SHEBOYGAN COUNTY, WI (WHBL) - Back in September the State Department of Justice began their statewide “Dose of Reality” campaign to bring more attention to opiate overdoses and addictions to this chemical, either by using heroin or abusing prescription drugs.
Now with some funds in place, several local entities are coming together to begin a localized effort. This will include Sheboygan County departments, law enforcement, schools, and health care providers.
Sheriff Todd Priebe says the effort will be two-pronged. One is to bring attention to those who are suffering from addiction, which can fall into two groups. “We’re talking about those that have been fighting life addictions, various types of drugs throughout their lifetime. It’s a revolving door for some of those folks. Then we have folks that have been prescribed opioid based medications because of surgery and pains and things of that nature, and they find themselves addicted.” Priebe cited a stat that possibly one out of four people prescribed opiate pain medication become addicted.
Liz Abler, Public Health Nurse with the Sheboygan County Department of Health and Human Services, says addiction comes from the effect of the drug on a person's brain. “Drug addiction is a brain disease, and because of how drugs actually change the way the brain works that people who are addicted to drugs, they just can’t stop using them even when they really want to.”
Abler adds that part of today's problem with opiate addictions is due to what doctors did not to long ago. “In the 1990’s up until about 2000 assessing pain when you went into the doctor’s office or the hospital became what we referred to as another vital sign, like when you went in and you had your temperature, your blood pressure, your pulse; they did what they called a pain assessment. You might remember on a scale from one to ten ‘are you having pain today?’ ‘What is it?’ And then we began treating that pain. And the doctors and the health care providers became responsible and started prescribing medication, a lot of it opioid medication."
The second approach the local program will do is bring added attention to how family and friends of those suffering from an addiction. Priebe says that people have the misconception that they can't do anything, but indeed they can when it comes to starting the detox process. “Because these treatment facilities like Teen Challenge and Genesis; they’re not going to take you unless you’re detoxed. Well you can do that at home.”
The official start of the local "Dose of Reality" program will begin in January.