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Catholic Charities brings together parish liaisons to tackle the opioid crisis

Elizabeth A. Elliott | Catholic Herald Staff Writer

More than 80 parish liaisons attend the quarterly meeting at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax June 14.ELIZABETH A. ELLIOTT | CATHOLIC HERALD

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Fr. James R. Gould, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Warrenton, begins the quarterly Parish Liaison Network meeting at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax June 14. ELIZABETH A. ELLIOTT | CATHOLIC HERALD

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George Swanberg, executive director of Life Line Counseling in Fairfax, speaks to parish liaisons about his work. ELIZABETH A. ELLIOTT | CATHOLIC HERALD

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Diocesan Catholic Charities hosted its quarterly Parish Liaison
Network meeting at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax June 14. The liaisons
learned about the opioid crisis through the lens of a counseling center, a
recovering addict and a parish support program.

Father James R. Gould, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church
in Warrenton, began the presentations with prayer. “Justice is virtue that
gives to a person what is due, rooted in our perception of who we are (as)
children of God,” he said. “We need to be sensitive to who (the addicts) are
and sensitive to the fact that they are more than just numbers.”

He told the liaisons to be attentive to where they are coming
from and where they are. “You become more capable of bringing solutions to the
church,” Father Gould said. “Be strong in your faith. You have the roots that
should affect your insights.”

George Swanberg, executive director of Life Line Counseling in Fairfax,
said addiction is a brain damage issue. He showed scans of the brain and how
they change when drugs are introduced. According to Swanberg, 175 people die every
day in the United States from opioids and there were 1,422 deaths in Virginia in
2016.

Swanberg said families need to be involved in the recovery
process. “It is harder to get the family to come to family meetings than it is
to get the impaired one to attend,” he said, pointing out that families are
changed by living in a house with addiction.

Dan Stendeback spoke about opioids from a personal standpoint. He
became the first client in the Catholic Charities Welcome Home Re-entry Program
after being released from the Fairfax Adult Detention Center last October. He is
now a mentor in the program and is president of his Oxford House, a sober
living program.

Stendeback shared his past drug use and how he was introduced to
opioids when he was an adult — people who owed him money paid him in OxyContin.
He got hooked, turning eventually to heroin, spending up to $500 per day on it.
He started a shoplifting ring to afford his habit. He was in three different
jails before things started to turn around. And now he wants to help others.

“I need to give back to keep me on the path that I’m on,” he
said.

Susan Infeld, a parish nurse at St. John Neumann Church in Reston,
spoke from the perspective of parish involvement. She described the opioid
crisis as a pro-life issue and one that is an elephant in the room for families
and parishes. When Infeld shared her son’s addiction struggle, it prompted
discussion with others in the parish who shared their own struggles or sought
guidance and support for their loved ones.

St. John Neumann has sponsored educational programs for
parishioners and for those from other parishes, including one on alternative
treatments for chronic pain, prescription drug and opioid abuse geared toward
youths and adults, and an eight-week study support group for people from
different areas of concern about addiction, including Alcoholics Anonymous,
Narcotics Anonymous and others.

Infeld said prayers are not enough and people need to be
proactive, not just reactive.

“What does a successful parish support program look like?” she
asked. “It starts with the pastor, acknowledging addiction is not a moral
failing, and affirming that substance abuse disorders affect everyone.”

Trina Black, the parish liaison for St. Bridget of Ireland Church
in Berryville, hopes her parish will be able to provide support for those with
addictions. “Addiction always sounds like a personal problem. It sounds like
it’s all your fault or a moral issue,” she said. “It’s a personal thing when
you notice there are lot of families that are suffering and don’t say anything.
Having this amount of knowledge is enough to say there is help and it’s not
your fault.”

The church holds a more powerful key to recovery than a secular
perspective, said Beverly Tauke, Catholic Charities board member and counselor.
“What is needed for those who are in recovery is acceptance and a lot of them
are walking wounds emotionally,” she said. “They are hurting, and often in
faith communities, you can be embraced in a way that doesn’t happen anyplace
else.”

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