Center for Rural Pennsylvania reflect on 10 years addressing substance abuse and opioid crisis

The Spark

The Center for Rural Pennsylvania has been examining substance abuse and the opioid crisis for 10 years, holding a total of 20 public hearings. Dr. Kyle C. Kopko, Executive Director of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania says in rural areas, there’s less infrastructure, less healthcare providers, and transportation issues.

“We've seen that rural Pennsylvania for a period of time actually had higher overdose rates once you standardize for populations relative to urban areas. Now, it's hard to pinpoint why that is, but our best hunch is due to those access types of issues having fewer providers, it's harder to get to treatment centers. There are just fewer doctors, fewer nurses, and health care professionals in general in our rural communities versus our urban communities. So, we have to be really mindful of that, “said Kopko.

The last public hearing was at Kutztown University in Berks County. Senator Gene Yaw, Chairman of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania says there’s a lot of misconceptions about substance abuse disorder.

“And I think in simple terms, we need to make the point that a person that becomes addicted to heroin or opioids, that's not a moral short. I mean, for that person, as he said, it changes your body makeup. And those drugs do. For some people, it's just like diabetes. I mean, some of us processed sugar with no problem. Others don't. And you need to take medication in order to survive every day.”

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