SUMTER, S.C. — It’s Fentanyl Awareness Day, and a local treatment center is trying to educate people about the dangers and resources.
“I don't think a lot of people know just how prevalent it is,” Sumter Behavioral Health Services Executive Director Sarah Campbell explains.
This is why Campbell is working to educate her community about the dangers of fentanyl.
“It is everywhere. Whether we want to believe it or not, it is here in Sumter and it is being taken intentionally and it is in a lot of other substances,” Campbell details. “And so there are a lot of folks getting a taste of fentanyl when they're using another product. And that is leading to more overdoses. Accidental overdoses. If you don't know that you're ingesting it. Then you don't know how to prepare for it. You don't know how strong what it is that you're about to use could be and I don't think our community knows enough about the substances that are in our community and what it's doing, but it impacts a lot of people.”
Opioid overdoses are impacting people more and more each day, says Peer Support Specialist Sean O’Connor.
“We're seeing numbers increase more and more every day. It’s almost weekly I’m hearing about someone personally that I know that’s passed away from an overdose,” O’Connor shares.
O’Connor is in recovery from substance use disorder, and now works to help others with their sobriety. He says connecting with the community by letting them know about what resources are out there is important.
“It’s education. It’s letting people know what to do, where to go, you know, when somebody, needs help, the places that they can receive the help,” O’Connor explains.
“No one is fighting this alone. We definitely want to make sure that people know that,” Campbell adds. “It's my goal to make sure that everyone knows we are here. We can help. We want to help. If we can't directly help, we want to point you in the direction of somebody who can.”
Community partners like Lance Newman are also showing support.
“There's a problem that we need to address,” Newman tells me.
Newman is the executive director of Hidden Wounds, a combat veteran support group. He showed up to the awareness event — along with his service dog Flash — to help spread awareness and education alongside Sumter Behavioral Health.
“By them getting out in the public, we need not to turn away from it,” Newman says. “Just like a lot of our veterans that live in the dark, we want to be able to help those with issues.”
“I think the more that people know, maybe the more that we can cut down on some of the accidental overdose and some of the other opioid misuse that's going on in our community,” Campbell shares.
The center provides both in-patient and outpatient treatment with substance use disorders and behavioral health concerns.
“It can impact the person that's using, but then that trickles down and that can impact their family. It can impact where they're working, it can impact their health. It impacts our communities,” Campbell details.