Churches can support addicts, prof. says

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. — Churches and church members can help heal and support those caught in opioid addiction, says Raymond Barfield, a pediatric oncologist and professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who led a May 18–19 gathering of clinicians, clergy and educators serving in southern Appalachia where opioid addiction is rampant.

Barfield said church leaders can have “some significant impact” if they see addicts as “broken, fragile people who are in need of love and help and healing.” A church philosophy that the way out of addiction “is to pull yourself up by your bootstraps or just believe enough” won’t solve the problem, Barfield said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that in 2016 more than 42,000 Americans overdosed on opioids and 11.5 million Americans misused prescription opioids. (RNS)