State Needs More Rehab Resources

As a state effort to do more to help residents kick prescription pill addictions gains traction, some worry that there aren't adequate resources to deal with the problem that currently exists.

State Inspector General Patrick Maley recent told members of the Prescription Drug Abuse Alliance what he thinks South Carolina needs to do to tackle prescription drug abuse and addiction.

Norm Rentz, CEO of Cannon Memorial Hospital, says the state is not prepared for an increase in demand for rehab.

“I applaud what you're getting ready to do – I think it's absolutely the right thing,” Rentz said. “But as you have success with that,you're going to see an increase in the demand in kinds of rehab for addictions. I'm concerned that our state is woefully underprepared for to handle what we have now, much less”

Maley said that was a good point.

He's advocated that South Carolina follow others states' leads in dealing with the problem, such as requiring mandatory use of the Prescription Monitoring Program to target pill shoppers, pills mills and over-prescribing physicians.

But he said those states have had to deal with new problems as a result of the crackdowns on prescription pill abuse.

“State of Ohio has had the same problem,” Manley said. “They are committing more resources to drub rehab because they've had to. In Kentucky, they have people going over to heroin. It's cheaper and more available. So they're getting overdose deaths from heroin. It's a long-term problem. I don't think there's an easy solution. All I know is that the intensity that we put on illegal drugs, if we put half that intensity, we'd solve the problem in a short amount of time.”

Bob Hiott, Director of Behavioral Health Services of Pickens County said there is a treatment system in place here.

“But there's a particular difficult in treating these particular patients,” Hiott said. “They don't often volunteer for treatment. Withdrawal from opiate addiction is so painful that these people will do almost anything to avoid that. There are some things that work … but it takes a lot of effort and a lot of interaction with medical people and treatment people, and we don't have that system quite like it could be. But we do have a system of resources, if we had the funding and the interaction.”

Following a patient and developing a gradual detox treatment takes time, so if the funding and the support were in place, “I think we can help some people like that,” Hiott said.

“But it's going to take kind of a specialized effort,” he said.

Hiott said State Health and Human Services Director Tony Keck is “really dedicated” to finding a way to get people into rehab, especially pregnant women.

“They did a screening and referral for treatment process with a lot of the prenatal clinics in South Carolina for this particular problem,” Hiott said. “There were over 5,000 screens – there were 22 women that accepted referrals. So an effort we were really excited about didn't do a whole lot.

“Pregnant women that are currently addicted is a particular problem, because it's dangerous for the fetus to be withdrawn in certain cases,” he continued. “We have things that we need. Treatment people and law enforcement people and medical people are going to have to cooperate on this thing if it's going to work like it needs to.”

Maley said many different agencies and sectors have a hand in tackling and addressing the problem.

“Each one effects the other,” Maley said. “Have them work the problem for a long-time.”