heroin

Amanda Hensley with her daughter, Valencia. Hensley says several hospitals and clinics she contacted were reluctant to help her quit her opioid habit. "Nobody wants to touch a pregnant woman with an addiction issue."

Pregnant And Addicted: The Tough Road To Family Health

1:17pm March 28, 2016

by Sarah Jane Tribble

Guilt still haunts a new mother who was addicted to opioids when she got pregnant. Once she was ready to ask for help, treatment programs that could handle her complicated pregnancy were hard to find.

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Nikko Adam, 22, gets a hug from his mother, Patti Trabosh, after his family picked him up from his sober living facility for a weekend outing.

A Family Engulfed By Heroin Fights To Keep A Son Alive

5:34am March 19, 2016

by Melissa Block

Brandy Trabosh got to the point where she told her brother, Nikko, not to come for Thanksgiving so he wouldn't get high around her kids. The family is trying to help Nikko, 22, stay off heroin.

Paramedic Phil Salamone carries naloxone, a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose.

A Small Town Wonders What To Do When Heroin Is 'Everywhere'

9:30am March 12, 2016

by Melissa Block

In Kutztown, Pa., school nurses stock naloxone to treat heroin overdoses. "Kids aren't afraid of it," a guidance counselor says. "It's available and it's cheap."

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An Addict, Now Clean, Discusses Needle Exchanges And 'Hope After Heroin'

3:38pm March 08, 2016

At the height of her addiction to heroin, Tracey Helton Mitchell lived in an alley and sold her body. Now she works as an addiction specialist helping others. Her new memoir is The Big Fix.

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Dr. Jessie Gaeta, chief medical officer of Health Care for the Homeless at Boston Medical Center, stands in a conference room that will soon be converted to a place where patients high on heroin or other drugs can be safely monitored.

Boston's Heroin Users Will Soon Get A Safer Place To Be High

9:58am March 01, 2016

by Martha Bebinger

Set to open within a few weeks, the room will not be a place to inject drugs or get high, say health providers. Instead, a nurse will monitor heroin users as they come down from the drug's effects.

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Burnout and low pay can make it tough to retain counselors in the field of addiction services. "You take on your clients' pain," explains one former counselor.

Shortage Of Addiction Counselors Further Strained By Opioid Epidemic

4:30pm February 24, 2016

by Emily Corwin

Counselors in the field of substance abuse rehabilitation earn roughly $40,000 a year, surveys show, and the work can be emotionally draining. Employee turnover is high, and likely to get worse.

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Heroin use has become a major problem in the Northeast.

Ithaca's Plan To Open A Safe Site For Heroin Users Faces Legal Hurdles

3:22pm February 24, 2016

by Angus Chen

The goal is to reduce the city's death toll from heroin. But it would be breaking various laws unless Ithaca gets a pass from the governor and federal authorities.

A long vacant and blighted property was torn down in northwest Rutland this past year. The Rotary Club and other volunteers plan to erect a playground on the property as part of an effort to reclaim a neighborhood hard hit by drugs and crime.

Tragedy Moves A Community To Combat Drug Addiction

8:26am January 30, 2016

by Nina Keck

The death of a teenager in 2012 shocked residents of a small Vermont city to come together and fight its opiate problem. The efforts are paying off.

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A pharmacist counts pain pills. In an effort to curb the abuse of Oxycontin, Vicodin and other opioid painkillers, some health plans in Massachusetts now limit a patient's initial prescription to a 15-day supply, and plan to halve that number in February.

Insurers Hire Social Workers To Tackle The Opioid Epidemic

6:33pm January 25, 2016

by Deborah Becker

Some health plans in Massachusetts are putting tighter limits on painkiller prescriptions. Others are hiring their own social workers to help customers who struggle with opioid abuse quit for good.

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New Medications For Treating Opioid Addiction Are On The Horizon

1:17pm January 15, 2016

by Angus Chen

A long-acting implant has gained approval from an FDA advisory committee. It could soon become the latest on a very short list of medical options.