Pennington GEP, Virginia. On Saturday evening, in June, people of this rural region gathered in the Historical Theater Lee in order to celebrate the foundation of the residence to restore women of higher land.
The author of Barbara Kingsolver opened an object in January from Royalti from her novel, which received the Pulitzer Prize “The demon is copper“Whose plot rotates around the opioid crisis of Appalachi. The house offers people support so that people can remain during training without drugs. Kingsolver asked the women living there to join her on stage.
Kingsolver, who grew up in Appalachi, invited women to share with the audience that they were most proud that they received their first weeks on a hill. But she found out that they strive to boast of each other.
Supporters say Higher Provides stability and a re -entry point after leaving prison, prison or medical center. It offers a wide range of services and support in the area, devastated dependence on painkillers and other types of opioids. This is mainly a real house with bedrooms with one and two people, communal cuisine and a log. Residents say that they found a statement from cohort women who understand how addiction can demoralize a person and alienate him from family and community.
Ronda Morgan, a resident, said that her family was always in her corner. But while she was serving imprisonment for drug storage, she said to herself: “I was tired of devoting them to me.” She was ready for recovery. Her daughter, who is a nurse, told her about the elevation, the first institution of this kind in Lee's stretching rural district. Morgan found out that she could live there up to two years to get the basis that slipped away from her for more than three decades of addiction.
What she did not expect was a relative that she forged with her house neighbors – among them, Siara Parsell – and with the staff of the Higher Earth.
35 -Parsell, one of the first inhabitants at a higher level, said that at one time she received assistance in searching for employment and entered the courses of the public college.
According to Parsell, she received support from the staff and Kingsolver without judgments. “Together,” she said, “we understand.”
Traditional medical institutions usually work under highly structured medical supervision. Houses of recovery, such as higher grounds, offer a more relaxed environment, helping the resident to “become an independent, completely functional, independent person,” said Marvin Ventrell, General Director of the National Association of Addiction Suppliers.
“Restoration takes place in the community,” he said. But the return must be approached delicately. “When there is a dependence with a person, this also occurs in the family social structure.” If a person in an early recovery returns to a family that is not prepared, the chances of this person for success are “strictly reduced”.
For Kingsolver, the opioid crisis became the center of the fact that, as she hoped, it will become a “great Appalachian novel.” The epidemic “has changed the texture of this place so much”, destructive families and communities.
Pharmaceutical companies Target central appalachi To sell what they falsely argued that resistant to drug addiction opioids according to the recipe. Kingsolver wanted to “throw my network to all the extracting industries that came to this place, removed what was good and left behind the mess.”
“The way I expressed this:“ They came to collect our pain when nothing else is left, ”she said.
In the research of Demon Copperhead, she plunged in the history of people who won dependence, and those who care and protect them.
The novel was a huge success, selling more than 3 million copies and earning much more than its previous works. Kingsolver decided to devote hundreds of thousands of dollars by considering the crisis that stunned the region where it grew up – and to which it returned for a full time in 2004.
Again, she started listening. Based on a wide range of knowledge, she determined that the house of restoration of women was the most wise investment.
Joei Cantrell works a nurse in the field of healthcare in Reduced harm For the Ministry of Health of Virginia, support for politics and practice to curb the negative consequences of drug use and serves as chairman of the board of directors at a higher level. She has long learned the need for such a house.
“It was the part that was absent,” said Cantrell. Too often, when someone leaves the medical institution or conclusion, “we have lost them. They returned to the same old models. ” She said that the region was extremely needed by a safe, stable environment where women could retreat.
By August, the house reached its potential seven women. This is right in the city, “which is so important,” said Kingsolver, “because in this part of the country we do not have public transport.”
Parsell has long suffered from social worries; The drugs were her salvation. Here her neighbors hugged her. They offered support that she never experienced.
“Every two seconds someone likes:“ Siara is here! ”She said. “I am very grateful for that.” If the house has a problem, “one of the seven we have a solution.”
Four residents work outside the house, one is enrolled in class in public colleges, one of them ends GED with plans to continue their education, and all volunteers in society. Craft classes are offered. Family members visit.
“They live their lives,” said Subrenda Huff, who was filled, while director Liz Brooks took on a maternity leave.
Morgan said that she had reached more in a month on a hill than in recent years. This includes filing an application for identification documents, attending classes on budgeting and searching for permanent housing. It includes dividing responsibilities for the maintenance in the house.
This was the vision of Kingsolver. But she said: “That's what I did not expect: the community accepted it with loving hands. I thought that maybe people would say: “I do not want this in my backyard.”
Most of the furniture was donated. About a quarter of a million or so followers on social networks played an important role in this. “But these are not only book clubs in Switzerland or California, these are people in Pennington -GEP,” she said. Church groups donated “quilted blankets, bedside lamps, things that can be hanged on the walls to make it household.”
Before opening the object, local people volunteered to pull out weeds, remove the old fence and put a new one. Kingsolver said that the support well “was just endless. It was deep and loving, and it is amazing to see. ”
According to Kantrell, Higher Ground, with only one paid employee, estimated the annual operating costs of $ 120,000. Residents are charged $ 50 a week. Ventrell said that the fees in other houses of recovery are very different, but $ 2500 per month are approximate average.
“We want them to focus on saving money and paying for any restitution or fines that they can have from past charges,” Kantrell said. “Some may be focused on repaying alimony that they can be.”
The Higher Land does not receive federal or state funding. Donations continue to enter. And Kingsolver recently bought a building next to the plans to open a commission store, which will become a source of additional income for the house and offer experience with retail trade for its residents.
Supporters seek to open more higher ground houses in other places of the region.
What these women get, Kingsolver said: ” – This is not just sobriety, but also faith in itself.”
KFF Health News This is the national news department that creates deep journalism on health care and is one of the main operating programs in the KFF-dependent source of research, surveys and journalism. Find out more about KFFField
Use our content
This story can be reprinted for free (Details)
