Last Updated: September 25, 2024
The first ever Regional Recovery Day for Henrico, Richmond, Chesterfield, and Hanover is less than a week away! On Monday, September 30, the general public is invited to the Henrico Sports and Entertainment Center—located at 1 All Star Boulevard in Glen Allen—from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. to learn from addiction specialists, check out recovery resources, and connect with vendors.
Leslie Stephen is Henrico’s Director of Substance Use and Prevention Services and works at Henrico Mental Health & Developmental Services. She has been working hard with a cross-community team to organize the afternoon. The event showcases the range of resources available to people in recovery and the loved ones supporting them. It also highlights the importance of work happening across city and county lines.
RHHD is proud to collaborate with both Leslie and her Richmond counterpart, Richmond Opioid Response Coordinator Mike Fatula. If you spend even a few minutes with Leslie and Mike, it’s clear how much they champion and learn from each other’s efforts. Richmond and Henrico might be two different communities, but we share a feelings of urgency when it comes to helping people with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) toward recovery.
Behind every city or county initiative to support recovery and reduce SUD is a dedicated team of folks with big hearts for the work they do. Mike and Leslie spoke with us to give us a little insight into those teams, to share their journeys into substance use work, and to highlight ways for community members to get involved.
How did you find your way into substance use work?
LS: I got my first job here as a mental health case manager with adults, which was work I loved. I transitioned to substance use probably about 15 years ago. There are so many similarities and overlaps with substance use issues and mental health issues. There’s so much potential for recovery, I had so much to learn, and I found I really loved the population. I have family members both in recovery and members who were never able to achieve recovery, so there were a lot of familiar themes that came up in my personal life as well as my work life.
MF: How am I supposed to follow that amazing answer? I have been a therapist for about 15 years in Virginia. I started with community services boards first and did a lot of emergency services work. I had always wanted to work in the justice system because a large portion of my caseload was on probation or justice involved. The Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) created these mental health positions in probation and parole, so I applied for those. I worked as the Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) coordinator at the VADOC and the statewide SUD Program Manager.
And then I had this opportunity to come to the City of Richmond as the Opioid Response Coordinator and focus on one area. I started on April 22, and I was amazed to see the infrastructure that was already here in the city. It’s been a really good few months!
You both work with teams of people in your current roles. At the city and county government levels, what taskforces or initiatives are most responsible for addressing substance use disorder and recovery?
LS: I’ve been on the Henrico Addiction Task Force since the beginning in 2016. We have just rebranded—we are the Empower Henrico Taskforce, and we’re excited about that change. I’ve worked one-on-one in private practice settings before, but now I’m most interested in macro-level changes: how do we create or revise programs and practices to support people navigating addiction? The work is so rewarding.
MF: The Richmond Opioid Task Force started in close partnership with RHHD. When we meet, we’ve got over 650 years of human services experience in the room. Together, we work to make evidence-based decisions. Substance use is a multifaceted disease that has multiple approaches to recovery. No one way works exactly the same for everybody. Having all those people at the table is important to ensure the range of approaches. Our Task Force members can see the gaps in services and help us think about what we need to fund and how. We’ve taken what we’ve learned from other people, especially Henrico—I really look up to Leslie and Henrico!
What can people do to get involved?
LS: You can find all the information about our work on our website, Bounce Back from Addiction. This website will actually change to recovery.henrico.org on October 1! Both versions of the website will include information about our meetings. The Task Force is not a closed space. Anybody who wants to come and join any part of the discussion is welcome.
What we want our community to do is to be engaged. Get trained on naloxone, which is a medication that can reverse overdose. There was a grandmother in our communities who came to one of our free events and got trained. She’s come back multiple times for naloxone because she is the person in the community people know is trained and will be able to help.
We also want people to be able to discard their medication appropriately. We’re out at Dorey Park Farmers Markets on some Saturdays. We provide naloxone, we provide disposal bags. We’re at lots of community events.
MF: Being aware is the big part. Knowing about Regional Recovery Day and coming out to learn more is important.
What are some successes you want to celebrate? How do we know this work is making an impact?
MF: I was at the General Assembly the other day, and they have boxes of naloxone on top of their AED machines. The schools have to have naloxone now. It’s becoming more normalized. Mounds of research show that naloxone is effective in reducing overdose and does not encourage drug use.
LS: Our numbers of fatal overdoses went down last year for the first time after years of increase. That’s connected to inundating the community with naloxone and educating people how to use it. The more naloxone becomes an everyday thing, the more treatment becomes an everyday thing too. I think it helps reduce stigma when we’re all talking about it and learning how to use it. It helps people seek treatment.
Be a part of this important Task Force work by heading out to Regional Recovery Day on September 30!
