Overdose Deaths Are Rising Among Black and Indigenous Americans

Gov & Politics Health Care Indigenous Affairs Civil Rights

Oct 29, 2024 By Tim Henderson

The recent decline in overdose deaths hides a tremendous disparity by race: Deaths have fallen only among white people while continuing to rise among people of color, according to a new Stateline analysis of federal data.

Health experts in nonwhite communities say they’re finding strategies that work in their areas, but that they still struggle for recognition and funding to address the problems, especially among Black and Native people.

In all, nearly 5,000 more people of color died from overdoses in 2023 than in 2021, while deaths among white people dropped by more than 6,000, according to the analysis of provisional data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Overdose deaths are down nationally, but up in many Western states

As of early this year, based on partial counts, Black and Native people remain the hardest hit, having earlier in the pandemic surpassed white rates. Hispanic and Asian people are still experiencing more overdose deaths as well.

White people had the highest rate of overdose deaths in 2019, before the pandemic, at 25.4 deaths for every 100,000 people in the U.S. population. But rates for Black and Native people quickly surpassed white rates and continued to grow as white rates declined between 2021 and 2023. In 2023, the death rates were 49.5 and 39.8 per 100,000 for Black and Native people, respectively.

Tracie Gardner, co-director of the National Black Harm Reduction Network, said Black and Native people often have trouble navigating white-dominated institutions, including many harm reduction agencies. Such agencies need to have more people of color in leadership positions to gain the trust of Black, Native and other people who use drugs, she said.

“It is our contention that Black harm reduction isn’t about drug use, it’s about the harms of not being a white person in this country,” Gardner said. “The only people doing worse or as poorly are Native Americans.”

Different trends

Between 2021 and 2023, overdose deaths among white people dropped in all but a dozen states, most of them in the West. But few states saw any decline in deaths among Black or Native American populations. Deaths among Black people did decline, however, in Indiana (-75), the District of Columbia (-29) and Illinois (-22), while deaths among Native people declined in North Carolina (-34), Colorado (-11) and North Dakota (-9).

Connecticut was one of the few states to see a small rate drop among its Black residents. There was no change in the number of overdose deaths, but the Black population grew between 2021 and 2023.

The Connecticut Harm Reduction Alliance is working to bring more harm reduction tools to the Black community and others, with 100 mobile kits available at a moment’s notice.

Most recently, staff started going to meet people leaving detox programs, also known as withdrawal management, when they choose to leave early and are at especially high risk of overdose.

“The message is, ‘Even though this didn’t work out, we care about your welfare, we care about your safety, we want to see you come back,’” said Mark Jenkins, the alliance’s executive director. Click here to continue reading.

A Tribute to Beverly Hamilton Robinson

I recently attended the funeral/celebration of life for Beverly Hamilton Robinson. I first met Beverly in 1982, the first year when I became a drug counselor. Beverly and other African American leaders in the addictions profession concluded that the additions profession was a growing field and that the Black community being greatly impacted by addiction had to prepare a generation of counselors to become certified as addictions professionals.

Beverly and these other great leaders trained my generation to become certified addictions counselors. She also invited us to become members of the National Black Alcoholism Council (NBAC), a national organization which advocated for culturally responsive treatment and policies for African Americans with addictions. Beverly invited me to give my first professional speech ever at NBAC and 42 years later I am still delivering speeches on addictions, treatment and recovery in Black communities.

Beverly was a proud African American woman who made others feel proud of who they were. She was like royalty. In his autobiography, Malcolm X said of singer Billie Holiday, "I met a queen and her name was Billie Holiday.” I met a queen before as well and her name is Beverly Hamilton Robinson. Rest in peace Beverly.

World Mental Health Day A Chance to Celebrate African American Resilience and Determination

Today we celebrate world mental health day! Immediately I thought about Black/American Americans who have been able to maintain a great deal of mental stability while having endured 250 years of slavery, Jim Crow Laws, lynchings, employment and housing discrimination, mass incarceration, police brutality/murder etc.

With all of this trauma, our rates of mental illness is equivalent to other groups in the U.S. and as it pertains to substance use we continue to rank fourth nationwide. In the midst of all this oppression we have produced astronauts who went to the moon, astrophysicists, Nobel Prize Winners, billionaires, inventors, a president and some of the greatest entertainers the world has ever seen.

How have we achieved all of this and maintained our mental health in the midst of such oppression?

The answer according to Dr. Carl Bell is our protective factors, including:

• Spirituality

• A strong worship and belief in God.

• Extended family orientation-knowing that lots of people love you.

• Sunday dinners! Which promotes unity.

• Movement and dance! Trauma lodges itself in the body. Movement releases trauma.

• Music

• Laughter. From the Vaudeville days through, Moms Mabley, Redd Foxx, Ricard Pryor, Wanda Sykes, Dave Chappelle etc. These gifted comedians have helped us get through oppression.

• Sports. Which promotes bonding and reduces stress.

• Advocacy. Sociologists have pointed out that when tragedies occur such as the murder of George Floyd, the mental health of the entire Black community is affected. Their studies illustrate that advocacy serves as a mental health protective factor.

Nora's Blog Older Black Men are Disproportionately Affected by the Overdose Crisis

August 30, 2024 By Dr. Nora Volkow

©Getty Images/xavierarnau

Saturday, August 31, is International Overdose Awareness Day, when we collectively remember those who have lost their lives to drug overdose, support those who grieve those losses, and offer encouragement to those who seek recovery from addiction. It is also an opportunity to share new knowledge about the overdose crisis and strategies for confronting it. There is some very good news this year: Provisional data from the CDC show that, overall, overdose deaths dropped by 7.5% in the 12 months ending March, 2024, the largest decline in decades. It is cause for optimism. But unfortunately, for some groups, we continue to see only greater escalation of the overdose crisis.

A recent New York Times article highlighted the tragic epidemic of overdose deaths among older Black men in Baltimore. It is a city that has been especially hard-hit by the overdose crisis, but the trend is being seen nationwide. Although white and Black people use drugs at similar rates, fatal overdoses have escalated in Black people at a much higher rate than in other groups over the past decade, and multiple recent studies have documented especially high rates of overdose deaths among older Black men.

Fentanyl, often in combination with stimulants, is driving increased overdose deaths in most demographic groups. In all groups, men are at greater risk of overdose than women, but additional factors, including age-related health disparities, social isolation, and lifetime exposure to structural racism, may be colliding to produce the rise in overdoses among older Black men especially, and it points to the urgent need for intervention.

A NIDA analysis found that between 2015 and 2023 (provisional data), there was a nearly 5-fold increase in overdose deaths among non-Hispanic Black men 55 and older (figure). In 2023, deaths in that demographic category were nearly triple the national average for that age group. The largest proportion of these deaths, and the steepest increases, involved fentanyl and cocaine. The overdose rate in older Black men is markedly higher than that for Black men overall. Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse. Click here to continue reading.

African American Music Appreciation Month: One of our Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders Protective Factors

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter declared June as National Black Music Appreciation month. African American music is the most listened to music throughout the world. Beginning with the Africans enslaved in the southern states who created blues music as medicine for their trauma, every generation of African Americans have created music to deal with our oppression. During the turbulent civil rights era of the 1960's Jazz was popular as we used it to simmer rage caused by racism and Motown music kept us focused on love when there were many reasons to be filled with hate. During the civil rights era, when the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. grew fearful for his life or needed spiritual upliftment, he would call upon gospel singer Mahalia Jackson to sing church songs to him.

Historically, each time the black community has faced substance use crisis, prominent singer and rappers have chimed in and sung songs which served as cautionary tales about the danger these drugs pose for Black communities. Click here to listen to some of those songs.

Click here to learn about the history of substance use among African Americans as depicted in music.

Today I listened to 7 genres of Black Music. Let’s enjoy the music this month!

REFLECTIONS: AFRICAN AMERICAN MEN AS THERAPISTS AND RECOVERY COACHES WITH AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN

By

Mark Sanders and Donald Gunther

In this post Mark Sanders, a licensed therapist and Donald Gunther a certified CCAR Recovery Coach discuss lessons learned and tips as it pertains to providing recovery related services for African American women as African American men.

Introduction

A well-known trainer spent years traveling from state to state saying that men were incapable of counseling women and girls. While men in all 50 states were counseling women and girls. The trainers’ statement was inconsistent with the research which says that helping professionals who strive for gender competence can do a good job of serving men and women, although few if any attain full competence.

Our experience working with African American women is that the helping relationship serves as a microcosm of the current and historical relationship between Black men and women in the broader society. Some African American women have had positive relationships with African American men which might make engagement in the helping relationship relatively easy. Like women of all cultures, African American women also have high rates of trauma which triggered their addiction. In many instances (not always!), the perpetrator(s) were African American men. The trauma can include incest, childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, father desertion etc. These issues can lead to mistrust and fear when their therapist or recovery coach is an African American male. The good news is that a solid helping relationship can be a corrective experience.

