From a WHTM ABC27 special report on the opioid epidemic featuring the Diocese of Harrisburg’s Evergreen House.
With the number of overdose deaths only continuing to get worse, we thought we’d look at a supplemental approach to recovery that addicts may want to consider.
Faith can be a powerful antidote to addiction. Catholic Charities’ Evergreen House is a residential halfway house for women.
Low-income women get free treatment for three to six months. Faith isn’t pushed at this Dauphin County home, but you see evidence of it.
A study by Dr. Eric Kocian of Saint Vincent College shows that among addicts who spoke with a priest, minister or rabbi, 75 percent said doing so was an effective component of their recovery process.
Robert J. O’Hara Jr, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, wrote that while some people may be tempted to see addiction as a moral failing, we must respond to the opioid epidemic as a public health crisis and treat drug abuse as a disease, not a sin.
