We have all heard/read about the opioid epidemic; however, in the following, I would like to discuss the flaws within the current drug rehab system. Much of the general public are unaware of the problems, so I would like to address them here and offer solutions and suggestions of reforming the current rehab system.

First of all, my son Matthew Olson died on Aug. 9, 2016, in drug rehab. Yes, in rehab! Let that sink in for a moment. By the time he died from an overdose of heroin, he had been using for well over ten years. He had become someone that I didn’t even know anymore and lied about most things! I had warned both of my boys about the danger of drug abuse for years and he just didn’t listen. The one thing that I did believe was when he told me that it didn’t start because of a prescribed medication but out of plain, stupid curiosity.

He had attended two short-term rehabs here in town in the years before, but he walked out without finishing the program, would not go to meetings nor would he get a sponsor to help with life outside of treatment. When he went to his first short-term rehab, my workplace allowed me to take a month-long voluntary layoff so that I could attend his meetings with him and I learned so much about addiction. I also thought a lot about his curiosity about heroin and decided that it’s really not surprising when you think of how glamorized drugs and alcohol are in modern media, in music, television and film! How many of us haven’t laughed at Cheech and Chong movies or, going back further, at Foster Brooks and Dean Martin during his Roast Hour? Many of our greatest rock stars and actors have been lost to drugs and alcohol as well. It doesn’t seem as though we can get away from it for very long.

Also, the instructors there told us that when a patient finishes a program, that it is up to them, not parents or other loved ones to make sure that they attend meetings because if they truly want to stop using, they will get there themselves and not to take it upon our selves to make sure they go! Matthew clearly was not really ready to stop using. We were also told that addicts usually go to short-term rehab just because they want their bodies to feel better. They want to feel that they can only use when they want to not because they need to, which happens quickly and they get a very false sense of security and feel in control over it.

I cannot really remember the timeline of all of the events, but, at some point, my son’s life imploded and he finally hit his “Rock Bottom.” His longtime girlfriend and her young daughter could no longer be around him and moved out. He lost his apartment as well because of unpaid back rent. The year before that, he committed a burglary to support his drug use. His boss, who had taught him the trade of electrician so well that he even got his electrician’s license without going to school for it, had bailed him out of jail a few times when he stole medications from customers. His boss cared very much for him and was trying to help him. The last burglary that Matthew committed was from an elderly couple’s home in which he had done work in during the day and broke back in that night and stole an enormous amount of money! His boss bailed him out again and when he went to court, the judge imposed a structured restitution.

Fast forward a year later and Matthew lost his girlfriend, her daughter whom he loved as his own, his apartment and his job for the final time. He then thanked his boss for everything by stealing from his home as well. I was mortified! Matthew was also on probation for that year. Thank goodness his girlfriend called me and filled me in. Knowing that he was still using, I got him on the phone one Friday and begged him to let me take him to rehab once again. He gave me some BS about not being able to go without clearing it with his probation officer and how he couldn’t get ahold of her and he then begged me to wait until Monday and then he would go. I tore myself apart with the decision. I ended up agreeing against my better judgment and just hoped he would live through the long sleepless weekend. I could have had his probation violated as I knew that he was using and had him sent to jail and I have to live with the fact that I didn’t for the rest of my own life!

Finally, on Monday I got him in for his psychological evaluation, detox and then again into short-term rehab here in town. He was in WCA Hospital again. Two weeks later, his attorney wanted me to meet with him and Matthew in rehab. Curious, I met with them. That’s when I found out that Matthew hadn’t honored the restitution agreement and was facing jail time! I was disgusted with him. The three of us decided that maybe the judge would let him go on to a long-term rehab. His attorney went to a hearing for him and the judge agreed. Matthew finally completed a short-term rehab!

Knowing that there is always a waiting list for long-term rehab, I was thrilled when WCA Hospital was able to secure a bed for Matthew at Trapping Brook House in Wellsville.

When Matthew went to Wellsville, on Nov. 1, 2015, I called there on the very next morning. I knew the rules in short-term rehab about visits, phone calls etc, but I wasn’t familiar with long-term at all. I spoke to his counselor and she was very nice. I got my answers about the rules and then she explained the program to me. She told me that Matthew would be in the treatment center for six months. If, at the end of six months, he still wasn’t doing well, they would keep him another three months and so on. If he was doing well after six months, they would then transfer him to the Supportive Living portion of the program. There he would be put on public assistance, share one of their supportive living homes with four or five other patients and they would pool their resources and pay all expenses. They would still attend meetings at the TC and would be randomly drug screened. They would also be encouraged to go back to school or to get a job. However, they enjoyed a lot of freedom as there were no counselors on the premises.

Matthew had signed the paperwork for them to discuss his treatment with me and I spoke with Matthew and his counselor often. I had warned his counselor how he had left his first two short-term rehabs early. I told her that he could be very manipulative and convincing when he wanted someone to think that he was doing well and to please keep him as long as she could. She assured me that she dealt with these people everyday and spotted manipulation and that she could not lie on anyone’s progress report just because his mother was worried and wanted him to stay and I understood.