We as African American men can also bring interface issues to our work with African American women. Beginning with our mothers, other adult care takers, female siblings, spouses, and partners this experience can affect our work with African American women as clients, positively and negatively. When our negative experiences impact our work with African American women, these countertransference reactions are actually a gift because they are a reminder of the work, we still need to do to help assure that our negative experiences don't negatively impact our relationship with African American women served.

Mark's Experience

The first time I counseled an African American woman was when I was a graduate school intern in 1983. She told me that she paid for her drug of choice cocaine, by dancing. I thought our session went well and the next day she told my supervisor that she did not want to work with me. She was my first client, and I was convinced that my career was over before it started!

My supervisor talked with the client about the importance of closure and suggested one more session with me, client choice. The client agreed to another session. Prior to the session my supervisor told me that there are some things women have done to support their addiction which they are uncomfortable talking with men about, but they might offer hints to explore nonjudgmentally. My supervisor encouraged me to explore what the client meant by supporting her drug use by dancing. In hindsight, if I were the supervisor, I am unsure if I would have suggested one more session, but it worked out and taught me a great deal.

When I explored the client supporting her drug of choice through dancing the client said, she danced topless in order to buy cocaine. I received this disclosure nonjudgmentally and the next day the client told my supervisor, I can work with him. I still had a career! This experience taught me to listen with a third ear, for what's not being said, listen for hints, ask questions, and respond nonjudgmentally. 

My next experience counseling African American women was in the mid-1980's when the majority of the clients in treatment were males. Consistently the few women in treatment would either sit close to the therapist or close to the door in groups. They didn't feel safe. I did research and learned that the majority of women with substance use disorders across cultures were either sexually abused as girls or sexually assaulted as women. This knowledge shaped my work with African American women for the next 3 decades. I have continued to learn with the clients being my teacher. These are the lessons I learned. Feel free to use what works for you.

1. Listen more than I talk. Listening builds rapport!

2. Move at the client’s pace.

3. Try not to be shocked by any disclosure. The good news is that after 4 decades few disclosures shock me.

4. If I find myself being judgmental, talk myself out of it.

5. If there is mistrust, be willing to discuss her experiences with African American men outside of therapy.

6. Have impeccable boundaries.

7. Sit at a 45-degree angle during sessions. Trauma can make it difficult to hold eye contact. Sitting at an angle provides the opportunity for the clients to hold eye contact or not.

8. No unwelcome touch.

9. Search for strengths and offer affirmations.

10. Do what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it! Many of the African American women I have worked with were deserted by their father. Consistency can provide a corrective experience.

Donald's Perspective

African American women  seeking recovery face a number of challenges. Starting with the underlying traumas that they endured. As we discussed on many occasions with you being an African American counselor and I as an African American certified peer specialist-mental health and a CCAR recovery coach facilitator our life experiences can help with the recovery process if we are able to establish a trusting helping relationship. Ironically, in 1983 when you thought your first session with an African American  woman went well only to hear that your client informed your supervisor that your services were no longer wanted, and your response was “She was my first client, and I was convinced that my career was over before it started!”.  That same year 1983 my relationships with the African American women in my life were tumultuous to say the least. My feelings were being emotionally arrested by one cognitive distortion after another. It was your professional experience with your client and my personal experience with my female friends, mother and five sisters that served as learning experiences for us. Hindsight your perception was your career was over and my perception was that I cannot emotionally connect with African American women due to the lack of trustworthy relationships that I was having with African American women in my life. Most importantly the ones closest to me. Everything happened for a reason and in time our past experiences would lead us to our destination to be therapeutic change agents.

In retrospect you were knowledgeable about feelings and behaviors as new counselor (CEU’s) continued educational units would empower you to be hopeful. On the other hand, I was totally in another space because those relationships made me feel hopeless. Now, as a recovery coach and peer specialist-mental health I can value the importance of Unconditional Positive Regard without judgment. My (CEU’s) compassion, empathy and understanding did not happen until I educated myself about Person Centered Therapy, Maslow Hierarchy and Motivational Interviewing. This would be my protein in terms of gaining knowledge about counseling, coaching and peer support.

Five decades into my life my next is now! Recovery is progress, not perfection! This knowledge has helped me as a Certified Addiction Counselor in training, a Certified Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery Coach and a Georgia Certified Peer Specialist Mental Health. I am also a student, brother, uncle, husband, father, and peer. The emotional intelligence that women, especially the African American women in treatment has displayed towards me has taught me forgiveness and acceptance. In fact, my learned behavior was hearing my dad say to me “Treat a woman like you want your mother to be treated and actions speaks louder than words.” This remains to be my foundation along with UPR without judgement (Unconditional Positive Regard).

The ten lessons you have learned as av therapist working with African American women were lessons that were priceless for me as well. As a CCAR Recovery Coach, the principles or three legs we stand on are 1) listen actively; 2) manage our own stuff; 3) ask good questions helped me build good relationships with African American women seeking recovery. I have learned that boundaries are essential physically, emotionally, and mentally placed in order to protect the participants in treatment as well as the counselor, peer specialist and  recovery coaches. The beginning of this professional relationship can be uncomfortable, however the connection once a rapport / trust has been established can play a role in life transformation. THE communication should be authentic, transparent and safe as many African American women report histories of trauma with male perpetrators. When boundaries are unhealthy and safety has not been established, African American woman can re-traumatized in helping relationships.    

This work has given me an appreciation of the depth of the current and  historical trauma  women bring to treatment. My Mom and my five sisters I carry with me every day because it was my dad’s voice saying treat every woman like you want your mother and your sisters treated meaning it is not about your feelings, Donald!  

Ironically, it was my father’s alcohol use disorder that has empowered me to passionately become a messenger with a message about a mess that does not belong to me. So, dad thank you for teaching me Harm Reduction. Most importantly being able to recognize, identify and appreciate that I come from a diamond. So, I would like to say that being an African American man who is a recovery coach and peer specialist with African American women provides us opportunity to work through some of our past traumas. Personally, this becomes a teachable moment to collaboratively engage, educate and help to empower African American woman. Recovery requires respect, repetition, reciprocity, relationships, and a re-connection with their true self.  The recovery coaching process can help increase a positive sense of self and play a role in a recovery process that is imperfect and priceless like a diamond so that they can have their own recovery (jewelry) box.

Diamonds come from pressure, Recovery is Imperfect, Priceless and Valuable!

ALCOHOL AND BLACK AMERICANS

by Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC

While African Americans do not dominate alcohol use in the United States, alcohol use has had a devastating effect on us. I have an African American friend of five decades who recently died of multiple medical complications. At the root of his death was alcoholism. Both of my grandfathers and many uncles and aunts died from alcoholism as well. Alcohol has had a severe impact on Black America. The two are even linked in history. During the slave trade, enslaved Africans were shackled and shipped to the West Indies in exchange for molasses, sugar, and other manufactured items. Then, enslaved Africans were shipped to North America, along with the molasses and sugar (which was converted into alcohol). Weapons and alcohol were shipped to Africa in exchange for more enslaved Africans. This is known as the Triangular Trade. I once shared this history at an African American elementary school and a fourth grader asked two questions. Are you saying we were sold for alcohol? Then why does my father drink so much?

Frederick Douglass, the first prominent recovering alcoholic reminded us, “We cannot stagger to freedom.”  Douglass revealed that alcohol was used to control enslaved Africans. Douglass stated, “They would work us and beat us Monday through Friday and allow us to drink on weekends. The belief was that once we tasted alcohol we would never want to escape. It was the sober minded slave that they feared most.”

There are several things which stand out for me in Douglass' quote. During the Jim Crow Era when my grandfather’s generation of Black Americans migrated from the southern states to the north in search of good jobs, they would work hard Monday through Friday and drink hard on weekends. My grandfather would even pour salt into his cans of beer. Today I know that combination was a shot a high blood pressure. The second thing which stands out in the Douglass quote is that alcohol was used as medicine for our historical trauma. 

The authors of the book Doin' Drugs stated that during the great migration, the center of socialization for African Americans shifted from the Black Church in the south to bars in the north. Thus, the famous quote,” There is a liquor store on every corner.”  Published int the 1990’s, the book Message In The Bottle: The 40 Ounce Scandal, author Alfred Powell revealed that certain brands of alcohol were specifically targeted to the Black Community. Today, well known hip-hop artists promote and sell varieties of high-end alcohol. What impact does this advertisement have on youth?

Across the country there are African American youth who have declared that they will never use any drug besides marijuana! Yet in clinical practice I have had numerous African American emerging adult clients buy alcohol legally to celebrate their 21st birthday. As it pertains to homicides in the Black community, alcohol and marijuana are the two most common drugs which appear in the drug tests of the perpetrators. 

