Become a member of Allies in Recovery and we’ll teach you how to intervene, communicate and guide your loved one toward treatment.Become a member of Allies in Recovery today.

Rhode Island Sees First Drop in Drug Fatalities Since 2019

rredick August 13, 2024
Photo credit: Alexander Castro/ Rhode Island Current

For the first time in four years, Rhode Island’s rate of substance-related deaths fell in 2023. It was a long-hoped-for turn around in a state suffering, like so many others, from the lethal effects of the opioid epidemic. While sustaining and building on this success will no doubt be a challenge, the state is committing greater resources than ever to the response to SUD—including making access to Allies in Recovery free to all.

It’s just one year. Nobody in the field of addiction care is breaking out the champagne. But the fact that substance-related deaths in Rhode Island dropped by 7.3% in 2023 compared to 2022 was the news many were hoping for.

It was the first such decline in four years, and it comes after enormous spikes in fatalities (almost 20% each year) in 2020 and 2021, largely driven by the synthetic opioid fentanyl and its wide penetration into street drugs. It also comes after significant investments in addiction care by both the state and private entitites.

“Addiction is a disease and recovery is possible,” said Richard Leclerc, director of the Rhode Island Department Of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) and co-chair of the Governor’s Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force. While noting that much more needs to be done, he also highlighted the state’s “multi-faceted approach to saving lives.”

Making access to Allies in Recovery free for all residents has been part of that approach. Rhode Island now joins Massachusetts, New Mexico, Mississippi, and various smaller geographic areas in this great investment in the health of its families. In total, some 13 million people now have free access to the CRAFT training, person-to-person guidance, blogs, podcasts, peer support and other resources Allies provides. We’re proud to be making a difference for those with Loved Ones struggling with SUD, in Rhode Island and right around the world.

Accidental overdose deaths in R.I. down 7.3% in 2023, marking first decline in four years

Tagged: , ,
Loading
rredick

Related Posts from "What's News"

Fentanyl Deaths In Communities of Color: A Crisis “Decades In the Making”

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals the unequal effects of the opioid crisis on Black, Native American, Hispanic, and white populations in the United States. Fentanyl deaths in particular have skyrocketed for all groups—but far more so in Black communities. Understanding the lasting effects of discrimination is essential, both for grasping the problem and seeking solutions.

rredick September 5, 2023

Borderline Personality Disorder: A Family Takes Its Caring to the Next Level

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) affects nearly 6% of Americans at some point in their lives, but research, treatment, and support for the condition lags far behind other serious mental illnesses. Paula Tusiani-Eng and her parents know first-hand what it’s like to live with, and eventually lose, a loved one suffering from BPD. Their story is remarkable not just because of those challenges, but because of what they decided to do next.

rredick August 22, 2023

Debunked in 3 ½ Minutes: Harmful Myths About Family and Recovery

It can’t be said too often: substance use disorder is a disease. Yet unlike nearly all other diseases, it’s still often treated as a moral failure, or even a lifestyle choice. This short video illustrates this double standard in the starkest terms. It reminds us that showing care, commitment, and understanding to a Loved One with SUD is not just natural, but also the foundation for helping them at all.

Allies in Recovery April 12, 2023
0 Comments

Mental Health: Just How Much Have We Got Wrong?

Everyone knows that great ideas can spread. But bad ones can also “hang around so long that you can forget you have the option of questioning them.” In this arresting Ted Talk, the entrepreneur and mental health leader Khaliya takes on some ideas that certainly merit questioning, and make a passionate case for trying to “remove our mental health blinders.”

rredick February 1, 2023
0 Comments

Material Rewards Can Make Recovery Fun — and Lead To Dramatically Better Outcomes

The research is clear: tangible rewards can greatly improve recovery efforts. Such programs are at last being given a chance. It’s called contingency management: the use of modest but far from trivial rewards for progress toward recovery. And for many suffering from SUD, it works. Now, after decades of resistance in the U.S., the approach is being adopted in states and cities across the country.

