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First Drug Task Force Meeting Focuses On Treatment, Prevention, Enforcement

Eric Molina
/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/iamagenious/

Members of the governor’s newly created Drug Abuse Task Force heard a common theme at their first meeting Wednesday: local communities and programs around the state need more money.  But addiction treatment professionals say money alone isn’t the solution.

Andy Chambers is an addiction psychiatrist with Eskenazi Health’s Midtown Community Mental Health clinic in Indianapolis.  He says 50-percent of Indiana’s psychiatrists are within 10 years of retirement and the IU School of Medicine only trains six psychiatrists per year.

"On top of that figure, we discover that only 25-percent of Indiana psychiatrists were actually trained in Indiana," he says. "So not only are we not training enough but we’re having to cope with the unbelievable pressure of having to recruit from outside of Indiana into psychiatry, which is almost impossible.”

Carrie Cadwell is an clinical psychologist in rural Indiana.  She says doctors also need to be more proactive about treating mental health and addiction.

“Do we hope that people walk in our doors and we can grab them when they finally walk in our door?" she asks. "We need to be treating them where they find themselves every single day.”

Yet Hendricks County Sheriff Brett Clark says the solution can’t just be working with users. He says families need to be involved.

“Without us educating and getting these families involved and having some way to reach the youth, without a support network I’m really worried that some of those folks won’t make it the five miles from my jail to the community health center," he says.

The task force Wednesday approved so-called “action items” for the governor to implement.  Those include exploring whether the Indiana Medical Licensing Board should require continuing medical education for doctors who prescribe controlled substances, exploring youth intervention services that have worked in local communities across the state and a request for the federal government to expand Medicaid coverage of mental health and addiction treatment services.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.