Over the past several decades crack and heroin have grabbed headlines as the drugs having catastrophic effects on African American communities. In Drug use For Grownups, Dr. Carl Hart reveals that alcohol use is involved in nearly 70% of opioid overdose deaths. We should never forget alcohol. During the crack cocaine era many African Americans who went to treatment would return to cocaine use after one drink. That drink would lower their inhibition, making it easier to return to cocaine. Over the years I have had numerous African American clients who grew sick and tired of hustling and going to jail and prison for charges connected to cocaine and heroin use/possession. Many would shift to alcohol and die of cirrhosis of the liver, delirium tremors, car accidents under the influence and other alcohol related causes.

I have written this post so that my soul can rest, having lost so many loved ones to alcohol use disorders, including a 50-year friend. As I reach this final sentence I exhale. It is my hope that addictions professions focused on treating stimulant use disorders, opioid use disorders and other addictions, won't forget about alcohol.

My Dad's Chair

by

Donald Gunther

Editor's Thank you

Thank you Donald for the previous series of posts which shed light on the challenges faced by African American children of Parents with substance use disorders and your thoughtful recommendations as to how we can help the children thrive in the future. Thank you for this current post which reveals the fact that intergenerational healing is possible.

History is rooted in someone's story and that is why I am adamant about telling you mine. My roots started in Virginia (mom), grew down to North Carolina (dad) and sprouted up in New York. So, like any good seed you go down before you sprout up through many storms and seasons have come and gone and gave birth to a beautifully broken recovery story.

Metaphorically speaking some have said I write white and silently scream like I am black with my writings about my adverse childhood events that turned into post trauma stress disorders and complex traumas that would suppress my pain and tarnish my brain. My introduction to Intergenerational Trauma a life lesson that would turn my mess into a message.

Discovering a transformation so I can learn to transition from a beginning that perceived to be my end. Since birth, my family and culture have not been accepted or respected so being built to fail would be my family's reality or what I would see as a mess. The USA would underserve stigmatized and abuse my family's culture and humanity. My parents' traumas (reality) I perceived as just alphabets would be KKK and JC (Jim Crow) the protein that my ancestors were fed. Ironically, it has been said "you are what you eat ". Now I see why the soup that I consumed consisted of (A.C.E.P.T.S.D.) adverse childhood experiences and post trauma stress disorders. It was complicated, and I did not understand why my parents were feeding me this type of pain. My recovery process, many decades later with no parents in sight, would start an uncomfortable journey that is providing me an opportunity to emotionally detox from EMOTIONAL SCARS. In being transparent America I can hear my dad saying, " Son, I was blind, but you will see. " Well dad my response is thank you because your integrity provided for me. An integrity that no one would see, not even me. As you know MY eyesight as an underprivileged stigmatized and abused child was a perception not a reality. Since my next is now and my now is the next message or life lesson. I am still uncomfortable processing through the history of psychological abuse. Unfortunately, now you cannot tell who the abusers are! The trauma that was fed to us, unconsciously was our protein, starch, and vegetables as well. This is why an emotional detox is required for all African American Families who have suffered from psychological abuse. The Abuse that continues to happen and minimizes my trauma because those with eyesight suddenly become blind and those with ears suddenly become deaf. Metaphorically, I will stand on my three legs and sit down on the principles that you instilled in me. Ethics should prevent Exclusions; Integrity supports Inclusion and then we can value our Differences and validate Diversity.

My dad is no longer with me in the flesh some might consider him to be HISTORY. I have the pleasure of owning the flag of this veteran who served in WWII an HISTORICAL event that would birth a family disease known as addiction and many decades later with dad gone promote a generational change and allow the greatest metaphor to take place. A love story that would birth recovery. Recovery has given Isaiah, my son, an opportunity to speak about his story.

I am Donald Gunther, and this is my father’s chair, and I would like to share my seat with you!

Who cares for blacks in Washington DC; only 250 beds for alcohol, drug treatment in nation’s capital

Like slave masters of the past, U.S. rulers seem to draw sadistic pleasure on seeing poor blacks intoxicated. Nearly 85 percent fatalities in the nation’s capital are black Children of a Lesser God.

AHMAR MUSTIKHAN

FEB 27, 2024

The brutal face of American racism becomes most evident when blacks seek recovery from drugs and alcohol in the capital of the United States.

Under slavery, the slave masters used to hold drinking contests between their slaves for enjoyment. As a reminiscent of slavery, white rulers have consciously left out treatment opportunities for the blacks, it seems.

At least one person dies every 11 hours due to drugs and alcohol in the nation’s capital— its most magnificent buildings built by unpaid black sweat and tears—; one out of every four Washingtonian has an alcohol use disorder (AUD) commonly called alcoholism; and one out of every eight Washingtonian has a substance use disorder (SUD) or drug addiction.

Most of the victims are blacks. Strangely, treatment facilities are almost none existent. It’s obvious the official mantra is the more melanin in your skin, the less the chance of a treatment you should get.

Denying statehood to District of Columbia is one thing, Blacks are being systematically pushed out of the nation’s capital for more than four decades now. According to “Washington DC: Our Changing City” in1980, 70 percent of DC's population was black; that share fell to 61 percent in 2000 and 51 percent by 2010. The black population declined in 14 of 39 neighborhood clusters from 2000 to 2010.

“We currently have250+ SUD beds that may vary on any given day based on utilization needs,” said Camil V. Douthit, Ph.D. Communications Director for the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH).

“We currently have250+ SUD beds that may vary on any given day based on utilization needs,” said Camil V. Douthit, Ph.D. Communications Director for the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH). However, folks at the DBH-run walk-in center for treatment called Arc disputed that figure. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one insider asked, “Where are you getting that number from? We know it’s very low.”

According to DC Health as of June 2021, one in 10 District residents suffer from an alcohol use disorder, twice the regional and national average; one in 8 District residents suffer from a substance use disorder, nearly twice the regional and national average; and opioid overdoses in DC nearly doubled since 2018 with 411 people dying in 2020.

The situation worsened in 2023. The GW Hatchet reported that the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner recorded 427 overdose deaths in the District in the first 10 months of 2023. It said “Experts said the increased prevalence of fentanyl in D.C.’s drug supply and a lack of addiction treatment resources have driven the rising opioid-related deaths in the District.”

The GW Hatchet report said data shows Wards 7 and 8 sustained 60 and 65 overdose deaths in 2023, respectively. Black individuals made up 85 percent of overdose deaths, in line with the previous six years, despite the group accounting for only 45 percent of the District’s total population, according to the report.

According to Scientific American, research shows that Black people have a harder time getting into treatment programs than white people do, and Black people are less likely to be prescribed the gold standard medications for substance use therapy. “If you are a Black person and have an opioid use disorder, you are likely to receive treatment five years later than if you’re a white person,” says Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. “Treatments are extraordinarily useful in terms of preventing overdose death so you can actually recover. Five years can make the difference between being alive or not.”

Hispanics situation ugly too

The situation with Hispanics, who form at least 11 percent of D.C population is also quite ugly, according to an NBC report. The reports said fatalities from overdoses have risen dramatically when fentanyl is mixed with other drugs, like cocaine and methamphetamine, which are more prevalent among Latinos than are heroin or prescription painkillers. The study has been co-authored by Magdalena Cerdá, professor and director at the Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy at NYU Langone.

Between 2007 and 2019, fatal overdoses among Latinos from opioids mixed with cocaine rose 729%, and when mixed with methamphetamines, they have risen 4,600%. “There is a lot of product in all drugs at the moment, except for cannabis, which is contaminated with fentanyl,” NBC cited Professor Cerdá as saying. 

The NBC report further states while drug overdose deaths among people from all races and ethnicities increased by 54.5% from 2019 to 2020, it increased by 119.7% among Latinos. 

However, the number of beds are few and far between in Washington D.C.

Justin Feltman, Communications & Outreach Coordinator at the Samaritan Inns said, “…. we have a total of 70 treatment beds: 32 for women and 38 for men.  Length of stay is not determined by Samaritan Inns and is based on medical necessity.”

Feltman added, “We are finding the average stay is about 2-2.5 months.  We do not provide SUD services to anyone under 21.”

Jerome Bates of the Federal City Recovery said they had 70 patients at their various facilities Monday and could accommodate another six. He added they could accommodate up to 125 patients with additional staffing.

A white journalist friend asked: “Did you ask the mayor or the head of the DC Dept. of Health, both black women?” (About lack of drug rehabs). I had no answer.

One medic involved in treating Blacks for opioid in Washington DC for a quarter century now, Dr. Edwin Chapman, says, “DC’s nation leading per capita drug overdose death rate is just one small barometric measure of Gabor Mate’s “Myth of Normal” with predictable systemwide dysfunction including unremitting maternal and perinatal deaths among the Eastside Black and poor, rising adolescent crime with mindless carjackings, increasing drug related gangs and murder, grocery robberies targeting Colgate toothpaste-Tide-Advil, and businesses determinately exiting the city.”

Dr. Chapman said only the voters in DC or a miraculous (non-MAGA, non-Trump) federal takeover can solve these problems emanating from years of exploitative capitalistic economic inequalities, local DINO (Democrat In Name Only) government incompetence, and billionaire greed (the increasing media control and suppression of truth by our American Oligarchs). 

