CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Over one million North Carolinians struggle with substance abuse. Now, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is working to close the gap when it comes to getting people the help they need.
Starting this fall, teenagers in Cabarrus County will be one step closer to accessing substance use treatment that doesn’t currently exist in the county.
What You Need To Know
Over one million North Carolinians struggle with substance abuse
Opioid overdose emergency room visits for adolescents and teens in Cabarrus County have jumped 67% since 2019
First-of-its-kind substance use treatments for teens coming to Cabarrus County
Additionally, NCDHHS is awarding $5.7 million toward services in rural and underserved areas where help is hardest to find. That includes organizations like the Cabarrus Health Alliance that is providing juveniles with access they need.
The Cabarrus Health Alliance is one of 12 organizations statewide to receive the grant and is planning to use funding toward substance use treatment for teenagers.
Currently, officials at the alliance say treatment specifically for teenagers does not exist in Cabarrus County. For an adolescent without a car to receive help, the alliance reports it would take eight buses and six hours to make it to one appointment at the nearest adolescent treatment facility in Charlotte.
“Housing for individuals who have severe mental illness and substance use is almost non-existent, and then transportation for individuals to get to whatever service it is that they need is really lacking. Many, many people desire services. There may be a service that would be appropriate, but they just can’t get there,” said Sonja Bohannon-Thacker, behavioral health director at Cabarrus Health Alliance.
Data from the alliance also shows opioid overdose emergency room visits for adolescents and teens in Cabarrus County have jumped 67% since 2019 with youth as young as 12 reporting regular drug use.
“That really is the trend, people asking for services that don’t really exist. In addition, an increase in youth vaping, selling vapes, and then when things don’t go well with sales encounters, then violence is increasing around that. So that’s something that we also hope that this funding will help us to address,” Thacker said.
The plan for this funding will include traditional treatment services, support from peer mentors and partnerships with local nonprofit The Studio and Kannapolis City Schools.
“When student adolescents see that life can be fun without substances, they’re more likely to want to engage in those fun things,” Bohannon-Thacker said. “There will also be psycho-education family groups and then traditional, adolescent-specific substance use disorder treatment for youth who have already developed a substance use disorder.”
Thacker said the alliance is already working to meet the demand in Cabarrus County, expanding therapy services at their new Live Well Counseling Center.
“This counseling center, expanded from three therapy offices to nine therapy spaces, including a parent-child interaction therapy room and a play therapy room. We have hired our clinicians and trained them in evidence-based models,” Bohannon-Thacker said.
Soon, adolescents in Cabarrus County will also have access to more resources when the new Steve Morris Behavioral Health Center opens in July.
“They will have a behavioral health urgent care. So that’s going to be a wonderful first stop for individuals experiencing either a substance use or a mental health crisis,” Bohannon-Thacker said.
Grant funding for the Cabarrus Health Alliance will begin September 1.
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