A heroin user in a South Bronx neighborhood which is experiencing an epidemic in drug use, especially heroin and other opioid based drugs. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
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Patients with opioid addiction who show up in a hospital's ER face many barriers to recovery, and so do the doctors trying to help them. Easing those barriers on both sides helps patients get into good follow-up programs that lead to lasting change. Terry Vine/Getty Images hide caption
Each mobile clinic has a nurse, a counselor and a peer specialist — all trained to drive a 34-foot-long motor home. "I never thought when I went to nursing school that I'd be doing this," says Christi Couron as she pumps 52 gallons of diesel fuel into the vehicle. Markian Hawryluk/Kaiser Health News hide caption
Costs have gone up for addiction treatment centers in recent months, as they have had to invest in teletherapy and personal protective gear. "We are at risk for not having the funding that we need to keep our doors open," says one medical director. Maskot/Getty Images hide caption
Arthur Jackson watches as visiting nurse Brenda Mastricola changes the bandages on his foot. He needs a continuous dose of IV penicillin to treat a serious bone infection, and doctors decided he could safely get the treatment at home, despite his history of opioid addiction. Jesse Costa/WBUR hide caption
The Case For Sending Drug Users Home From The Hospital With Open IV Lines
Paul Williams (left) helps Scott Beatty build his 'backpack' guitar. It has a smaller body, meant to easily fit in a pack. Beatty is in the Culture of Recovery program which teaches instrument making to people recovering from addiction. Caitlin Tan/West Virginia Public Broadcasting hide caption
'A New Start' — In Recovery And Learning To Make Musical Instruments In Appalachia
West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Dr. Peter Grinspoon was a practicing physician when he became addicted to opioids. When he got caught, Grinspoon wasn't allowed access to what's now the standard treatment for addiction — buprenorphine or methadone (in addition to counseling) — precisely because he was a doctor. Tony Luong for NPR hide caption
For Health Workers Struggling With Addiction, Why Are Treatment Options Limited?
Travis Rieder, author of In Pain: A Bioethicist's Personal Struggle With Opioids, says none of the doctors who prescribed opioids for his waves of "fiery" or "electrical" pain taught him how to safely taper his use of the drugs when he wanted to quit. Stockbyte/Getty Images hide caption
Motorcycle Crash Shows Bioethicist The Dark Side Of Quitting Opioids Alone
Keri Blakinger spent nearly two years incarcerated on narcotics charges before becoming a criminal justice reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Nicole Hensley/Houston Chronicle hide caption
From Convict To Criminal Justice Reporter: 'I Was So Lucky To Come Out Of This'
Barb Williamson runs several sobriety houses in Pennsylvania, commercially run homes where residents support each other in their recovery from opioid addiction. Initially, she says, she saw the use of Suboxone or methadone by residents as "a crutch," and banned them. But evidence the medicines can be helpful changed her mind. Kimberly Paynter/WHYY hide caption
Many 'Recovery Houses' Won't Let Residents Use Medicine To Quit Opioids
Bea and Doug Duncan outside their home in Natick, Mass. The coaching they got from the Community Reinforcement and Family Training program, they say, gave them tools to help their son Jeff stick to his recovery from drug use. He's 28 now and has been sober for nine years. Robin Lubbbock/WBUR hide caption