What the black medic is saying was quite right judging by how the White liberal but Pentagon and Deep State controlled media censored the suicide of Aaron Bushnell outside the Israel embassy.

Intriguingly, while alcohol use among African Americans was less prevalence than other groups, the negative impact on blacks when they become an alcoholic was much more severe because of the racism in U.S. society. “There appears to be one particular group of African Americans, low-income African American men, who are at the highest risk for alcoholism and related problems. We theorize that this effect is due to the complex interaction of residential discrimination, racism, age of drinking, and lack of available standard life reinforcers (e.g., stable employment and financial stability),” according to a well researched report in the National Library of Medicine.

Denial of treatment opportunity to Blacks is a reality. I am well aware of this fact as I work as a Peer Recovery Coach in Prince George’s county, in the suburbs of Washington D.C. In one case a homeless young black woman from Washington D.C. was turned away from the gates of a treatment program in Southern Maryland without justification. In another case a homeless black male patient was denied admission at a facility on the Eastern Shore on the basis of his past record.

In the predominantly black county of Prince George’s itself, in the last half of the last year at least two hospitals cut down the peer recovery positions in the name of austerity though these positions save black and Hispanic lives in addition to the poorest among poor Caucasians. The two hospitals partially restored those jobs only upon Maryland state intervention.

Visionaries who Opposed Intoxication

We can not stagger to freedom. — Frederick Douglass

Two visionaries who defeated their own addiction and became staunch proponents of Black sobriety were Frederick Douglass and Malcom X, according to Chicago-based Mark Sanders.

Self-taught scholar Frederick Douglass said, “When the slave was drunk the slaveholder had no fear that he would plan an insurrection, or that he would escape to the North. It was the sober, thoughtful slave who was dangerous and needed the vigilance of his master to keep him a slave.”

The visionary black statesman famously said we can not stagger to freedom.

According to Sanders, founder of the Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery, “Frederick Douglass was the first prominent American to recover from alcohol use disorder (White, 2014). Douglass's alcoholism was triggered by the trauma he endured in slavery.”

Speaking on his own alcohol use, Douglass stated, "I used to drink. I found in me all those characteristics leading to drunkenness." He went on to state, "I have had some experience with intemperance. I knew what it was like to drink with all the ardor of a drunk. Some of the slaves were not able to drink their share. I was able to drink my own and theirs too. (Douglass,1846)."

Sanders writes like Douglass, Malcolm X experienced trauma in childhood, which proceeded his substance use disorder. In his youth, Malcolm grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. He grew up in an environment of race riots and lynchings. His father was killed by the Klu Klux Klan, and his mother was placed in an asylum. Leaving a young Malcolm and his sibling to be placed in the child welfare system (Payne and Payne, 2020).

Sanders says both Frederick Douglass was one of the founders of The Black Temperance movement. Malcolm fought for civil rights and started a program he called "Fishing For The Dead." The goal of this program was outreach to incarcerated African Americans to help them with recovery, employment, and to avoid future incarcerations (Haley, 1999).

According to Sanders the recovery story of Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X offer an important lessons that many African Americans with substance use disorders have legacies of historical and current trauma that include slavery, lynchings, mass incarceration, police brutality, high unemployment, and community violence.

Open Mic for Anacostia

To address this issue, the Open Mic for Anacostia is holding a community meeting on Friday at the Anacostia Neighborhood Library in the historic Anacostia district, home of Frederick Douglass during his last two decades.

In addition to the general public, the meeting is drawing black medics, intellectuals and all those who are passionate not only about their personal recovery but also of the community as a whole.

Open and honest sharing of stories take place at the Open Mic for Anacostia which addresses a major social issue in the nation’s capital on the first Friday of every month.

Free tickets of the event are available here.

(Any questions? Contact the writer on X: @iamanacostia Or email iamanacostia@yahoo.com)

We can not stagger to freedom. — Frederick Douglass

Two visionaries who defeated their own addiction and became staunch proponents of Black sobriety were Frederick Douglass and Malcom X, according to Chicago-based Mark Sanders.

Self-taught scholar Frederick Douglass said, “When the slave was drunk the slaveholder had no fear that he would plan an insurrection, or that he would escape to the North. It was the sober, thoughtful slave who was dangerous and needed the vigilance of his master to keep him a slave.”

The visionary black statesman famously said we can not stagger to freedom.

According to Sanders, founder of the Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery, “Frederick Douglass was the first prominent American to recover from alcohol use disorder (White, 2014). Douglass's alcoholism was triggered by the trauma he endured in slavery.”

Speaking on his own alcohol use, Douglass stated, "I used to drink. I found in me all those characteristics leading to drunkenness." He went on to state, "I have had some experience with intemperance. I knew what it was like to drink with all the ardor of a drunk. Some of the slaves were not able to drink their share. I was able to drink my own and theirs too. (Douglass,1846)."

Banned Books - Implications for Recovery in African American Communities

There was a great deal of backlash after Barack Obama became the first African American President of the United States. Gun sales and hate groups increased along with an increase in hate crimes. Some experts believe that this current book ban is another attempt to erase the contributions of African Americans on U.S. society and the success we have achieved from future generations of children living in the country.

A lack of awareness of Black history and our contributions to the success of this country can lead to stereotyping, divisions between people, discrimination, and hate. What are the implications of banned books for the addictions profession? Research by the Annapolis Coalition reveals that in the future counselors will be younger, whiter, and female and clients will be younger, darker and male. Books can provide knowledge which reduce stereotypes and help build therapeutic bridges rather than therapeutic walls in cross cultural substance use disorders counseling. 

Reading has always been a liberating force and recovery tool for African Americans. Frederick Douglass was the first prominent American Recovering Alcoholic. When Douglass was a youth, the slave holder’s wife was teaching him to read. The slave’s holder said to his wife, “If you teach him to read, it will be impossible to keep him a slave.”

Thousands of African Americans initiated recovery after reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X and becoming inspired by Malcolm's recovery journey as described in the book. The recovery story of Afeni Shakur, mother of rapper Tupac Shakur, is discussed in her biography Afeni Shakur: The Evolution of a Revolutionary. This book should be read by every African American woman seeking recovery.

This online museum offers numerous books and articles to help counselors work more effectively with African American Clients with substance use disorders.

 Click here to view counseling articles       Free Scholarly Articles — Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery

Click here for a list of biographies, autobiographies and memoirs   Biographies, Autobiographies and Memoirs — Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery

Happy Black History Month

My Hero, A Tribute to My Father whose Alcohol Use Disorder Helped Me Discover My Purpose By Donald Gunther

I write because it's Therapeutic, I write because I am Vulnerable, I write because it frees ME from my psychological storm that I have graciously been blessed to survive 🙏. I write because of you, DAD!

When I am not writing I feel stagnant, complacent, and emotionally dead. My lifelong sobriety is being infiltrated with my unhealthy learned behaviors and distorted thought patterns. The family disease of addiction and mental health disorders have infiltrated and paralyzed me. I am an adult child of an alcoholic (ACOA) who happens to be a WWII veteran, my father’s illness forced me into my recovery. Therefore, to overcome being dysfunctional on arrival will require respect, reflections, resilience, resistance, reciprocity, responsibilities, and relationships. Personally, the family disease of addiction and or mental health has emotionally disconnected me from myself. So, the eighth child from a family of ten would have to live with feeling oppressed, suppressed, and depressed for five decades (Who Am I)?

Coincidentally, my pen along with my paper became my healthy relationship, the two are attracted to one another. Ironically, it continues to be unhealthy relationships and behaviors that motivates me to journal and bring the two together. My thinking patterns have been an unwelcome inheritance that I now realize contributed to my distorted thoughts. So, being complacent or still has kept me ill and with compulsive tendencies. The initial pain when my pen hits the paper allows me to (heal and reveal) have an authentic relationship. An experience that I never had with myself or eye-witnessed in the family dynamics of which I was raised.

As my recovery process continues to educate, equip, and empower me. My years of silence have provided me an opportunity to focus on a solution to leave my home of complacency and grow through my uncomfortability. So, assessing moments that I have displaced and suppressed for decades has motivated me to turn on my (TV) Trauma Vision and Breaking my Silence. The Silence of a Man who was left for dead for three generations, watched in disbelief, lived in grief and with no signs of relief. However, “No Weapon Formed Against Me Shall Prosper. “  A.M.E.N.

So, now through my writing I continue to be courageously comfortable being uncomfortable, emotionally empathetic, and most importantly I want to live and teach my son to be FREE. Therefore, my attitude of gratitude has transformed a boy who survived being emotionally scarred. My feeling of being neglected from a boy to a man has now motivated the husband and father to continue to emotionally nurture my son Isaiah and thank my father for showing me how to be a husband, dad, and a responsible MAN.