rredick October 26, 2022
0 Comments

The Meaning of Recovery: Five People Share Their Stories

As Allies members know quite well, substance use disorder often throws not just the user, but the entire family unit into turmoil. The documentary “Our American Family” takes an intimate look at one such family in Philadelphia, diving deep into intergenerational addiction and recovery. This review from Psychology Today reflects on the film and the troubled but resilient family it follows. 

rredick October 3, 2022
0 Comments

Three Common Thinking Traps, and How to Avoid Them 

Our minds have various kinds of natural bias. Fortunately they can be recognized and resisted. Bias affects everyone’s thinking. While it isn’t always a disaster, it can cause serious problems, including misunderstandings and conflict between Loved Ones. In this NPR interview, Yale Professor Woo-kyoung Ahn discusses three of the most common sorts of bias, and how we can train ourselves to counteract them. 

rredick September 28, 2022
0 Comments

This Documentary That Shows the Whole Family’s Experience with Substance Use

As Allies members know quite well, substance use disorder often throws not just the user, but the entire family unit into turmoil. The documentary “Our American Family” takes an intimate look at one such family in Philadelphia, diving deep into intergenerational addiction and recovery. This review from Psychology Today reflects on the film and the troubled but resilient family it follows. 

rredick September 14, 2022
0 Comments

On “Mom Guilt” and Self-Compassion

Parents, and especially mothers, often blame themselves for issues their children face — including issues over which the parents have little or no control. Such internalized “mom guilt” can have adverse effects on both parents and children. Amy Paturel’s essay in the Washington Post explores the roots of such feelings and recommends a self-care response.

rredick August 22, 2022
0 Comments

A Court Ruling That Endangers 130 Million With SUD or Mental Health Challenges

A landmark ruling in 2019 required insurers to define “medical necessity” in accordance with accepted clinical standards. But in 2022, a three-judge panel threw out that ruling, allowing insurance companies to determine coverage by “arbitrary, profit-motivated, and internally developed criteria.” The March 2022 decision allows health insurers to use their own, opaque metrics when deciding who to cover.

rredick July 27, 2022
0 Comments

Section 35: Playing Russian Roulette with Involuntary Treatment in Massachusetts

While many states use civil commitment, Massachusetts is believed to be the only state in the union that allows family members to file a Section 35 petition and court-order their Loved One to treatment. More often than not, they are sent to treatment inside jails and prisons — even if they haven’t committed any crimes. Family members who ask for involuntary committal call it “Russian Roulette”.

rredick June 22, 2022
0 Comments
Couple fighting highwater article thesoberworld

Toxic Moods

We hear a lot about Serenity in recovery programs. For me personally, developing Serenity meant no longer being codependent to four dynamics when they show up around me: Jealousy, spitefulness, moodines and rudeness.

annieunhooked March 29, 2021
0 Comments
NEWS - when does drinking moderation work?

When Does Drinking Moderation Work?

If you’re the family member of someone with a drinking problem, you probably have strong opinions about whether your Loved One can, or ought to, continue drinking. You know by now that it’s not up to you…. Learn more about moderate drinking and read Dominique Simon-Levine's full article on addictionblog.org.

isabel September 8, 2020
0 Comments
dr drew violence and SUD

Dr. Drew on Substance Use and Violence

Dr. Drew has published a new article on the connections between substance use and violence.  Drugs and alcohol can both trigger aggression and escalate/increase its severity, so when they intersect in intimate relationships the results can be devastating for everyone involved. 

isabel June 7, 2019
0 Comments
NEWS hope

A Hopeless Patient ?

