As Mississippi grapples with the opioid epidemic, individuals and local organizations are leading efforts to fight addiction using personal experiences and acts of compassion to guide others toward recovery.

Opioid-related overdose deaths in Mississippi in 2022 accounted for 78.4% of all overdose fatalities in the state, claiming 281 lives, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health. 

Mississippi pharmacies dispensed over 410,000 opioid doses daily on average, totaling 149 million doses in a year — equivalent to about 50 doses per resident, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.

While state officials work to bolster prevention and treatment programs, local organizations and those in recovery play a critical role in addressing the epidemic.

For Jody Couch, founder of Inside Out Outreach, the battle against addiction begins with compassion and community support. Her Gulf Coast-based organization focuses on providing food, clothing, toiletries, spiritual support and other essential resources to individuals experiencing homelessness and battling addiction, addressing immediate needs while fostering a sense of community. 

Couch’s Christian faith fuels her work, she said.

“Many people I meet feel invisible,” Couch said. “We remind them they’re not. This is more than just providing food or clothes — it’s about showing them a way forward. I believe that with faith and encouragement, people can find the strength to overcome their struggles.”

That’s what she tried to show 47-year-old Jennifer Callais of Louisiana on a Wednesday morning in August in Gulfport. Callais stood before her, tears streaming down her face.

“I just want to get better and change my life,” Callais said as Couch handed her a bag of donated clothes and food for her and her boyfriend. For years, Callais had struggled with opioid addiction and is one of many individuals Couch regularly supports.

Through Inside Out Outreach, Couch spends her days delivering goods to homeless encampments, offering prayer, and helping people envision a path to recovery. Though she has no personal history of addiction, Couch’s work is rooted in empathy and faith. Encounters like Callais’ reaffirm her belief that small acts of compassion can spark hope and transform lives.

Finding recovery through faith

For 43-year-old Casey Wortman of Saltillo, addiction is personal, and she aims to use her lived experiences to help others. 

As a teenager, Wortman turned to opioids to escape feelings of loneliness and despair.

“Drugs became my escape from loneliness and those terrible voices in my head,” Wortman said.

Wortman’s challenges began early. Her parents divorced when she was three, creating an unstable home environment. After her father died when she was 11, she entered into a downward spiral of drug and alcohol use, compounded by trauma and family instability. 

Wortman’s road to recovery began with a transformative spiritual experience. In 2017, she turned to faith-based treatment, enrolling in Transformation Home for Women in Mississippi. This decision marked a pivotal moment in her life, as she found strength and purpose through her faith, she said.

“I just scream and shout and worship because Jesus set me free,” she said. Through her recovery, she reconnected with her children, rebuilt her family and embraced her role in helping others. 

“There were so many times I thought I’d never make it,” Wortman said. “But I did. And if I can, so can others.”

Today, Wortman is married, a mother, and works at Anchor Church in Tupelo, helping others discover the strength that faith and community can provide. Her life now stands in stark contrast to the struggles she faced during her addiction.

“I have both of my children back, and I’ve been married for five years to the most hardworking, loving, selfless, caring man I know,” Wortman said. “Recovery gave me more than sobriety — it gave me a life I never dreamed was possible.”

‘A turning point’

Patrick Davis of Tupelo said he found recovery through resilience, purpose and the support of his community. The 22-year-old’s addiction began as a way to escape fear and anxiety, but the toll it took on his relationships and self-worth eventually pushed him to make a change.

“I got tired of being embarrassed, detoxing constantly, just trying to survive,” Davis said. “I wanted to look myself in the mirror again and be OK.”

Davis struggled with how his addiction affected his family. While they wanted him around, he often kept his distance, ashamed of the burden he placed on them.

“My family loved having me around, but when I was there, I wasn’t really there,” Davis said. “It was hard for me to show up for anything. I was always late, or I just wouldn’t come. I was stressful to be around, and I gave it all away. Today, it’s different. They can trust me now, and it feels good to be wanted again.”

At 19, Davis entered recovery, tired of the cycle of addiction and seeking something more meaningful. The decision to pursue sobriety was rooted in wanting to reclaim his life.

“It wasn’t easy, but I had to relearn how to live,” Davis said.

Richard Morris, who has been Davis’ best friend since fifth grade, saw the toll addiction took on him.

 “The Patrick that was around back then was barely a person,” Morris said. “He couldn’t exist without the stuff. To imagine back then that he would have even been in my wedding — it’s impossible to imagine. When I first saw him after rehab, it was like the first time I’d seen him alive in five years.”

Now, Davis is studying social work and channels his experiences into his job as a community outreach representative at Heale Counseling in Tupelo, finding fulfillment in helping others. 

“I love my job. I love its culture,” Davis said. “We lead with honesty and integrity, and you don’t find many companies like that. I’m proud of all the work we’ve done and the staff’s reputation.”

Morris, who has been sober for nearly three years, said he’s proud of his friend’s transformation. 

