KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. — The ALPHA Center of Kershaw County hosted a summit to address the opioid epidemic and find new ways to combat addiction.
“The end goal is to reduce or eliminate opioid abuse and misuse in Kershaw County,” said Kevin Rhodes, the director of the Opioid Coalition for Kershaw County.
The summit brought together first responders and community leaders to learn how the county can combat the issue.
The county was awarded $340,000 from the South Carolina opioid recovery fund to move forward with activities and programming.
Dr. John Emmel spoke to those who attended to help better understand why it can be difficult for those struggling with addiction.
"The message today was the kind of chronic disease that opioid addiction is, the fact that there is an abnormality of brain chemistry that occurs that's not completely voluntary," Emmel said. "I'm hoping that they will take away the fact that this is a disease like many other chronic diseases like diabetes and deserves to be handled with the same degree of compassion and respect and desire to save lives and get someone into the treatment and other interventions they need.”
According to the ALPHA Center, last November, Kershaw County experienced 19 fentanyl-related overdoses in a single weekend, including 4 fatalities. Now, they hope with education and resources that won't happen again.
“The money will be used to make Narcan much more available," Rhodes said. "Narcan can and will stop an overdose immediately, so we’re going to be making an effort to see to it that Narcan is available through the county.”
Fentanyl test strips and Narcan are available with no questions asked at the ALPHA center.
They are also preparing media campaigns, drug-deactivation products, and drug takeback events.