It was a celebratory moment: fist-bumps and high-fives all around. New York State attorney general Letitia James headed to the podium to announce one of the largest drug busts in Ulster County and the surrounding area. The arrests took down a major pipeline from Albany through Ulster County. Then, not even two months later, several local people died from overdoses in a span of little more than a week this past August, as reported in Hudson Valley One.
These two moments in time highlight the never-ending – and grim – reality of addictions often rooted in untreated mental illness. They are, by all accounts, complex problems and sadly, without any solid answers. Yet many remain and offer hopeful solutions. Hudson Valley One has reported shedding valuable light on this epidemic.
As an advocate for and a patient of mental health services, I’m frustrated by the recounting of the number of arrests and drug overdoses while overlooking the humanity behind those numbers. For each arrest, for each overdose, there is a wake of grief and broken families.
Friends for years, two of the people who overdosed in August died together. Two teens are left behind, along with other grieving family members and friends overwhelmed by this tragic ending. The siblings are now being raised by their grandmother.
Families find themselves in the shadows as they are stigmatized by mental illness and substance-use disease. And, stereotypes aside, the people who recently overdosed came from middle-class loving families. Yet shame continues to stain them as they attempt to fight mental illness and substance-use disease.
Nationally and locally, the largest impediment to treatment is the lack of long-term care, along with a shortage of psychiatrists. A 90-day treatment program, which is the standard of inpatient care for people with substance-use disease, is inadequate in helping people who have an ingrained disease for many years. As pointed out in an HV One article, there are numerous care centers; however, appointment times still are often weeks out for people needing immediate care. Psychiatric beds were removed from our local hospital during the pandemic, leaving Ulster County without critical care. The medical corporation behind the removal showed insensitivity toward their actions, once again highlighting how mental illness treatment is viewed as unimportant.
The Institute for Family Health in Kingston is among the few medical and mental health resources which take Medicaid, usually the only health insurance available for people with substance-use disease. They had one part-time psychiatrist trying to juggle an unwieldly schedule between here and the Albany area. He left, and while he’s since been replaced, appointment availability is months out, according to an Institute employee. Caseloads and salaries are unrealistic throughout this specialty, compounding treatment. Other psychiatrists in Ulster County are private pay, with rates well beyond the means of families. One other psychiatrist who takes insurance is not seeing new patients.
We can and must provide more funding to help people with a disease which is often fatal and overall, less costly to treat than leave untreated. Saugerties Police chief Joe Sinagra voices a universal sentiment among law enforcement and care providers: “We are not going to arrest our way out of this problem. Prevention is key.” If prevention is key, then services must begin in childhood. Yet locally childhood mental health services are insufficient to meet the needs of our community, and families find themselves driving hours away to seek care.
Hope does exist, social workers and law enforcement attest. Saving even one life offers that hope. The expanded availability of Narcan, as HV One noted, is successfully lowering the number of fatal overdoses. Ulster County’s move toward treatment rather than incarceration is a big improvement in addressing substance use, and expanded resources are also notable.
What’s important to note is our own role in helping people with mental illness and substance-use disease. Our neighbors, friends and family members are the faces behind the numbers officials provide to the public. They may have once participated in sports and shared birthday parties with us and our family. They were once childhood friends with lifetime dreams. Then, as mental illness emerges, families find themselves isolated.
Compassion and understanding go a long way. Disparaging words are commonly used to describe people with these illnesses. Families and their loved ones are blamed for a disease beyond their control. Misunderstanding of mental illness and substance abuse leads to blaming people for their challenges. A mental illness diagnosis is no different than another medical diagnosis. We cannot “just get over it” when we have depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, among other challenges.
The obituary for one of the people who died included this message from a loving family: “He fought long and hard to battle this awful disease of addiction. He had a heart of gold. He loved helping everyone. His pure nature was to always be there, to lend a hand and to do good. He adored his family more than anything, and his family loved him deeply.” (His name has been edited in respect for his family’s privacy.)
One of the teens who lost her Mom during the recent overdoses posted on Facebook: “One of the most important things to take into account when so many are grieving are the things you say about people, and think how they might affect people. Allow people to openly express love and good things about a mother who had the biggest heart and such an intelligent mind. There wasn’t a thing in the world my Mommy loved more than her kids. Don’t kick people when they’re already down, and spread love and not negativity in already such a hard time for so many.️ Nobody in this world loved me like my Mom did, and she deserved the world and more.”
(Jo Galante Cicale is a mental health advocate who served on the Mental Health Association Board for many years, as well as the Ulster County Alternatives to Incarceration Board. She has volunteered at Family’s Midway, which provides housing and services for homeless teens. She is grieving the loss of one of the people who recently overdosed and celebrating the continuing recovery of a young family member. She lives in Saugerties.)
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