Funding and access to treatment

Dear Editor,

The fentanyl crisis is out of hand! Parents should not be burying their adult children, and small children should not have to grow up without their parents. According to USAfacts.org, Oklahoma had 648 deaths related to fentanyl in 2022.1 think we can all agree this number has likely continued to rise over the past few years.

The death rate of Native Americans was 30.8% higher than white Americans in that same year. This is not OK. I have been a child welfare social worker for 14 years. It is heartbreaking to watch the children of this community lose their parents.

In 2023, Cherokee Nation Indian Child Welfare received a notice of guardianship involving 412 Cherokee children due to fentanyl use by a parent. The most effective treatment for opioid dependency is inpatient treatment. These 30-to 90-day inpatient stays are not cutting it. But you’re lucky to find an open bed at a short-term facility even to be able to do a 30-90 day stay.

We need more long-term inpatient facilities. Six months to a year inpatient has the highest success rates. The rates are even higher when paired with extensive outpatient treatment after being released from an inpatient facility. I am so thankful Cherokee Nation has started constructing a new inpatient facility to help save the people in our community. But the Cherokee Nation cannot do it alone. There needs to be more funding at the state and federal levels to help support more inpatient facilities.

I am encouraging each of you to reach out to your state and federal representatives and let them know how important you think it is for substance abuse treatment centers to be fully funded and access to treatment to be more attainable. It will take each and every one of us to combat this fentanyl crisis.

Thank you,

BRANDI PHILIPS, SALLISAW