Airing on Eyewitness News, KBAK, this interview with First Steps Recovery’s director, Dr. Matthew Tatum, gives insight on the opioid epidemic. The current crisis is affecting individuals across the country , and First Steps Recovery offers quality drug and alcohol detox as well as residential treatment (rehab) to help people find lasting recovery.
Full Video Transcription:
Opioid Crisis in California’s Central Valley
Erin Briscoe: Welcome back to health alert we’ve been hearing a lot about the opioid crisis and talking about it in the US and actually happening here in our own backyard. But that is not the only addiction happening, and here to talk about the help that’s available and of course what families can do today is Dr. Matthew Tatum who is the executive director at First Steps Recovery in Clovis. Dr. Tatum thank you so much for being on our show you know and the reason why I mentioned opioid addiction first because that is something that’s been making headlines now right we’ve been hearing an opioid epidemic. So what is exactly does that mean?
Matthew Tatum: Yeah, epidemic just means it’s a very widespread it’s a huge problem so the Center for Disease Control actually just released 2016 data on opioid-related overdoses and what that data has shown us is a 26 percent increase in opioid related deaths in the nation. So now, we’re up to over 42,000 opioid related deaths a country which has now surpassed the AIDS epidemic when it was at its peak.
Briscoe: And when we talk about opioids what is that? is that the the prescribed medications?
Tatum: It can be it’s kind of a classification of drugs so it can be any of the prescription pain pills but it also includes heroin and things like that.
Briscoe: Okay and why do you think that number has gone up so much?
Tatum: there’s lots of discussion about that the use of prescription pain pills by physicians but also the advent of synthetic opiates as well things like synthetic fentanyl and things like that become very popular on the streets.
Briscoe: Okay. Well other than opioid which is what we you know we keep hearing about but there’s other things happening right there’s heroin alcohol affecting the San Joaquin Valley, right?
Tatum: Definitely yeah. If you grew up in the valley like I did, you hear a lot about methamphetamine. You hear people say that the San Joaquin Valley is you know the largest producer of methamphetamine in the entire world and actually according to the DEA 80% of the world’s methamphetamine is produced here in the valley and one third of drug users in the valley are methamphetamine users, but at first ups recovery we see not only methamphetamine as people’s drug of choice but alcohol abuse, prescription pain pills, heroin things of that nature.
Briscoe: And do a lot of these drugs or even alcohol does it go hand in hand you know someone who maybe starts you know here might you know have multiple addictions.
Tatum: Yeah a lot of times people will sort of use whatever they can get their hands on. We do see people that stick just to pain pills you do see people that stick just to alcohol and then you see people that are using a lot of combinations which actually can be more lethal when people are combining things like opiates and alcohol and benzodiazepines.
Briscoe: Oh wow okay so First Steps Recovery this is what you guys deal with right it’s a little bit different we’re talking about it’s not your typical hospital setting.
Tatum: Yeah we’re a small residential setting by residential where we’re actually in a home in the foothills and so we serve a smaller number of people so we have really individualized care smaller group sizes a very warm atmosphere but that being said we’re also on the leading edge of all neuro-scientific research. We have people all over the world conducting studies on how addiction affects the brain, and so we take that research and we boil it down to the treatment setting and we say how can we help this individual based on what we know about addiction in the brain in this treatment setting and so we apply that research in order to help them heal their brains.
Briscoe: Wow okay I want to touch right now with family and friends, so if someone is seeing signs that their loved one is you know possibly addicted to you know drugs or even alcohol what is it what is the one thing they can do or how do you approach that situation?
Tatum: That’s a really good question. If you watch popular TV shows, they will tell you to threaten your loved one in order to get them to comply with your request to go to treatment and while that’s really good television it’s not helping people get what they need, which is professional help, so I would first say stop threatening the addicts in your life and start loving them. Now we need to communicate our care and concern for them and set firm limits and boundaries but we also need to let them know that we love them and that we’re there for them no matter what and that’s a really tough balance to find but when you speak to the right people you can get help in finding that balance and what that looks like for the loved one in your life.
Briscoe: Okay you’re right you know you see that you do see that threatening all up and it’s it’s TV again right not real life or semi-real life First Steps Recovery so if you want that information if you are a family member right now or have a friend and you want to get that info you can call but here’s all the information on your screen right now there is a 24 hour hotline there’s firststepsrecovery.com again this is in Clovis you can get all that information by contacting them. Dr. Tatum, thank you so much for being on this show because this is such an important topic that you know sometimes we just we talk about it quickly but don’t you know go into depth and really talk about the issue affecting the valley. Thank you we’ll be right back.
If you or a loved one are need treatment for an addiction, call First Steps Recovery today.