…looking at my schedule, I remember saying, “Oh HELL no. I’m not seeing this guy. He’s not going to stabilize in an office-based practice.” But he had already paid to hold his appointment slot, so I felt obligated to see him. My plan was to tell him he wasn’t appropriate for an office-based program, and to recommend inpatient treatment, as I had so many times in the past.

isabel February 1, 2019
0 Comments
© john van hasselt via getty images

Why Some People Swear by Alcoholics Anonymous—And Others Despise It

The 12 steps, first established in the 1930s by Bill Wilson, have now become a powerhouse in the addiction treatment world, with millions of attendees worldwide each year in AA meetings alone. More than 15 million have an alcohol use disorder. Excessive drinking alone is linked to 88,000 deaths each year. So whether one of the most common types of treatment for this disease is actually effective could be a matter of life or death.

isabel January 17, 2018
4 Comments
NEWS - Lies - 2 women from back

How to Talk to Them When They’re Lying

One of the oldest and well known myths is that all substance users have profound character flaws that result in chronic lying.  Lying is a tool that almost everyone uses at one time or another to try and mitigate negative reactions and emotions in others. It’s a human communication strategy that is as old as time itself. 

isabel August 30, 2017
3 Comments
NEWS - 7 things parents can say

7 Things a Parent Can Say to a Child Struggling with SUD

Let your child know when they are struggling with substances, that you are still there for them. You will be waiting for them when they are ready to cross the bridge to recovery. Your support can give them the inner strength that they need to start their life anew. Here are some helpful things you can say when your child is struggling with drugs or alcohol. These seven messages would be wonderful for any child to hear.

isabel August 11, 2017
0 Comments
NEWS - Can you get over an addiction?

Can You Get Over an Addiction?

…Research also shows that half of all addictions — with the exception of tobacco — end by age 30, and the majority of people with alcohol and drug addictions overcome it, mostly without treatment. I stopped taking drugs when I was 23. I always thought that I had quit because I finally realized that my addiction was harming me. Opinion column from the NYT.

isabel July 11, 2016
0 Comments
NEWS - learn2cope

Opioid-affected Families are Learning to Cope

Joanne Peterson has attended more than 100 funerals for opioid victims, and she long ago learned the words to all the songs she hears at the services. But she no longer attends the wakes. “I could not look at another young person in a casket,” Peterson said. “There are some days when I just start crying.” … read full article here

Dominique Simon May 24, 2016
0 Comments
NEWS - how to really help someone with addiction

How to Really Help Someone with Alcoholism

From addictionblog.org, Dominique Simon-Levine guest authors a post: A young woman named Kate came to see us, deeply upset about her mother’s severe alcoholism. As her drinking got worse, her mother had quit a high-paying job as a nurse, and was now almost a complete shut-in. Kate and her brother still lived with their mother, providing food and paying the bills. Read more here…

isabel March 6, 2016
0 Comments
NEWS - end of hitting rock bottom

The End of Hitting Rock Bottom

SHORTLY AFTER 1 A.M. on March 27, Susan Knade awoke to the sound of her cellphone ringing. It was her 21-year-old daughter, Caroline, calling. She was crying. "Please," Caroline said. "Please, come pick me up." Caroline had been kicked out of her halfway house. She was entering heroin withdrawal….. (read more from the Boston Globe)

isabel March 2, 2016
0 Comments
NEWS drinking time

Alchohol Abuse Among the Elderly

AFTER 50 years of heavy drinking, a 72-year-old woman from Fairfield County was forced to confront her alcoholism when her son threatened to move out of the house he shares with her if she did not stop drinking. "I won't stay here and watch you die," he told her. Read the article on New York Times.

isabel February 24, 2016
0 Comments

Report

Harassment or bullying behavior
Contains mature or sensitive content
Contains misleading or false information
Contains abusive or derogatory content
Contains spam, fake content or potential malware

Block Member?

Please confirm you want to block this member.

You will no longer be able to:

  • See blocked member's posts
  • Mention this member in posts
  • Invite this member to groups
  • Message this member
  • Add this member as a connection

Please note: This action will also remove this member from your connections and send a report to the site admin. Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

Report

You have already reported this .