the right direction compared to seven years ago, as the number of accidental drug overdose deaths dropped in 2022 and 2023, according to the Westmoreland County Coroner’s annual report.
“And that means the work that you’re doing, that we’re doing together is paying off,” Nelson said.
Westmoreland Drug & Alcohol Commission Executive Director Colleen Hughes wanted DDAP to visit Monessen to highlight organizations that are doing work to curb substance use, such as the Monessen Family Center. WeDAC helped organize DDAP’s visit to Westmoreland County.
Tuesday morning’s discussion topics included access to treatment, improving data input systems and staffing ratios.
Hughes mentioned transportation as one of the barriers to access of treatment in the Mon Valley.
“We have transportation in the Valley, but if you want to get to Greensburg from here (on a bus), you have to go to Pittsburgh and then from Pittsburgh it takes you to Greensburg, so it’s an all-day trip,” Hughes said.
Nelson referred to transportation options in the county as a burden on addiction recovery.
“It’s just very difficult to get from point A to point B, even when the weather is good,” he said.
Transportation to care is another hurdle in the difficult process of recovery, as noted by Nelson.
“Instead, it’s a big barrier and something I think almost creates a frustration because if somebody is starting to get their feet underneath them, there’s just so many challenges just even to continue in the process,” Nelson said.
Davis-Jones said access to transportation is one of the major barriers that has been brought up in just about every county she has visited on her engagement tour.
DDAP plans to use the feedback it has received during the engagement tour to help create the agency’s state plan to address the substance-abuse-disorder epidemic.
“So I want to say thank you for doing what you do,” Davis-Jones said to the healthcare and recovery professionals in attendance. “We hear you, we see you and we thank you for your dedication to the field and to the lives that you help in your county. All of us in this room are rooted in the same cause, and that is to help those who are in need.”