“Patrick was rough, and it started really young,” Morris said. “But to see him get better, it’s incredible. He’s like a brother to me, and I couldn’t be prouder.”

-PHOTO GALLERY-

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Dec. 17, 1938

L. C. Dorsey was born to a sharecropping family in Tribbett, Mississippi. She became friends with Fannie Lou Hamer, who inspired Dorsey to get involved in the civil rights movement and to join the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, for which Dorsey began organizing boycotts and demonstrations. 

She began working for Head Start and then Operation Help. After getting her doctorate from Howard University, she returned to Mississippi and resumed her work with Head Start, this time as the director of social services in Greenville. She also began working on prison reform, serving as associate director of the Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons from 1974 to 1983. 

Dorsey wrote a book, “Cold Steel,” describing life in Mississippi’s Parchman prison, and served on President Jimmy Carter’s National Council for Economic Opportunity. 

In 1988, she became executive director of the Delta Health Center in Mound Bayou and later worked as a clinical associate professor for the University of Mississippi Medical Center. 

She died in 2013. An annual award honors her work, and so does the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Lawmakers want to make it easier for medical facilities to add in-demand health care services by loosening provisions in a law that requires health facilities to seek state approval first. 

The time-consuming and sometimes costly application process, which requires facilities to seek a “certificate of need” for health care planning purposes, can stifle needed services, especially in rural areas, according to health officials.

House Public Health and Human Services Chair Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, said he plans to author a bill that would eliminate state approval requirements for hospital dialysis programs, substance abuse treatment centers and psychiatric care facilities in Mississippi. It would raise the capital expenditure threshold, or the maximum amount hospitals can spend on capital improvements without approval, by 50%. 

“That’s a common sense bill that would help Mississippians,” he said.

Certificate of need law is a familiar target for legislative reform in Mississippi, but few substantial changes have been made to the law since 2016. A select committee convened by Speaker of the House Jason White and co-chaired by Creekmore met twice since August to explore possibilities for tweaking the law. 

Certificate of need laws aim to lower costs and improve the quality and accessibility of health care by preventing duplication of services, but stakeholders are divided on whether or not the law accomplishes its goals. 

Critics argue the law stifles competition and fails to decrease costs. Advocates say it ensures that communities have access to a range of health services, not only those that are profitable. 

“Opponents of CON say, ‘We need more competition to bring health care costs down,’” said Creekmore. “Well, that’s clearly not the case. We’re already the lowest. We need to encourage more hospitals to add more services in these rural areas.”

Mississippi hospitals have some of the lowest costs in the country. Inpatient stays cost $1,425 per day on average in 2022 – less than half of the national average – according to data from KFF.

When hospitals do not have their own in-house dialysis facilities, patients in need of dialysis must be transferred to facilities that do. This can be inconvenient for patients and sometimes harmful to their health, said Creekmore. 

Without certificate of need requirements, hospitals could open dialysis centers without first seeking approval from the state. 

Certificate of need applications are often contested and it can take months or years to be approved to provide a new service or open a new health care facility. The appeals process can also be expensive. 

“Particularly in our rural hospitals, it would allow them to keep the patient local, where they’re close to their friends and their family and their church members, and they won’t have to be transferred to a larger hospital in Jackson or somewhere else,” said Richard Roberson, president and CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association.

Most rural counties in the United States do not have a dialysis facility.

Restrictions on purchasing new equipment and making improvements to buildings have also become a barrier for hospitals aiming to expand their services, especially as construction and hospital supply costs have increased since the pandemic, said Creekmore. 

The Legislature last raised capital expenditure limits in 2016 to $5 million and $10 million for clinical and non-clinical health services, respectively, and capped new major medical equipment purchases at $1.5 million. The thresholds are adjusted for inflation as determined by the Mississippi Department of Health. 

A higher cap will make it easier for hospitals to purchase needed medical equipment and complete renovations but also encourage health centers to keep costs low, Creekmore said. 

Psychiatric and substance abuse treatment could also benefit from removing certificate of need requirements, he said.

“Psychiatric care is something we can get done that would easily provide people with better and more care for mental health,” he said. “Substance abuse facilities need to come out of CON.”

State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney on Aug. 19 said the state needs more behavioral health treatment capacity in the state. 

“We’re desperate for mental health beds,” he said. “We have folks wanting to move into the mental health space and CON and the process has driven them away.”

A bill to remove psychiatric and substance abuse treatment from certificate of need requirements passed the House of Representatives last year but died in conference.  

Roberson said he supports removing substance abuse and chemical dependency beds from the certificate of need process to allow hospitals more flexibility when treating patients. 

The hospital association will focus primarily on dialysis and capital expenditure limits in its push for certificate of need reform this year, he said. 

Creekmore said he is also considering a separate bill that would require any party that unsuccessfully appeals a certificate of need application to pay the original applicants’ legal fees.

This would prevent long, costly appeals that prevent or stall new health services from opening in Mississippi. 

“There are legitimate reasons to challenge some (certificate of need applications), but some people challenge … to delay the process,” said Creekmore.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.