HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — An official with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources said his trip to West Virginia this week has taken him to the epicenter of the opioid epidemic.
“This is an area where the crisis has hit most strongly and where, we believe, that the interventions that are eventually going to turn the tide on this are also being developed,” Eric Hargan, deputy HHS secretary, said in Huntington.
His stops on Tuesday, Oct. 30 included PROACT, a comprehensive addiction treatment facility, Valley Health, Lily’s Place and Project Hope for Women and Children.
In many cases, Hargan said, the treatment, recovery and support programs were the “most extensive” he had seen anywhere in the U.S.
Hargan, who has served as deputy U.S. DHHS secretary since October 2017, was in Huntington at the suggestion of Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who first visited the area back in August.
“Huntington was hit hard as the epicenter of the outbreak here and, yet, what they’ve done is they’ve come together as a community to develop many different components to begin to try to move towards a solution,” Redfield said.
“When I saw the program here, I saw it at a level I hadn’t seen anywhere else and I wanted the deputy secretary to see it.”
Cooperation and coordination are key, he said.
“When you begin to try to treat an individual — and I’m a doctor — for opioid use condition, you could do it with naloxone and kind of end it there or your end of mind could be to help that individual get back to a fully productive life,” Redfield said.
“In order to go from naloxone to a fully productive life takes an entire community.”
Joining Hargan and Dr. Redfield were Bill Crouch, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, and Dr. Jerome Gilbert, president of Marshall University, among others.
“I want to thank you all for coming to Huntington to see how we have become, as our Mayor Steve Williams says, ‘the epicenter of solutions’ for the opioid epidemic,” Gilbert said.
“Our city collectively continues to be at the forefront of finding ways to address the epidemic that is affecting every community in our state and also in our nation.”
Hargan worked in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush when Bush identified AIDS in Africa as the public health crisis he wanted to focus on while in office.
“We now see that tens of millions of people are alive today because of that focus,” Hargan said. “We very much hope and expect that President Trump’s focus on opioids in the United States will result in that same kind development of resources.”
His visit to West Virginia came less than a week after President Donald Trump formally signed into law the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, legislation with multiple provisions designed to help states and communities prevent drug use, treat addiction locally and stop the flow of drugs into communities.
“Even though it has hit the most strongly and a lot of the most promising interventions are here in West Virginia and in Huntington, we know that this is a national crisis,” Hargan said.
“I think that the lessons we learn here we’re going to want to pass on the federal level to other communities, other states that are suffering as well.”