A Male Emotionally Neglected + A Male Emotionally Nurtured =

A 🙏 M🙏 E🙏 N🙏

Donald Gunther

RCP, RCPF, CPS-MH 

The Needs of African American Children of Parents with Substance Use Disorders Part III

Donald Gunther and Mark Sanders

In part I of this series we shared our personal story of surviving and thriving as African American adult children of fathers with substance use disorders. Part II focused on the role of families and schools in supportive African American Children of parents with substance use disorders. In today’s post we focus on the role of the entire community and social service organizations in helping these children flourish!

What the Community Can Do

Donald’s view

Metaphorically, systems are like families; generations are like the roots and seeds are considered to be the child or children. The seeds planted and entangled, causing enmeshment, and an unhealthy garden will produce unhealthy fruit. Although the seed was planted with good intention, someone or a country forgot to plot and plow! I must mention there is a season for every reason a farmer would say, so digging up and airing out is uncomfortable but extremely important before you start to harvest your garden and or fruits of your labor. Could this be a new beginning (Recovery) or a never-ending story (addiction)? Since our underlying conditions were never noticed the root cause of our addictive thoughts, beliefs and behaviors would be the birthplace of our codependency also known as an addiction to unhealthy relationships with our families and within the community.

In many African American communities, it has been said “It takes a village to raise one child.” The communities consist of families, neighbors, businesses, schools, recreation centers, park districts, business owners etc.  Since becoming a recovery coach professional facilitator for Connecticut Community for Addictions Recovery (CCAR). I have educated and empowered myself with their Evidence-based curriculum, which any part of the community can access to become recovery coaches. Some recovery coaches work with entire families and communities. This is offered through their Recovery Coach Academy. Information on the CCAR training can be accessed here https://addictionrecoverytraining.org/

I envision a day when recovery coaches will increasingly work with families and entire communities in promoting recovery and generational healing. In the 1980’s and 90’s, when crack cocaine was present in New York City, Chicago, Detroit and Compton, California, entire communities were impacted. Interventions should also address the entire community, including children. Growing up in NY and being able to see the stronghold that addiction had on families was very traumatic. Many of our family’s safe place (home) was not safe at all.  In fact, every block seemed to have had their own pharmacist filling prescriptions that was killing our communities and those family members that were unable ‘to just say no’.

Decades later with INTERVENTION on my mind I needed a solution so I became a CCAR recovery coach professional facilitator so that I could collaboratively address SUD and Mental Health Disorders that has generationally oppressed fathers, family members and important people battling addiction. Now as Georgia’s Grateful Recovery Coach Professional I can educate communities with an evidence-based recovery coaching curriculum to motivate the plan for change that provides an opportunity to OVERCOME substance use disorders and mental health disorders and empowering African American communities.

Mark’s view

Like with other communities, the majority of African Americans have loved ones impacted by substance use disorders. The good news is there is room for everyone in providing support for children. Some African American barbers have been contracted with to provide mentorship for African American children.

The African American business community could also get involved in mentoring. Seeing individuals who look like you and are successful can instill hope. As many of the children don’t feel like they belong, there is definitely a role for park districts in black communities to help break isolation, build community and resilience. I was inspired when I visited a library in an African American community which had a book section focused on families with addictions and resources for children.

What Social Service Organizations Can Do

Donald’s view

African American children are impacted by the trauma of growing up in homes with parental substance use disorders. Many are also impacted by community violence such as gang violence, shootings, police brutality etc. Living with trauma increases the risk of PTSD and complex trauma, which if unaddressed can increase the risk of heavy substance use to cope with the trauma. Social services organizations could administer the ACE’s scale and provide trauma informed care and prevention services for children at risk for substance use disorders. Providing life skill trainings for children could also be helpful. Social service organizations could provide specialized groups for children impacted by parental substance use.

Ironically, listening to my father’s silence speak loud and clear about our abject poverty was psychological abuse. A soldier in a foreign war who trained to fight was not able to provide for his family but he could protect his country. These would be the words that dad would murmur from time to time with his facial expression. My dad and many men of color could’ve used resources like CCAR Recovery coaching academy. Social services should collaboratively work with agencies that can empower a recovery process. Therefore, schools, work readiness programs, churches and many other communities based and nonprofit organizations should be part of the recovery community organizations that promote a dual development with some S.O.B.E.R-F.A.C.T.S. Fortunately, my lived experiences and dealings with social services as an impoverished youth was a negative experience. In hindsight, CCAR Recovery Coaching has provided me an opportunity to promote the need for Compassion, Empathy and Understanding to collaboratively motivate change within the system. In fact, blogs like this can become topics of interest to collaborate social services with social media as a BLOGCAST (blog and podcast) that could be the start of the uncomfortable changes that’s needed to reunify families with the assistance of social services and other recovery community organizations (RCO's).

Mark’s View

Donald, I really agree with you about administering the ACEs to assess the impact of trauma in the home. There is a newer tool called The Philadelphia ACE’s. which also evaluates the impact of community violence, which many African American children are exposed to. It includes categories such as witnessing community violence, police harassment, experiencing racism etc.

SAMHSA has a new prevention initiative where substance use disorders prevention programs partner with other youth programs to help them provide prevention services. In adopting such a program in African American communities, schools, child welfare agencies, the juvenile justice system, pregnant and parenting teen programs, gang intervention programs could be trained in substance use disorders programming. Expanding the prevention net would allow us to help more children.

A Tribute to My Professors

When a professor dies, it’s like an entire library burned to the ground. African Proverb

By Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC

I was accepted as an MSW student at Loyola University of Chicago, School of Social Work, in the fall of 1983, and I graduated in January 1986. I have authored five books since graduating and have contributed writings to New York Times Bestselling Books. In addition, I have had an award winning career (four lifetime achievement awards) as a social work generalist and specialist in culturally responsive practice with African Americans. This museum, which I founded, is the 2023 winner of the Faces and Voices of Recovery, Innovations in Recovery Award.

My social work professors at Loyola laid the foundation of much of what I have accomplished, and this post is a tribute to them. Five of the six are no longer living. I'd like to think they are practicing social work in heaven.

Margaret Dahl, Ph.D (1949-1993)

Professor Dahl was my academic advisor and instructor for an elective course, Social Work Practice with Women. The first day she told the class she was a feminist. “Which means,” she explained, “I'm pro woman but not anti-male. With my new understanding of professor Dahl's definition of feminism, I went home and told my wife I was a feminist. “No,” she countered, “you are not a feminist.” Although close examination does reveal that I have benefited from male privilege and still have work to do in the area of sexism, I have tried to live up to what I learned from Dr. Dahl. I authored a workbook entitled, Counseling African American Women with Substance Use Disorders. This would not have been possible without Dr. Dahl's influence. The last five years that I was in clinical practice, I counseled adolescent girls and emerging adult women. Dr. Dahl was present with me in spirit during each session.

The greatest gift I ever received from Dr. Dahl was a comment that she wrote on my term paper, along with the grade of A: “This paper is good enough to be a journal article.” The next semester I took another elective course with Professor Dahl with the goal of getting the term paper ready for journal submission and publication. While it was never published, periodically during my three-decade college teaching career, I have written on students’ term papers, “This paper is good enough to be a journal article.”

Joseph Lassner, Ph.D (1926-2016)

Joseph Lassner taught group work practice at Loyola. I have led groups for 38 years, and Professor Lassner's teaching has had the greatest impact by far on my social work clinical practice. Post graduation he recommended me to lead a monthly support group with exchange students from all seven continents, and I was able to hire professor Lassner to teach me how to supervise staff who led groups at the agency where I was employed. When the consultation ended, his final words to me, which I will never forget, were, “No one cares how much you know unless they know how much you care.”

A few years ago, I tried to locate Dr. Lassner to let him know I appreciated how much he taught me. I learned that he had died a few years earlier. His obituary indicated that he had a son who was College President at the University of Hawaii. I was able to convey my gratitude to his son with these words: “Your father had a profound impact on my life and work. For three decades I taught Group Therapy at universities and throughout the world, exactly the way your father taught me as a graduate student in 1984. Hundreds of clients have benefited from what your father taught me.

Joseph Walsh, Ph.D (1945-2016)

There were students in my social work class classes who got better grades than I did. My excuse is that, while my classmates were paying attention to what our professors were saying, I was paying attention to how they said it. I instinctively knew I would be a college educator one day. Dr. Joseph Walsh was a perfect role model. He wore the best suits to class each day, as if we were important. He was extremely organized and taught from a notebook placed upon a lectern. He wore a large wedding band. When I became a college educator, I imitated all of that, including the large wedding ring. Dr. Walsh introduced me to mental health in his classes. This played a major role in my becoming a co-occurring disorders specialist.

Dr. Walsh doubled as the academic advisor for my second year internship. My field instructor was thinking of failing me and told Dr. Walsh I was too quiet, that I didn't talk enough and wasn't learning anything. When the three of us met, Dr. Walsh asked me what I was learning. I trusted him. I talked for a half hour. My field instructor was surprised at how much I was learning.

