My heart is heavy after reading this significant take on the mental health and drug addiction crisis.
Your personal descriptions while coming home is so vivid and one we all experienced in some form ourselves. Actively watching humans play Russian roulette with their lives and not being able to know how to stop it.
Our state and federal governments continue to pass the burden on to residents and businesses both emotionally and financially by not taking their responsibility seriously and coordinating efforts as you suggest and wasting our tax dollars by not actively coordinating with all partners and professionals to find more cost effective solutions.
Thank you for all the effort you put into your articles. You need to always send them to the City Council members and our other elected officials. Common sense should have a seat at the table.
There’s a certain irony at play for those giving money to panhandlers. It’s well-meaning, no doubt, but all too frequently leads to the panhandler’s death.
Drug and alcohol addiction has been a problem since humans first began fermenting and distilling. Solving the problem is difficult because addicts come from many different directions and there’s no one simple way to solve the problem. And the addicted are not alone in the suffering: friends and family are often deeply affected, as is the general public-hence the well written article above.
I would agree that a state authority would be most effective at moving an effort forward, but the current state government is not in a position to undertake this initiative. They need to deal with their own issues first.
Terry, the people are different too. I had a great time in high school (1970’s) with a few friends and a little weed. Not only have I not smoked any in decades, but I have no desire to. All the technology we’ve invented has been utilized to improve and enhance the effects of just about everything we touch these days. We need to utilize that same technology to unravel the conundrum of addiction. While there are many ways to treat addiction currently, they all work best with willing participants. Very little can be done for the person who is not interested in quitting.
It is many of the SAME people that the police and EMS come out for. I have had to call them multiple times due to some very scary situations near Hiawatha Ave and 46th Street. A couple of people I see near 34th Ave and 50th Street, that I know, and have tried to help, look MUCH worse after 2-3 years. They are truly the walking dead.
Resources for police and EMS, for all of our cities, are only so deep. All of this active street drug use further restricts resources when a 50 year old neighbor, co worker, or family member gets off work, and appears to be having a heart attack, but has to WAIT, and maybe too long, to get the services that they have been paying into to support.
The only way to serve the population of public drug users is by mandating that they STAY in one place, long enough, to have a fighting chance at recovery.
So, involuntary commitment is required in almost all these cases, the folks that we see daily, involving the SAME individuals, month after month, and sometimes year after year. They are high users of drugs AND services, and are not able to contribute anything back, due to this addiction.
"Consider that in cities like Portland, roughly half of police calls are related to drug and mental health crises. That statistic alone shows how the hidden costs of this epidemic continue to spiral."
At least in Mpls, EMS is right THERE with the police when these calls come in..
Another related impact, " the hidden costs of this epidemic.." is that it is hard to keep our First Responders out there working.
The result, more overtime, busting the budget, and more burn out..
“There’s been several high-profile incidents, but it’s really the cumulative effect of the responses that our firefighters are subjected to. We see the worst that humanity has to offer,” said Chief Reggie Freeman.
“All of these things compounded over time have a significant impact on our members."
Like so many problems at the local, state, and federal levels, there is a lack of seriousness and will to solve the problem. We can fix these problems if we hold our elected officials and public servants accountable. Keep it up, Terry!
When is the Sackler/Purdue Pharma opioid settlement money going to start flowing into Minnesota? What are the plans for how this money is going to be spent? Why did Minnesota close those two CARE facilities?
This is an excerpt from the article that Terry linked:
Anoka closure triggers concerns
With intense demand for mental health services and limited state dollars and staff, Minnesota officials have shifted resources away from CARE facilities in recent years toward psychiatric beds.
A CARE facility was located on the same campus as AMRTC, in an old building that had to be torn down to make space for the expansion, Brost said. He said state officials couldn’t find a move-in ready location to safely continue providing CARE services.
So the state leased a property on Energy Park Drive in St. Paul and is designing and building out a CARE facility there, he said.
When the Anoka CARE facility closed in May, the state offered to temporarily reassign the roughly 40 people working there to AMRTC. Brost said staff who shifted went through new employee orientation and received training to work at the large mental health hospital, including how to de-escalate incidents
My heart is heavy after reading this significant take on the mental health and drug addiction crisis.
Your personal descriptions while coming home is so vivid and one we all experienced in some form ourselves. Actively watching humans play Russian roulette with their lives and not being able to know how to stop it.
Our state and federal governments continue to pass the burden on to residents and businesses both emotionally and financially by not taking their responsibility seriously and coordinating efforts as you suggest and wasting our tax dollars by not actively coordinating with all partners and professionals to find more cost effective solutions.
