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Vilsack and Iowans want opioid prevention funding

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and community leaders in Iowa are calling for Congress to approve increased funding for treatment and prevention of opioid abuse. On a conference call with reporters this morning, a mayor, a sheriff and a mother of a man who died from a heroin overdose joined Vilsack in saying more treatment facilities are needed that focus on this addiction issue. Vilsack said, “Of the behavioral service centers that provide assistance and help with addiction, there are over 1,000 of them in the U.S., only 25 are located in rural communities.”

Secretary Vilsack says more than 900-Million dollars in the president’s proposed budget allocation of $1.1 Billion would expand treatment options across the country. Vilsack says tele-medicine is a viable option in rural areas to increase treatment when a physical location is not available.

Patricia Pressley of Coralville, Iowa, says her son struggled with the addiction for years and there was never medical help available. She says that must change, “If our system of healthcare had worked, I would not be here talking to you today. Nick would still be here and many of the 28,000 people who lost their lives in 2014 to overdose deaths would still be here.”

Story County, Iowa Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald says mental illness and addiction too often go hand-in-hand and that county jails have become the biggest mental health facilities, “Either a person was arrested because of their acting out and you’ll find they had an addiction issue that went along with that. Or, they’d been arrested for addictions of some kind and you’ll see that they also had a mental health issue.”

Fitzgerald is chairman of the drug task force in Story and Green Counties in Iowa and says they plan to expand to two more counties. He says they have been losing funding as drug abuse continues to rise.