The greatest honor Dr. Walsh gave me was inviting me twice to be a part of the committee he was chairing to select the Illinois Chapter of NASW Social Worker of the Year.

Professor Barbara Bacon, MSW (1934-2020)

Professor Bacon was my only African American professor in grad school. She clearly cared about me as a human being and helped guide my success throughout grad school. It was obvious by the way she carried herself that she was proud to be African American. That was great role modeling. She advocated for African American students and connected us with alumni and successful African American leaders and social workers. One of her areas of specialization was issues of diversity in social work. Her bold teaching helped pave the way for me to focus on culturally responsive services for African American clients.

When Professor Bacon became Assistant Dean of the School of Social Work, she asked me to lead the social work graduates in reciting the social work code of ethics during their commencement ceremony. Years ago, as a Loyola University of Chicago, School of Social Work, alumnus, I was honored to receive The Barbara Bacon Award for contributions to the social work profession. I have spent my career as a college educator trying to advocate for students the way Assistant Dean Bacon advocated for me and my classmates.

Gloria Cunningham, Ph.D

In graduate school Dr. Cunningham taught Occupational Social Work (Employee Assistance Counseling). I was already a certified addictions counselor; it was a natural fit for me to take all of the occupational social work classes. Back then, most employee assistance programs (EAP) focused on helping alcoholic employees. 

Dr. Cunningham was also faculty liaison for my first year internship. While many of my classmates had the economic resources to attend school full-time without working, I had to work full-time while going to school full-time. On top of that, I was engaged to be married. I slept four hours per night when I was in grad school. I traveled by bus and train to work, to school, and to my field placement. I was exhausted. Concerned that I was behind in turning in my process recordings (word-for-word session notes), my first year field instructor scheduled a meeting alone with Dr. Cunningham to express her concern about my poor performance.

Professor Cunningham protected me. When I met with my field instructor for supervision, she put her head down and, in a low voice, said to me, “Gloria Cunningham told me to leave you alone.” While we never talked about this, I knew my professor was aware of my multiple roles and that I was doing the best I could do.

My most memorable moment with Dr. Cunningham was my third year as a college educator post MSW. I wondered why some of my colleagues at the university where I taught at the time were so mean spirited? Dr. Cunningham invited me to lunch at a Thai restaurant on State Street to discuss this. She drew a picture of a Poppy field on the restaurant napkin, then shared with me the following story.

In Australia, the poppy plants can grow four or five feet tall. There is a man who sits in the poppy fields with a machete, and whenever one is outgrowing the rest, he uses the machete to cut off the top of the taller one to make sure they all stay the same height.

Dr. Cunningham went on to explain to me that academia can be quite competitive. She encouraged me to find a network of supportive academics. I did just that, and it contributed greatly to my longevity as a college educator.

Thomas Meenaghan, Ph.D

Dr. Meenaghan is my only living graduate school professor. He was the most unique. He had an east coast accent and he taught without notes. That's how well he knew his subject. Just as I did with Professor Walsh, I studied how professor Meenaghan taught. He had a sense of humor in and out of the classroom and often engaged in banter in the hallways. He was fun, yet, so smart. He once gave the class an option to take a written exam in class or have an intelligent conversation with him one-on-one about the classroom content as the final exam. That was different. I jumped at the latter offer.

Professor Meenaghan's doctorate degree was in sociology, which meant that he thought different from the rest. His area of specialization was social policy. He made statements in class which impacted me my entire career. Here are two examples.

Sometimes you social workers can be a part of the problem. While you're sitting behind desks meeting individually with clients, there are systems out there oppressing your clients. You need to deal with those systems.

You cannot be at your best as a social worker unless you're willing to get yourself fired. That means you have to advocate for clients who may struggle to advocate for themselves – and you might get fired.

I have spent nearly four decades as a social worker and college educator advocating for clients and challenging students the way professor Meenaghan challenged me and my classmates. The greatest gift I received from Professor Meenaghan was the opportunity to return to my alma mater to teach when he was Dean of The School of Social Work.

Novelist Terry Pratchett said, “No one is actually dead until the ripples they caused in the world die away.” My professors will live forever.

The Needs of African American Children of Parents with Substance Use Disorders Part II

Donald Gunther and Mark Sanders

In part I of this two-part series we shared our personal stories of growing up as children of fathers with substance use disorders. We shared the challenges, resilience we developed and ultimately how the experience played a role in helping us discover our purpose as professionals working in the substance use disorders profession. We believe the entire community can help African American Children of Parents with substance use disorders thrive. Below are our recommendations.

What families of African American Children with Parents With Substance Use Disorders Can Do.

Donald’s View

The African American child’s behaviors in response to parental addiction are seen but who cares about and focuses on the underlying conditions that causes the anger, resentment , mental health issues , poverty,  suffering including , the absence hot water , heat and or basic needs. As mentioned in part I of this series, the children’s behavior in response to parental addiction is often punished and criminalized. We believe there are things the family can do to begin the process of healing thyself.

Families are a system! African American families often have an extended family orientation. When children are impacted by parental addiction, we encourage the other adults including aunts, uncles, cousins etc. to spend time with the children. When appropriate, clinicians can meet with and encourage non-drug using relatives, aunts, uncles etc. to spend time with the children.  African American families often define family broad enough to include non-biological relatives. They too can be a great source of support for the children.  

Hindsight, when growing up we often would hear it takes a Village to raise a child. The village would consist of community based organizations which included school districts, churches, coaches , recreational organizations and families biological and non-biological.  This village would be beneficial to African American children as well.  

Mark’s View

African Americans celebrate many holidays and events common across cultures in the United States including: Christmas, New Years, Labor Day, birthdays, anniversaries etc. We also have holiday’s unique to African American culture such as Kwanzaa and Juneteenth. Professionals working with African American families with parental substance use disorders can encourage the family to continue with these celebrations in spite of the addiction. Research indicates that in families that continue with celebration even when there is active addiction, the children have less negative symptoms. Across cultures there are very few non-drug use holiday celebrations. Children often emulate what they see adults do. Thus, children of parents with substance use disorders are three times more likely to develop a substance use disorder. Click here for examples of drug free celebrations for African American families.

https://attcnetwork.org/centers/great-lakes-attc/news/counselors-corner-drug-free-holiday-celebrations-african-americans

What Schools Can Do

Donald’s View

The school system can introduce evidence-based curriculum that can help the children with healing from parental substance use disorders. The curriculum should express Compassion and empathy of what the children are going through.  After school programs and mentorship programs can also be helpful. Many of the children feel like they’re alone. After school programming and mentorship can let them know that they are not alone. One example is C.U.C.D, A program I developed in Westchester County New York, which provided services for African American children, some of whom were impacted by parental substance use disorders. For 10 years C.U.C.D taught life skills to children in an after-school setting. The curriculum emphasized integrity, dedicated discipline, and the persistence it takes to succeed. Schools could provide evidence-based curriculum in collaboration with a Certified Connecticut Community Addiction Recovery Coach Professional Facilitator and Certified Peer Specialists Mental Health and clinical professionals. The three evidence-based curriculums below would be the start of Forgiveness, Acceptance, and dealing with parental substance use and trauma.

Mark’s View

I really agree with you Donald on the role schools, after school programs and mentors can play in helping African American Children of parents with substance use disorders. Years ago, the renowned Dr. Claudia Black created coloring books and stories to help children of parents with substance use disorders. I believe in the curriculum it is important for African American Children to see images of themselves in the community. If they live in New York City, the westside of Chicago or in a predominant African American small town in Mississippi, the curriculum should address these experiences. Research says that afterschool programs can be therapeutic and children who have regular contact with mentors use fewer drugs, better grades, and demonstrate less violence than kids who do not have contact with mentors. In the height of the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980’s and 90’s, which had a devastating impact on African American Children, an African American Church on the southside of Chicago created a program called One Church One School. Members of the congregation provided weekly mentorship for children in the school. The program achieved great success.

Conclusion

Children have two homes, where they live and where they go to school. If one fails them, they have the other. If both fail them……In this post, we have outlined things families and schools can do to help the children. We invite you, the reader, to add to our list of suggestions and recommendations. In part III of this series, we will highlight things the broader community can do to help African American children of parents with substance use disorders flourish.

When I Get Low, I Get High: Integrating Spirituality and Counseling for African American Clients with Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders, Part 3

Publication Date: Dec 21, 2023

By: Kisha Freed, Success Coach, Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Practitioner/Assessor, Mindfulness Meditation Instructor

Mark Sanders, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Substance Use Disorder Counselor

Ella Fitzgerald’s 1938 blues song, “When I Get Low, I Get High,” eloquently summarizes the medicinal role alcohol and other drugs have played for African Americans experiencing oppression, isolation, and depression (Sanders, Sanders and White, 2006). The first article of this three-part series discusses the cultural importance of spirituality for many African Americans, especially in dealing with the effects of historical trauma and oppression, and describes how spirituality is often an important ingredient of culturally-responsive mental health and substance use services for African Americans. Part 2 focuses on methods of integrating spirituality and counseling with African Americans seeking mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) recovery services.

