(Editorial - Graphic Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

Members of the West Virginia First Foundation are not taking a “mission accomplished, time to call it a day” approach to recent data that shows a continued decrease in drug overdose deaths in the Mountain State. Instead, they are working to understand the data and build on each victory.

Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Board spoke on WAJR about the launch of a New Horizons Committee that will explore strategies for implementing the best methods, research and innovations in substance abuse treatment, according to a report by WV MetroNews.

“We want to bolster those efforts, and we want to make sure we reach all of our communities,” Board said, according to MetroNews. “That we see those numbers come down across the board and that it starts to have a downstream effect not only in recovery but in prevention as well.”

Initially, Board said he believes quick response teams, the availability of Narcan, and good care providers are among the reasons for the decrease.

But it is just as important to understand what makes a person start using to begin with.

“In certain communities you’ll actually see that hasn’t trended the same, and that’s a concern to me — this isn’t across the board,” Board said. “Additionally, sometimes we’ll see pockets where the overdose rates have gone down, but addiction rates have plateaued or gone up.”

If diving into the data will help the New Horizons Committee come to an honest understanding of all the challenges that have put our state in the grip of this plague, they must then be willing to recommend real action.

Socio-cultural hurdles, economic hopelessness, isolation, stagnation (or even regression) … there is a LOT more to the substance abuse epidemic than bad actors at pharmacy distributors and medical facilities.

” … we want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to continue this downward trend of overdose deaths here in West Virginia,” Board said, according to MetroNews.

Good. Here’s hoping he and the rest of the members of the foundation take an honest, compassionate, determined approach to TRULY make the change that is needed.