Around the middle of March 2016, I happened to call Matthew to see how he was doing and he then dropped the bomb; he was already in the Supportive Living part of the program! I was furious! No one had even ever warned me about that possibility. They didn’t tell me about the decision to advance him early, nor did they tell me when they transferred him to one of their supportive living homes! I wondered then why they even had him sign the paperwork to allow them to keep me “in the loop” of his treatment. When I called his counselor to complain, I received my second shock when she informed me that the counselors are not even permitted to be a part of that kind of decision! What? That is crazy! She said that “someone upstairs”, most likely the director, probably read a favorable progress report on my son and allowed him to advance early. It made me sick and I think that was when I first got the gut feeling or “mother’s intuition” that informed me that my son was not going to survive his addiction, yet I hoped that I was wrong.

Less than five months later, my son died when he and another patient relapsed together by smoking heroin. By the time the other patient realized that Matthew was in trouble, he called 911, tried CPR but it was too late; Matthew was dead. Now I realize that had Matthew been in the treatment center for the full six months, he still would have been in Supportive Living by the time that he died. However, six months should mean six months, not 4.5! I feel that the last five and a half weeks are as, if not more, important than the first five and a half weeks. Maybe something would have “clicked” within him and now we will never know. Okay, I can only think of maybe four reasons why a patient leaves Supportive Living: 1. The patient completes the program. 2. Maybe because of a personality conflict, a patient may be moved to a different supportive living home. 3. The patient just plain walks away from the program, and 4. The patient leaves in a body bag like my son.

No matter for what reason a patient leaves Supportive Living, the funding for that patient leaves right with them. Keeping that in mind, I am certain that this is what happened. A bed came up empty in a Supportive Living home, and without having a patient who just completed their six months at the treatment center, the director decided, to keep the funding status quo, to move my son into Supportive Living early! I cannot think of one benefit for a patient to get advanced early but it certainly can benefit the treatment center! It only takes one phone call to fill a bed at the treatment center and I’m sure that my son’s bed at the treatment center was filled the very same day that he advanced. And, please don’t misunderstand me and think that I am just vilifying Trapping Brook House as I fear that all treatment centers may operate much the same! I only know what I think happened in Wellsville.

Now my Matthew was gone and I had to prolong a breakdown to do the practical. I had to inform my family, including two of his cousins whom had helped raise him. I had to go to my younger son’s workplace and tell him his brother was gone and for the first and only time, was grateful that my parents were already gone. Can you even ever imagine feeling that way?

I made arrangements with Lind Funeral Home. I decided that, in his obituary, I would state that he had lost his battle with addiction. This was very important! I feel that we as parents, should not bury the shame with our kids, but put it out there so that society will know just how many of our kids are dying from drug abuse! I decided too that I wanted someone to speak about addiction at his funeral. Rod Dupler from Lind’s, whom I’ve known for years, put me in touch with the perfect man for the job. That man is Rick Huber. I spoke with him two days before the funeral and he told me that he would be honored to perform a service and said that he would explain why Matthew couldn’t stop using.

He told me about a large study on addiction that was done by three groups, one of which was Harvard University. They concluded that 20 percent of the population have a gene in their DNA that reacts with opioids, making the user addicted from the first try! They also concluded that an addict needs 15.5 months away from the drug to be able to stop using without suffering from a terrible withdrawal. Ruber, being a former addict, explained withdrawal by telling me to imagine all of the muscles in my body having a “Charlie Horse” at the same time! A very painful image for sure. That being said, 30 days, six months and certainly not 4.5 months will not accomplish full recovery, normally.

Taking all of this information into account, I have come up with some possible solutions to the current failures in the rehab world:

1. The government really has to take the wheel on rehab! I am going to go as far as to say that rehab should become a division of, and be funded along with the Department of Homeland Security because our loved ones are not secure! I do not have a clue as to what the appropriate funding should be and will leave that to the health professionals. Education and prevention are very important but don’t leave behind those within the throes of addiction as there are so many factors against them. The only way to rid of the drug supply is to eradicate the current demand! The government should readdress and amend the current regulations that the various treatment centers operate under and abolish any kind of early advancement! Also, how do we know that the drug screenings are being implemented and who polices these activities? They should be audited and strictly controlled. I am finding it very hard to believe that it took my son almost five months to relapse and feel that maybe the screenings were not being conducted after all.

2. The Justice system. When a person goes to court for an offense related to a drug habit, the judge should always court mandate treatment. My son told me that he explained to the judge about his drug abuse, yet the judge did not mandate his treatment.

3. Committing a patient. When we have a loved one with mental impairment, were are able to get them committed into treatment. Rick Huber said that an addict’s brain chemistry is altered with drug abuse. I feel that means that they are mentally impaired and we should be able to commit them into treatment as well.

4. Insurance. This was suggested to me by a friend. Medicaid and even private insurance carriers would probably not argue this at all, but how about if they stipulate that they will not cover treatment unless the patient completes the treatment?

5. The Supportive Living homes. They should be modeled after our Resource Center homes, with a health professional on site at all times, with access to Naracan/Naxalone in case of relapse.

I do not have all of the answers. I only know that not enough is being done and we Baby Boomers are losing our kids and like Rick Huber says, we are losing a whole generation! Drug dealers do not care if you are rich, poor, prominent, male or female or what the color of your skin is as long as you find the money somehow for the drugs. They are at bus stations waiting for people to get out of treatment in order to entice them back into the life of drug abuse. They are waiting outside City Hall for the people leaving drug court, and believe me, they are everywhere! This is a national disaster/emergency. Whatever you want to label it, it is not going away until great change is made. If we all demand change, we may just get it.

Sally Olson is a Celoron resident.