In this third installment, we focus on the role of the church in supporting mental health and SUD recovery in African American communities. During the holiday season, it’s common for people to struggle with stress, past trauma, and personal loss associated with the holidays, and we discuss how feeling spiritually low can increase the risk of getting high. This blog post also addresses what spirituality can look like for African Americans seeking recovery who are not a part of a religious community and strategies to help African American clients cultivate inner peace.

Kisha: What role has the church played in SUDs and mental health treatment and recovery in African American communities?

Mark: In 1986, crack cocaine replaced marijuana as the number one street drug. Addictions Studies and Research Consultant, William White, says the “best” day to have a SUD in America was September 13, 1978. On that date, First Lady Betty Ford went on national television and said, “My name is Betty Ford; I'm an alcoholic” (White, 2017). By normalizing SUDs on a national platform, the public stigma associated with SUDs was greatly reduced and folks began to see SUD as a disease that should be treated.

Perhaps the worst day to have SUD when it comes to public opinion and stigmatization was June 15, 1986. On that date, basketball star Len Bias was drafted number one by the Boston Celtics. He went to a party that night to celebrate, snorted some cocaine, had a heart attack, and died. Congress was so angry about his death they intensified the war on drugs. In 1985, there were 400,000 incarcerated individuals in our nation's prisons. By 1995, the population had grown to 1,000,000, and by 2005, that number had doubled, with a disproportionately large percentage of those individuals being African Americans (White, Kurtz and Sanders, 2006). As stigma increased, insurance companies went from covering addiction treatment at a rate of approximately 90% to 10%, and many African Americans who needed treatment suddenly could not afford it (White, Kurtz and Sanders, 2006).

During the time period of 1986 to 1996, every denomination of African American churches formed their own church-based drug ministries to help support the recovery efforts of their members and the wider African American community. One of the most famous African American drug ministries, Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, was established during this time of need. In addition to drug ministries, African American communities across the nation have helped countless people by further establishing HIV ministries, prison ministries, and mental health ministries through local churches.

Mark: Kisha, what are your thoughts about the Black church forming ministries to help with community healing?

Kisha: I'm excited to hear there are programs in place to support African Americans with SUDs, mental health needs, and those who lack housing. As you mention the stigma of SUDs, I think you really touched on something important when you mentioned shame. I think any time we are in spaces of recovery and wellbeing, having an awareness of the impact and influence of shame, guilt, and anxiety in the process of recovery is going to be paramount.

I appreciate the research of Dr. Peter Breggin on this trio of emotions—shame, guilt, and anxiety. He calls them “negative legacy emotions.” Breggins explains that shame, guilt, and anxiety have served as “internal emotional inhibitions or restraints”—a type of biological evolutionary mechanism—to protect and preserve familial and interpersonal relationships against the impulsive, violent human nature. So, these three emotions have played a huge role in human preservation and natural selection.

However, Breggins continues to explain that negative legacy emotions, being rudimentary in nature, have continued to hinder rather than help individuals to emotionally and psychologically progress. Instead, shame, guilt, and anxiety perpetuate emotional repression, which can eventually lead to unintended adverse effects, such as impulsive violence or the breaking down of restraints. My personal conclusion and perspective are that shame, guilt, and anxiety (being rudimentary in nature) stunts the awareness of the deeper repressed and suppressed emotions and as a result, this repression might be a hindrance to the progress of a client’s mental health or SUD recovery.

My point is, I think it would be helpful to integrate an educational program on mindful compassion in church recovery programs. Mindful compassion exercises can not only support both peer support specialists and patrons to cultivate a self-awareness to enable the recognition of negative legacy emotions and access the repressed emotions behind them, but also practice compassion and empathy and reduce the stigma of shame, guilt, and anxiety. I think this would be foundational for any church recovery program’s success and could have a significant impact on the surrounding community.

Mark: There is a movement where churches are receiving formal training on how to work with people who have SUDs and mental illness. When George W. Bush was President of the United States, he funded a program called Access to Recovery. This program provided funding to churches that offer recovery support for their communities. Since then, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have both increased funding for the Access to Recovery program during their terms as president.

Kisha: It is good that these services are available in the community with the support of federal funding. I’d also like to recount; the power is in the community and peers. However, I love the way Kurtz and White define “community” in their 2015 article entitled “Recovery Spirituality”:

Everyone needs a sense of ‘community’—the deep experience of being in some way at one with [some] others. Unlike other communi¬ties that one may join, ‘home’ is a place where we belong because it is where our very weaknesses and flaws fit in and are in fact the way we ‘fit in.’

Reflecting on the second article of this series, we touched on the reasons 12 Step programs are still successful to this day. The peers’ ability to leverage both mirroring the client’s mental and emotional experiences and modeling new behavior and attitudes are the factors that make peers strong assets to community recovery programs. Compassion, empathy, and connection will come naturally for peer specialists. So, as role models they also have great influence. Continuing to incorporate partnerships with peers in community-based or church affiliated programs is a very powerful approach for substance use recovery. Click here to continue reading.

The Needs of African American Children of Parents with Substance Use Disorders

By Donald Gunther and Mark Sanders

An emergency room social worker from an African American community was distraught as she shared the story of an African American man who survived an overdose as he was rushed to the ER in the nick of time! He was accompanied to the ER by four adult relatives and his 10-year-old daughter.

The Social worker educated the family about how to use NARCAN and offered the overdose medicine to the family. All the adults refused NARCAN, and the 10-year-old daughter stated, You can give the NARCAN to me and I will use it if my daddy gets sick again at home.

That story reminds me of the nightmare African American children of parents with substance use disorders have been experiencing the past four decades. In 1986 there was a crack cocaine epidemic which intensified the War on Drugs. Some called it a war on African American men as so many were incarcerated and received felony convictions, in some instances for possessing minute amounts of cocaine. Thousands of African American children were now living with fathers behind bars. The next fastest growing population behind bars were African American women/mothers with substance use disorders.

In 1993 I had an African American client who was incarcerated at cook county jail for possession of a small amount of crack. She was pregnant and delivered her baby at Cook County hospital with her hands and feet shackled to the bed. Following the delivery, she was escorted back to jail by male guards, who incidentally were in her room during delivery. Her newborn was immediately taken by caseworkers into the child welfare/foster care system. I have spent 4 decades wondering about the impact of that delivery on the child. These draconian methods were repeated throughout the country. 

While advocacy measures were put in place to address the before mentioned disparities and practices, the needs of the children have primarily gone ignored.

This two-part blog series is written by Donald Gunther, a Certified Connecticut Community Addiction Recovery Coach Professional Facilitator and a Georgia Certified Mental Health Peer Specialist and Mark Sanders, Founder, Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery. They both are adult children of fathers with substance use disorders. In part 1 they each share their story with the hope that readers will be inspired to facilitate their own healing and help African American children of parents with substance use disorders heal as well. Part II will include their recommendations to help African American children of parents with SUD thrive!

Donald's Story

My father was a War World II veteran who suffered from PTSD. His traumatic experiences would be the cause of our ACE’S. These adverse childhood events would teach us how to promote surviving in silence. Ironically, history reveals that in our early wars soldiers were given alcohol to cope with the trauma of war. Thus, my father returned home a hero with an alcohol use disorder. Thus, I am what is known as an ACOA, an adult child of an alcoholic. My father was a great man who raised ten children along with my mother. We were traumatized by my father’s trauma and alcoholism. My father had PTSD. I developed Complex Trauma (multiple layers of trauma), dealing with my father’s PTSD, addiction, and poverty, growing up in New York City with no hot water or bathtub, and no heat in the winter. Metaphorically, my silence would not be heard until five decades later when the consequences of being emotionally neglected became the root cause of my behavior and beliefs of myself. Silence would be the beginning of my underlying conditions (Codependency 101).

Mark's Story

Donald, I really relate to your childhood trauma. I feel like my four siblings, and I came out of a war too! My mother left my father when I was in third grade and that was traumatic! A year later she married my stepfather, who moved in with us from the battlefield, Stateville Penitentiary. We later learned that he was incarcerated for drug related crimes. He would beat our mother in front of us and my mother would beat us in front of each other. As war veterans described, we were walking on eggshells. It always felt like a bomb could explode at home at any moment. My mother took care of my stepfather. He ultimately died of an opioid overdose. I have carried the residue of that experience for decades.

The Good News!

The research says that 75% of children of parents with substance use disorders do quite well! The resilience which comes from being an ACOA can lead to great achievement. Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are all ACOA's.

We both believe that growing up as COA's has contributed to our resilience and life purpose, to help individuals and families recover! In Donald's words, I am processing my pain, which has led me to my purpose.

Conclusion

While the majority of children of parents with substance use disorders do well in a racialized society, African American COA's disproportionately get expelled from school, attend alternative schools and wind up in the criminal justice system. In essence, their pain is more likely to be punished. It is our hope that you compassionately help these young people soar.

