When I first realized that I needed help,
I had no one to turn to.
Being in a small town,
once you're known for being an addict,
it's always going to be a label for you.
The opioid crisis is killing tens of thousands
every single year.
This is not an Appalachian problem, this is a contagion.
It is spreading. It's like a plague.
I'm Nikki King. I'm from the CADS program in Ripley County, Indiana.
We're located in the Ripley County Courthouse, which is in Versailles.
We are an eight month program.
So it's pretty intense.
It includes intensive outpatient program.
So that is nine hours of therapy a week. We also do individual therapy. We do family therapy.
We do dietetic consults. We do peer recovery coaching.
We don't really believe in substance use as a disease in and of itself.
It's usually the symptom of a lot of different things that are happening with that person.
Be it trauma or mental illness or
systemic failures of the safety net in rural communities.
So we look at how do you address all of that at once?
Thank you, thank you.
Yeah, okay.
I go all over the country helping people do this.
So I would love to help you guys if you need me.
Ripley County is very close-knit.
Everybody knows each other.
It's a slower pace.
When I first moved here five years ago, there was so much of
"Well, we had that one overdose, but that doesn't happen here."
And then it happened more and it happened more and it happened more,
and now people are just starting to get to the panic.
It's one of the first times that you have a rural community hospital
pairing up with a criminal justice organization
and saying, "How do we actually work together on even footing?"
And I think that makes CADS really special.
You don't see that anywhere else.
We have our strong suits. We have our quirks.
And when you put us together, we amplify
each other's quirks and amplify each other's strong suits.
Which is why it's successful.
But at the same time, that's why it's always a challenge.
All right, our treatment updates.
Let's talk about our most recent client who just got released from D.O.C.
We pulled together all the people who represent different resources in our community,
and we point them at the patients and say,
"Here's what they need, how are we going to make it happen?"
And we don't leave the room until it does.
Alright, let's look at our phase three.
I know that we're pretty backed up right now on new appointments with Dr. Dull,
so it might be an extended wait before we can get a new patient in with him.
We are looking at extending his time.
Before we had CADS, people would just get arrested
and they'd be sent to probation and probation would
Try to find some kind of treatment, but it wasn't there.
And so they'd end up right back where they started.
Then, the cycle repeats itself over and over and over
until they die.
Now that we do have treatment, it's created a new way.
Kenny was one of the first people who came out of the program.
Believe it or not, he was kind of quiet.
The first time I used, it was the most euphoric,
like, rush I had ever felt in my life, and
I knew then that I was not gonna stop.
There was a lot of stuff that probably played into it.
Like, family problems,
anxiety,
depression.
Well, like, 'cause after I quit doing drugs and stuff,
I got on this big nutritious kick and
we make hella smoothies and shit now.
A lot of smoothies.
I didn't have friends or family to fall back on.
Everyone was just fed up with me,
and then I got arrested on top of that.
My probation officer said that
I needed to be into this program
regardless of whether I wanted to or not.
In Ripley County, there is still a real stigma around drug abuse.
I feel like so many of these problems are super fixable
and I get really frustrated that nobody else sees that.
I get really frustrated that nobody else is willing to try.
I get away with some of my feistiness for being Appalachian.
If you've been around Appalachians a lot, it's just expected.
We get fired up easy.
I think people know that Eastern Kentucky was pretty much ground zero for the opioid epidemic.
It was hard to grow up and watch Disney Channel shows
Where you have these suburban kids who live these fantastic lives and you feel like it's a fantasy.
By the time that I was 12,
at one of my friend's birthday parties,
I found her mom passed out.
I don't think there's anybody in any rural community in the country that hasn't lost someone.
Alright, so this is just peers in recovery helping peers in recovery, man.
We get together, we help each other.
And it's just how we get better.
There's actually four people with us tonight in phase three of CADS and they graduate March 11th.
So, pretty awesome.
I guess one of my biggest regrets through my addiction would be not being a parent.
Putting dope, men, money,
careless, reckless
actions before my kids.
I have to live with that.
So I was one of them functioning addicts that never thought it was a problem, right?
The people that disconnect themselves or stop reaching out,
they relapse, they go to institutions, or they die.
Seeing those successes, seeing people who come in at
the end of the program and they're alive, they're healthy,
They're having dreams.
We are Versailles, Indiana.
We are living proof.
Those moments are super cool.
You kind of start to see these glimpses of a future.
So, for the CADS participants so far,
we have achieved one year and six months where nobody has died.
Now, I just need it to be the whole county,
and then I need it to be the state,
and then I need it to be the country.
I am a manager at McDonald's.
I get there at, like, 2:40 a.m
Gosh, it snowed a lot.
After, like, a lot of therapy and a lot of ups and a lot of downs,
I've been sober for about a year and a half.
It's like fuckin' Alaska out here.
It's gonna be a good day.
I never really
thought that I would be in a situation like this.
I thought I was just gonna be like my dad and just bum out for the rest of my life.
But I didn't.
I'm back.