Thank you for all the effort you put into your articles. You need to always send them to the City Council members and our other elected officials. Common sense should have a seat at the table.
There’s a certain irony at play for those giving money to panhandlers. It’s well-meaning, no doubt, but all too frequently leads to the panhandler’s death.
An important read, since it is all connected...
The Fentanyl Epidemic Is More Than an Affordable Housing Problem: A Tale of Four Cities Pt. 3
https://minneapolistimes.com/the-fentanyl-epidemic-is-more-than-an-affordable-housing-problem-a-tale-of-four-cities-pt-3/
Drug and alcohol addiction has been a problem since humans first began fermenting and distilling. Solving the problem is difficult because addicts come from many different directions and there’s no one simple way to solve the problem. And the addicted are not alone in the suffering: friends and family are often deeply affected, as is the general public-hence the well written article above.
I would agree that a state authority would be most effective at moving an effort forward, but the current state government is not in a position to undertake this initiative. They need to deal with their own issues first.
Hi Steven, I agree that this problem has been around a long time, but it's different now because the drugs are so much more powerful.
Terry, the people are different too. I had a great time in high school (1970’s) with a few friends and a little weed. Not only have I not smoked any in decades, but I have no desire to. All the technology we’ve invented has been utilized to improve and enhance the effects of just about everything we touch these days. We need to utilize that same technology to unravel the conundrum of addiction. While there are many ways to treat addiction currently, they all work best with willing participants. Very little can be done for the person who is not interested in quitting.
It is many of the SAME people that the police and EMS come out for. I have had to call them multiple times due to some very scary situations near Hiawatha Ave and 46th Street. A couple of people I see near 34th Ave and 50th Street, that I know, and have tried to help, look MUCH worse after 2-3 years. They are truly the walking dead.
Resources for police and EMS, for all of our cities, are only so deep. All of this active street drug use further restricts resources when a 50 year old neighbor, co worker, or family member gets off work, and appears to be having a heart attack, but has to WAIT, and maybe too long, to get the services that they have been paying into to support.
The only way to serve the population of public drug users is by mandating that they STAY in one place, long enough, to have a fighting chance at recovery.
So, involuntary commitment is required in almost all these cases, the folks that we see daily, involving the SAME individuals, month after month, and sometimes year after year. They are high users of drugs AND services, and are not able to contribute anything back, due to this addiction.
Excerpt from this piece....
"Consider that in cities like Portland, roughly half of police calls are related to drug and mental health crises. That statistic alone shows how the hidden costs of this epidemic continue to spiral."
At least in Mpls, EMS is right THERE with the police when these calls come in..
Another related impact, " the hidden costs of this epidemic.." is that it is hard to keep our First Responders out there working.
The result, more overtime, busting the budget, and more burn out..
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/minneapolis-fire-ptsd-leave-drives-12000-a-day-overtime-strain-city-leaders-rethink-agency-budget/
Excerpt...
“There’s been several high-profile incidents, but it’s really the cumulative effect of the responses that our firefighters are subjected to. We see the worst that humanity has to offer,” said Chief Reggie Freeman.
“All of these things compounded over time have a significant impact on our members."
Like so many problems at the local, state, and federal levels, there is a lack of seriousness and will to solve the problem. We can fix these problems if we hold our elected officials and public servants accountable. Keep it up, Terry!
When is the Sackler/Purdue Pharma opioid settlement money going to start flowing into Minnesota? What are the plans for how this money is going to be spent? Why did Minnesota close those two CARE facilities?
This is an excerpt from the article that Terry linked:
Anoka closure triggers concerns
With intense demand for mental health services and limited state dollars and staff, Minnesota officials have shifted resources away from CARE facilities in recent years toward psychiatric beds.
https://www.startribune.com/lawmakers-funds-mental-health-bed-expansion-for-people-languishing-in-jails-emergency-rooms/601372405 to add 50 beds at Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center (AMRTC), Minnesota’s largest psychiatric hospital. Sheriffs and mental health advocates were pressing legislators to add capacity as people who needed mental health treatment languished in jails and emergency rooms.
A CARE facility was located on the same campus as AMRTC, in an old building that had to be torn down to make space for the expansion, Brost said. He said state officials couldn’t find a move-in ready location to safely continue providing CARE services.
So the state leased a property on Energy Park Drive in St. Paul and is designing and building out a CARE facility there, he said.
When the Anoka CARE facility closed in May, the state offered to temporarily reassign the roughly 40 people working there to AMRTC. Brost said staff who shifted went through new employee orientation and received training to work at the large mental health hospital, including how to de-escalate incidents