HUNTINGTON, W.Va. _ This city, where the rate of drug overdose deaths is nearly 10 times the national average, has done more than most to fight the heroin and prescription painkiller epidemic.
Local police have been diverting drug users to specialized drug courts for treatment. The city opened a syringe exchange program to reduce the spread of infectious diseases among drug users. And doctors and nurses from a local hospital have developed a model facility to care for the hundreds of opioid-dependent infants born to heroin-addicted mothers.
But instead of getting better, Huntington's opioid problem is getting worse.
In just one afternoon last month, 28 people in this city of 50,000 overdosed on heroin. Since January, 773 people have overdosed on opioids (including prescription painkillers and heroin), a 24 percent increase over last year. An estimated 8,000 Huntington residents are addicted, mostly to opioids.
"It's really an overwhelming situation," said Dr. James Becker, medical director of West Virginia's Medicaid program and professor of family medicine at Marshall University in Huntington. "My best friend's son just died of a heroin overdose. It is absolutely everywhere in the community."
Nationwide, less than half of the 2.2 million people who need treatment for opioid addiction are receiving it, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Even in Huntington, which is more focused on the problem than many other places, the barriers are daunting.
A fragmented treatment system, widespread bias against addiction medications and a shortage of trained workers often thwart those seeking help. Instead, they show up in emergency rooms, or reach out to local doctors, nurses and clergy.
Like other states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, West Virginia is trying to make it easier for recipients of the federal-state health insurance program for the poor to find and pay for effective addiction treatment.
So far, however, greater availability of Medicaid coverage has not made a dent in the growing need for treatment, local officials say.