Native American Heritage Month: Great Lessons Taught About Recovery

November is National Native American Heritage Month. I have always felt a special kinship for Native Americans. As African Americans we share a similar history of historical trauma at the hands of Europeans who migrated to the new world. Both cultures are resilient. In this post I highlight some lessons learned from Native American Communities about recovery.

• The importance of massive group mobilization.  In order to heal historical trauma, which is a root cause of addiction, Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart speaks of the importance of the entire community/tribe coming together and openly talking about what happened to us! This includes grieving together, crying together, mourning together. I have heard some Native Americans call Columbus Day and July 4th, national days of mourning. I foresee a day when entire African American communities have similar mobilizations in order to heal historical trauma.

• The importance of returning to culture. Historically, Native Americans had their culture taken away as a part of historical trauma. One way this was accomplished was by removing Native American Children from reservations and placing them in boarding schools. Trauma along with loss of culture contribute to high rates of substance use disorders. We are learning from the White Bison, Native American Wellbriety Movement that a return to culture can increase recovery rates. Increasingly, African Americans in recovery are taking journeys to Africa as a part of their own recovery and are returning to the United States and creating culturally specific recovery programs, based in African cultural rites of passages.

• Advocacy for reparation. In 1978 Native Americans took a case to the Supreme Court and the American Indian Freedom of Religious Act was passed. This law protected their rights to exercise tribal religions, possess sacred objects and the freedom to worship through traditional ceremonials and traditional rites. This success played a role in return to culture and eventual reparations received by Native American Tribes. Reparation can be used to protect culture and promote healing. One lesson I learned is how quietly Native Americans went about fighting for reparations. I think about this every time I see an African American Town Hall meeting featuring speakers such as Tavis Smiley, Dr. Cornell West, Jesse Jackson Sr etc. broadcasting to the whole world on television advocacy plans before executing the plans, while those who oppose the plan and those who will come up with schemes to block the plans are part of the listening audience.

Happy National Native American Heritage Month. Wishing you years of Wellbriety!

Intimate Partner Violence and Substance Use Disorders in African American Communities

I read last night that October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and went to sleep dreaming about the domestic violence my family endured when I was child. At age 8, I took a Greyhound bus with my mother to Stateville Penitentiary, located in Joliet, Illinois to meet my future stepfather who was incarcerated. When I met him, he extended his hand to shake my hand and stated, "Young man, when you shake a person’s hand, always look them in the eyes and offer a firm handshake.” He taught me something the first time I met him! Today, each time I shake someone's hand, including during job interviews, I follow the advice he gave me. I was eager for him to become my stepfather!

The first day my stepfather left prison, he moved in with us, I heard my mother scream about 5 am in the morning. My stepfather gave my mother a black eye because, "She had a job to go to and he didn't." She started her new job that day as a nurse, wearing sunglasses to hide the abuse. In the book, The Battered Woman Syndrome (2016), author Dr. Lenore Walker said that male domestic violence is not about anger. It is about sexism. Men who batter women tend to have a more traditional view of the role of men than their female partner in a relationship. He often tries to use physical force to "Beat her into traditional conformity." My mother had a job and my stepfather did not. In addition, her name was on the apartment lease and his name was not.

We soon discovered that our stepfather had a heroin addiction (opioid use disorder) and he left home frequently to chase his addiction. The battery towards my mother intensified in frequency and force. Substance use does not cause domestic violence, it can increase lethality (Walker, 2016).

There is no cultural group that has a monopoly on intimate partner violence. During this month I decided to come out of hiding and discuss some of the unique features of domestic violence in African American communities as I have witnessed firsthand and in my role as a clinician. Because of our history of police brutality, African American women who are victims of domestic violence might fear that if she reports her partner to the police, the police might kill him. This fear could intensify during this era of police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other unarmed African Americans. Also, a cultural norm which has existed since slavery of "Not airing our dirty laundry in public," could also decrease the reporting of domestic violence in African American communities. As a matter of fact, I am nervous just writing this blog post. But I have too!

For African Americans who are LGBTQ, hesitance to report domestic violence could be connected to a fear of potential police brutality of the partner and the fear of the consequences of outing yourself to the police when you make the report.

For African American men, high unemployment, racism, and dehumanizing experiences such as stop and frisk, police brutality, poor to no community service, and being left to die by paramedics has played a role in undermining the sense of ‘manhood’ for African American men in a country that has historically defined manhood as being the head of household, bread winner etc. Prior to Dr. King being assassinated in Memphis Tennessee, striking African American sanitation workers were protesting unequal pay and poor working conditions in comparison to their white counterparts. These men held up signs which read, “I am a man too!” During the 1960's and 70's it was easier for African American women and children to receive public assistance if they were not married or there were no men living in the home. Public Aid workers routinely made impromptu visits to these homes to assure there were no men there. There are reports of African American men hiding in closets or leaving out of back doors when these workers arrived. This was also dehumanizing. Combining other risk factors for male perpetration of domestic violence such as experience corporal punishment as a child, witnessing domestic violence as a child, sexism, a narrow view of the role of men and women in relationships, juvenile arrests, hostility towards women etc., along with how racism and dehumanizing experiences can impact one’s feelings of manhood, is a potential recipe for domestic violence.

I did a presentation entitled, Boys in Crisis and I learned that women in every cultural group in America, have more college degrees than men in that same culture with the biggest gap being between African American men and women. College graduation increases wage earnings. In a sexist society, along with other risk factors, will this also contribute to intimate partner violence in African American communities?

In the meantime, author Jawanza Kunjufu offers the following suggestion. “The African American Community needs to define manhood more broadly than the size of your paycheck. Manhood can also include being kind and supportive of your partner, spending time with and nurturing of your children, being a positive influence in your community.” I had an African American male client who returned to drug use after he was fired from his job. He said to me, "I don't feel like a man, since I lost my job.” I thought of Jawanza Kunjufu's quote and reminded him that every day he got up at 3 am to drive his wife home, "To help assure her safety," then he would make it home to prepare breakfast for his daughters, take them to school, prepare dinner for them, help them with their homework, while looking for future employment at the same time. He smiled and said, “I am a man.” He discontinued his substance use.

The movie What's Love Got To Do With It depicted the domestic violence relationship with singing duet and married couple, Ike and Tina Turner. This led to discussions about domestic violence in African American communities and empowered many women to seek shelter from intimate partner violence. Domestic violence seems to run in families across generations. As far as I can tell, it is no longer as prevalent in my family as it once was. Interestingly enough, substance use disorders recovery in my family has increased.

Years ago, author Peter Bell stated that addictions is best treated, “When the cultural context in which it develops is taken into consideration.” Perhaps this is also true for intimate partner violence. Domestic violence specialists should learn about nuances unique to each cultural group served.

Hispanic Heritage Month!! Implications for Substance Use Disorders Treatment and Recovery

National Hispanic Heritage Month recently ended. It is a celebration of American citizens whose ancestors came from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America. This is the only celebration that begins and ends in the middle of two months! The celebration begins September 15th as numerous Latin American Countries achieved independence on that date.

Hispanics have experienced a great deal of historical trauma both in the United States, the Caribbean Islands, Central and South America. There is a link between historical trauma and substance use disorders. We have learned from the Native American Wellbriety movement that cultural celebrations which increase cultural pride can be a substance use disorders protective factor and help increase recovery rates.

Hispanics are the fastest growing community in the United States. It is predicted that by the year 2050 they will be the largest cultural group in the country. As demographic shifts continue to occur, history reveals that we can expect an increase in racial tension leading to greater trauma and the potential for increased substance use.

Organizations such as Hispanic/Latino Behavioral Health Center of Excellence and the National Hispanic & Latino Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, are playing a major role in increasing culturally responsive and evidence based approaches for working with Hispanics with substance use disorders. We are also seeing an increase of Latino/Hispanic substance use disorders specialists in key leadership positions in the substance use disorders profession. This will help tremendously as well.

In the future there will need to be an increase in the number of bilingual/bicultural professionals who are able to serve Hispanic communities. Special emphasis will need to be placed upon substance use disorders prevention, treatment and recovery for recent migrants who have fled Central and South America escaping trauma.

Personally, I feel a special kinship with Latino/Hispanic Communities. When the Africans were brought to the ‘New World’ to be enslaved, millions were first brought to the Caribbean Island, Central and South America. They are our brethren! I also attended a high school in which 70% of my classmates were Latino/Hispanic and was able to witness the richness of the culture up close.

I hope you have enjoyed Hispanic Heritage Month.

Rest In Peace Wayne Williams!

I learned this week of the death of my longtime friend and colleague Wayne Williams. I have known Wayne for nearly two decades and our relationship started with my providing supervision for adolescent clients he counseled with substance use disorders. Wayne successfully worked with a range of clients in a variety of substance use disorders settings including: outpatient settings, detox facilities; methadone maintenance clinics and criminal justice settings. He was constantly seeking new knowledge and dedicated to the work. Rest in peace Wayne.