Wednesday, November 21,2018
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 5A
Cycle of substance abuse, mental health hard to unravel
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
“It was almost manualized
said Avita Chief Clinical Officer
Lori Holbrook as she explained
mental health treatment from 40
years ago.
It didn’t matter what the men
tal health disorder was; the way
to treat clients was formulaic.
Not anymore.
Due to the increasing abuse of
substances as a way to self-
medicate, medical profession
als, counselors and law enforce
ment have had to go back to the
drawing board to navigate the
complex issue of substance
abuse and mental health treat
ment.
“You almost cannot have a
substance abuse diagnosis with
out a mental health diagnosis,”
said Holbrook.
Treatment centers like Avita
Community Partners constantly
have to modify their treatment
approaches to keep up with the
rapidly advancing addictions
facing communities.
“It is so multilayered how it
affects us,” said Holbrook. “As
providers it affects us because
we modified our assessments
even, so that we’re not neglect
ing.”
Mental health and substance
abuse treatments used to be dif
ferentiated, but in recent years
the umbrella term “behavioral
health” has been adopted due to
the increasing overlap in diag
noses.
Most of Avita’s clients are co
diagnosed and providers can’t
afford to treat each diagnosis
separately because it’s a cycle
where one affects the other,
according to
Holbrook.
Counselor Joe
Stapp of Blue
Ridge Counseling
also sees a strong
correlation
between mental
health and sub
stance abuse when
he sits down with clients.
“More often than not ... I’m
thinking ‘what drug,”’ said
Stapp.
When talking with clients bat
tling depression, anxiety and
other mental health disorders,
Stapp will often ask what drug
they use to self-medicate, he
said.
Self-medicating is a way to
escape, and with illegal sub
stances readily available in the
community it’s become even
easier for those needing treat
ment to find a remedy for the
pain they are escaping.
Dawson County Treatment
Court Coordinator Suzanne
Stanley believes many addic
tions stem from past traumas
and the inability to cope with
them in a healthy way.
Most treatment court partici
pants are also co-diagnosed and
seek treatment for both their
substance addiction and their
mental health dis
orders in the two
and a half year
long mandated
treatment program.
“A lot of it is
environmental so
if you go through a
traumatic event as
a small child then,
you know, you’re not taught
how to cope with that event or
maybe your parents didn’t edu
cate you on how to have healthy
coping mechanisms, so then as a
teenager you’re introduced into
alcohol or drugs,” said Stanley.
“You think ‘Oh wow, this feels
good,’ ‘I don’t have to think
about this event that happened
to me,’ or, ‘I can numb out the
pain I feel from this event,’ so
then you start using drugs and
alcohol and it just kind of snow
balls out of control.”
Eventually, the suppression of
feelings and self-medicating
with substances to deal with
past traumas like physical, men
tal, and sexual abuse and sud
den, tragic deaths or accidents,
will come bubbling up to the
surface, Stanley said.
“It’s not something to be
ashamed of. Everybody has
something. You wouldn’t be
ashamed if you had diabetes or
cancer ... with addiction you
don’t hear that or see that. It’s
not something to be ashamed of.
It’s an illness,” said Stanley. “No
one knows how they would han
dle a situation until they’re put
in that and yes, maybe at first it
is a choice. They choose to take
that first drink, to smoke that
first joint, but then they’re no
longer in the driver’s seat.
They’re a passenger on the train
of addiction and it’s out of con
trol.”
It’s not any easier to deal with
on the law enforcement side of
it as the Dawson County
Sheriff’s Office comes into con
tact with self-medicating indi
viduals on a daily basis.
“It’s not as clear and defined
as black and white,” said
Dawson County Sheriff Jeff
Johnson. “A lot of people self-
medicate. They’re looking for
something to help with the
issues they’re having, so that
drives them to look for different
remedies, so to speak, escapes,
so it’s very complex.”
Johnson realizes that his
department will be in contact
with individuals in the commu
nity who are facing a two
pronged battle that has had an
effect on adapting policies and
training to deal with individuals
who might be struggling.
Individuals with mental health
disorders coupled with self-
medicating on illicit substances
can lead to dangerous situations
for both themselves and officers.
“It’d be real easy to look at it
from a law enforcement per
spective and say, ‘Let’s put them
in jail and throw away the key,’
but it’s not that simple. It’s far
more complex,” Johnson said.
“At the end of the day, I think
anything we can do to help our
brothers and sisters, so to speak,
and realize that whether it’s jail,
whether it’s treatment, whatever
the case may be, trying to pro
vide some form of relief.”
Editor’s note: This is the
third article in the Dawson
County News ’ continuing series
on the Dawson County
Substance Abuse Coalition.
'It's not as clear
and defined as
black and white.'
Dawson County
Sheriff Jeff Johnson
Cause of fatal plane crash at Gainesville airport unknown
From DCN Regional Staff
Federal investigators
were sifting through evi
dence Sunday at the
scene of a fatal plane
crash at Lee Gilmer
Memorial Airport in
Gainesville.
A preliminary report
could be issued in about
10 days, said Keith
Holloway, spokesman for
the National
Transportation Safety
Board.
A more complete report
— one that gives possible
causes of the crash —
could be released in
12-18 months, he said.
“It’s more about fact
gathering and collecting
all the perishable evi
dence at this point,”
Holloway said. “The air
craft will be moved to
(another) facility for fur
ther examination if neces
sary.”
Robert Carlisle
Alberhasky, 68, of
Cumming, died after his
2015 Lancair
International Legacy RG
crashed Nov. 17.
Alberhasky is believed
to have been the pilot,
Gainesville police
spokesman Sgt. Kevin
Holbrook said.
Mark Lewis, 69, of
Flowery Branch was also
in the plane and critically
injured. He was taken by
ambulance to Northeast
Georgia Medical Center,
where he was in fair con
dition Sunday afternoon.
Police and both the
Gainesville and Hall
County fire departments
arrived on the scene
shortly after receiving a
911 call close to 7 p.m.
Nov. 17. The Federal
Aviation Administration
arrived at about 10 p.m.
“It appears that the
plane was about to land
when at some point it
possibly struck some
trees across Queen City
Parkway and then struck
a tower here at the air
port,” Holbrook said
Saturday.
Emergency personnel
discovered the single
engine plane had fallen
down an embankment
along Queen City
Parkway.
Holbrook said Sunday
the tower, believed to be
used for lighting, didn’t
have major damage.
“It should not interfere
with operations of the air
port,” he said.
Holbrook did say the
airport was “closed for
air traffic (Sunday) for
investigative and recov
ery purposes. Once that
is complete, things
should return to normal
operations.”
Photo courtesy Gainesville Police
A plane crashed Nov. 17 at Lee Gilmer Memorial
Airport in Gainesville.
