People enrolled in a harm-reduction program are five times more likely to go into recovery than if they\u2019re not a part of it, he said.<\/p>\n
And while the challenge is immense, Brumage \u2015 who also serves as assistant dean at the West Virginia University School of Public Health<\/a> among other social positions\u00a0\u2015 has pushed ahead with his innovative approach to a stark crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m convinced based on the evidence that syringe service programs, as part of a larger harm-reduction program, are really one of the major solutions to dealing with the epidemic,\u201d\u00a0Brumage said. \u201cSo in the syringe service program, of course, what we\u2019re trying to do is avoid becoming the next Scott County, Indiana<\/a>, where they had over 200 cases of HIV in about a year.\u201d<\/p>\n HuffPost spoke with Brumage about how, in facing a national drug epidemic where his home state sits at ground zero, \u201cour compassion is being challenged\u201d against an \u201cepidemic of epidemics.\u201d<\/p>\n The below interview is an abridged version of the original transcript, and has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As you really peel back the onion, it\u2019s not an epidemic. It\u2019s an epidemic of epidemics, because you have everything from overdose deaths to the hepatitis C rate, which is now the No. 1 infectious killer in America. You have children who have been abandoned because their parents are using drugs. You have needles which are in public spaces, which is an environmental hazard. And just so many other aspects of this. This is a very, very complex public health emergency. And I\u2019m not quite certain that most Americans or even most policymakers have grappled with the true complexities of where we are on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I think that Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, understands the depth of this problem, and I\u2019m hopeful that she will find the right appropriations to combat this epidemic.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve also benefitted from Medicaid expansion. I think we\u2019re either the most or one of the most successful states in signing up people into Medicaid expansion. And you know I\u2019ve actually gone to Capitol Hill personally, from a position of trying to convince the powers that be that this is one of the best tools that we have to fight the epidemic. So we\u2019re really, really, I think in need of resources. Our state has been profoundly affected by the decline of the coal industry, and I think that\u2019s one of the factors that\u2019s \u2015 it\u2019s certainly not the only factor \u2015 but it\u2019s one of the factors that\u2019s playing a role.<\/p>\n But if it were just about the coal industry, then you would really see this epidemic only in coal-producing states where people have been laid off, but you\u2019re seeing that it\u2019s across the United States.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s a little bit of a paradox. I mean you know West Virginia was one of the states that most supported President Trump, and I\u2019m really hopeful that President Trump will \u2015 that we will see what he promised, which is, you know, throwing lots of resources at this issue.<\/p>\n And it should be done in a wise way, of course. I\u2019ve seen the effects of large government programs when I was active duty, and throwing only money at problems doesn\u2019t work. It has to be spent wisely. I\u2019m really a firm believer in that.<\/p>\n I would say that given this is the worst public health problem in the United States today, and that, basically every year we\u2019re having a Vietnam from people lost to the opioid epidemic, that we would spend the same resources to combat that as we would any war that we fight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n What you\u2019re describing is the recreation of a sense of connection, belonging, and purpose that is bigger than public health alone, and it requires a full community effort to be engaged in that. Where we touch this problem is in our harm-reduction clinic, and what our responsibility is to those patients is to treat them with dignity and respect. Because, in fact, these are like modern-day lepers: No one wants to touch them, see them, or acknowledge their existence.<\/p>\n Now the problem has grown to the point where it can no longer be ignored in our state, or in our nation for that matter. But it\u2019s most profound here.<\/p>\n What happens is that these people show up in emergency rooms \u2015 they often describe to us as being treated very poorly, they\u2019ve had many run-ins with law enforcement, and they\u2019re often homeless. So they\u2019re derided, and despised, and marginalized. So this is our opportunity to reconnect them with a greater society and hopefully with a sense of greater purpose and \u2015 with at least for the brief time that we have with them \u2015 a sense of compassion and respect. And I\u2019ll tell you that makes a huge difference.<\/p>\n So I really think that that\u2019s an important point which you\u2019ve touched on, which is the reconnection of individuals with society at large. Because they\u2019re being treated now as outcasts, and I think that more attempts to marginalize them are actually hugely counter-productive. Our compassion is being challenged at a national level \u2015 with national dialogue, but also specifically with these folks \u2015 and we need to lean into them, not run away from them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I would say that given this is the worst public health problem in the United States today, and that, basically every year we\u2019re having a Vietnam from people lost to the opioid epidemic, that we would spend the same resources to combat that as we would any war that we fight. You wouldn\u2019t send soldiers out onto a battlefield ill-equipped, and I don\u2019t know that we would want to fight this worst of all public health problems that I\u2019ve seen in my lifetime without the appropriate resources.<\/p>\n Our compassion is being challenged at a national level \u2015 with national dialogue, but also specifically with these folks \u2015 and we need to lean into them, not run away from them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n This article was written by Tom Kutsch from Huffington Post<\/a> and was legally licensed through the NewsCred<\/a> publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Dr. Michael Brumage, a 25-year U.S. military veteran who has deployed around the globe three times, saved the toughest challenge of his professional life for retirement in his home state of West Virginia. It\u2019s there that the retired U.S. Army Medical Corps colonel, physician and longtime public health professional has devoted the last two years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[92,62],"class_list":["post-17052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare-trends","tag-health-trends","tag-patient-trends"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCan you briefly describe the extent of the problem that you\u2019re up against with the opioid crisis?<\/h3>\n
West Virginia represents something of a paradox when it comes to the opioid crisis \u2015 and maybe larger issues of health care \u2015 in that it\u2019s one of the states that has most directly benefitted by state and government action and programs, but also politically one of the most resistant to anything that\u2019s seen as an extension of big government or government overreach. I\u2019m curious about your perspective on how that impacts or challenges the work you\u2019re trying to do every day.<\/h3>\n
As someone on the front lines of this, I\u2019m interested in how you approach doctor-patient relationships, and trying to perhaps get back a sense of lost community that seems like it is certainly at least one factor in this crisis.<\/h3>\n
Is there anything else you\u2019d like to touch on that you think is important that we haven\u2019t discussed?<\/h3>\n
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