Rural Issue

Iowa mother says addiction services could have saved her son

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.”

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.”