04/06/2023
Friends in WA who may or may not be using a Telehealth Substance Use Disorder Care program. Wa, like most states, have chose to cut off all funding to SUD telehealth care. My program is being cut May 24th, some may be cut as soon as April 12th, in this state and others.
In-person care is extremely difficult for some people to maintain, and telehealth care has significantly helped them along their recovery journey. Pair in the fact that on April 1st the DEA also decided to do a massive nationwide cut to medicaid eligibility and coverage, that millions of us will be suffering from already.
We are about to see people likely fall heavily back into street drugs and old vices, because we'd rather only help those with money. Some of these that fall back into their use patterns, especially after 2-3+ years clean, may likely OD. Supporting your friends, family, and even strangers who you know to struggle with SUD or receive on going care despite being years sober, may honestly mean life or death for them. A lot of us will be going into sudden withdrawal from not being able to find in person care to replace our telehealth care, and/or not being able to safely taper down our medications to a safe enough level that our bodies won't go into withdrawal from the halt in medications.
If you're one of the ones who use buprenorphine (Suboxone) or any other partial-op**te medication used for op**te use disorder, suddenly stopping your medication without tapering down to a low enough dose, WILL put you in a month long, at minimum, withdrawal. This can leave you even more susceptible to a significant relapse if you can't find in person care, because this medication is used to help you not go through the already excruciatingly hard to get through one week of withdrawal when suddenly stopping a full op**te. One week of withdrawal is always more appealing than a month long withdrawal when it means not being physically well enough to maintain your sober life and work life....
If you're the type of person that believes they shouldn't have started using in rhe first place, I'd like you to do some heavy research on WHY people actually fall into Substance Use. Because it has nothing to do with "Drugs being cool"...or whatever gross excuse y'all makeup instead of educating yourself, understanding SUD, and finding ways to help people get through it and in turn help reduce overall people with SUD from returning to street drugs that will put them in gamble of their lives all over again.
I am fu***ng furious over this. We just keep moving farther and farther backwards instead of making actual progress.
SOMETHING NEEDS TO FU***NG CHANGE NOW.
WE CANNOT KEEP LIVING LIKE THIS.
I will be gradually working on setting up my own online support group(s) to help continue to provide safe and accessible support as much as I am able to.
And if this decision affects you, or people you know and love, than I am so sorry and you are more than welcome to vent to me about it. Because this is extremely fu**ed, and we will likely lose too many genuine people to this.
