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More companies are adopting policies to support employees recovering from addiction

May 13, 2024
Nearly 50 million people in the U.S. have a substance use disorder, and most are in the workforce. Could employers take a bigger role in recovery?
Research shows that recovery-supportive workplace policies can reduce turnover costs, injuries, accidents and health care costs.
SDI Productions/Getty Images

California invests millions to try and curtail drug overdoses

Dec 28, 2021
The program's approach includes an emphasis on medically-assisted treatment, using drugs to help ease withdrawal symptoms and cravings.
California Bridge regional director Joshua Luftig, right, and program coordinator Christian Hailozian at the Bridge Substance Use Program at Highland Hospital in Oakland
Beth LaBerge/KQED

Substance use treatment goes virtual as people shelter from pandemic

May 12, 2020
Treatment usually involves in-person therapy and group meetings. Now, counselors are trying to adjust.
Treatment centers are pivoting to online counseling to provide services while minimizing risk.
Zak Bennett/AFP via Getty Images

Families bear the costs of alternative sentencing programs

Apr 12, 2019
Does alternative sentencing create a system of easily exploited free labor?
Judge John Kilgore presides over drug court at the Wise County Courthouse in Virginia.
Ben Hethcoat/Marketplace

As jail costs pile up, one county is taking a new approach to community service

Apr 11, 2019
The opioid epidemic is filling jails. Wise County, Virginia, is looking for alternatives.
Mitzi Bowen, 44, of Wise, Virginia, cleans up after a resident moved out of the Commonwealth Apartments on Dec. 7, 2018. Bowen said she became addicted to opioids after her dentist prescribed Lortabs for tooth pain. "One day I woke up and I couldn't feel good without the pills," she said.
Julia Rendleman/Marketplace

The Danish hotel helping recovering addicts get back on their feet

Mar 14, 2019
Hotellet, in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, is a hotel that trains and employs recovering drug addicts, helping its staff work and reconnect with the wider community. At $74 a night, which includes a Scandinavian breakfast, the rooms are inexpensive for Copenhagen. The staff work mornings and the hotel switches to “self-service” for guests in […]
Joachim, 19, who works in the 'Hotellet,' sits in a room of the hotel in Copenhagen, 09 January 2007.
OLA TORKELSSON/AFP/Getty Images

Opioid overdoses overwhelm the nation's morgues

May 11, 2017
Drug-related deaths highlight a critical need for more trained pathologists.
As of 2015, overdose became the number one cause of injury-related death, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Susan Burton's fight to stop a cycle of 'institutional abuse'

May 9, 2017
After doing several stints herself, helping women transition out of prison is personal.
“Life has took me on a journey, and through much of that journey, I didn't feel whole, connected and grounded,” said Susan Burton.
RICHARD BOUHET/AFP/Getty Images

Opioid epidemic inspires startup to help mothers with drug addiction

Jan 9, 2017
Babies born addicted to opioids require expensive hospital stays. One Tennessee company is trying to cut those costs.
The "recovery services" sign at an addiction center in East Tennessee. 
Blake Farmer

Farming program aims to help addicts and their families

Nov 24, 2016
The program in southern Oregon uses volunteer work and clean eating to get parents clean.
A walk to the barn at Hanley Historic Farm.
Doug Lofdahl, Farm & Food Program