socialworknotes-blog

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[socialworknotes-blog]

in support of HB0519

I gave testimony yesterday at the Maryland House of Delegates! It was my first time speaking forcibly in front of lawmakers. Madam Chair of the committee told us not to read from our paper but I def read from my paper and there will be (is?) video and I wish it wasn’t true. Lucky for the lawmakers, I wrote separate oral and written testimonies! This was a class assignment and I clearly loved it.

Also for class, I looked through the entire docket of house bills to compile ones relevant to social work. This was an enlightening experience - there is more than one legislator thinking progressively about healthcare, criminality and drug use; there is more than one legislator who wants to do things like codify abortions as dismembered baby parts and ensure that Maryland follows all federal immigration policy.

The bill I supported yesterday would authorize a community organization, a health clinic, a university hospital, or a church to seek funding to host a program that would set up a safe haven for people who use IV drugs, a supervised injection site. There they could also build relationships with social workers, nurses, and others. Here it is in Canada. The testimony was a lot of evidence, a lot about how the “war on drugs” is atrocious. There was a doctor, a priest, and two organizers from Communities United who spoke of the pain of addiction, a lost leg, heroin addiction for 38 years. Their pain transforms in advocacy. We spoke afterward outside the big doors to the Health and Government Services hearing room, and I thanked them.

Here is what I submitted for written testimony:

Testimony in Support of HB0519

Public Health – Overdose and Infectious Disease Prevention Safer Drug 
Consumption Facility Program 


TO: The Honorable Delegate Shane E. Pendergrass, Chair, and members of the House Health and Government Operations Committee

FROM: Rebecca Armendariz of Baltimore, MD, District 40

February 21, 2017

I will graduate from the University of Maryland School of Social Work this coming May, and I write today as a social worker in favor of HB0519, a bill that would authorize critical support for people in our state who remain embedded in the cycle of addiction. The provisions of this bill align with the values of my profession[1], and I can imagine that if this bill were enacted, social workers would be called to the front lines to plan and serve alongside nurses and other professionals in health care, ensuring the clinical and therapeutic effectiveness of the proposed program. In my practicum I currently serve in an acute-care setting on an interdisciplinary medical team; knowledge that is shared among those on the medical team is integral to progress and to outcomes that are justice-focused and centered in the well-being of people, families, and communities.

Our shared body of scientific and human behavioral knowledge posits that addiction is a physical, brain-altering disease and chronic medical condition, not a moral or personal failing on the part of a person who uses substances.[2] We know a person who is experiencing substance use dependence is also likely experiencing mental distress and isolation and struggling to cope with the stress and practical implications of their circumstances.[3] We also know that for a person who experiences trauma and adversity in their childhood environment—and who perhaps exhibits symptoms of post-traumatic stress and/or fully manifested PTSD—addictive patterns and substance dependence are likely to be adopted as behavioral coping mechanisms.[4] For professionals who work to help human beings with substance use disorders, relapse is the essential expectation, and normalizing its occurrence is essential to our practice.[5] But the current legal and treatment landscape does not integrate this knowledge that is so vital to our competence.

Viewing addiction in this way, we can conclude that people are using drugs despite the social, physical, financial, and legal consequences—and despite what you or I may deem rational thinking—because drug use has become necessary for their survival. And as evidenced by the results of decades of punitive and discriminatorily enforced drug policy, shame and punishment do not remedy this problem for individuals or society. These individuals are already consistently experiencing shame, betrayal, and abandonment, and making decisions to numb the pain of those emotions so deeply rooted in the bodily experience of lacking what’s needed for healthy development. Shame and punishment from society only adds moisture to their cloud of shame, their clouded and entrenched belief that they deserve punishment. Shame is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Today we are living mired in the results of shame and criminalization of substance use and substance use disorders. According to the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, heroin-related deaths tripled from 2011 to 2015; this rate of death in our state is the fifth highest in the country.[6] In 2015, it was reported that the neighborhood of Sandtown-Winchester, which is located within a mile of my apartment in Bolton Hill, within my same ZIP code, is “home to more people held in state prisons than any other census tract in Maryland.”[7] Across cities and rural towns in our diverse state, the “war on drugs” effort has not been successful, and we need to think, respond, and plan differently if we want to see change and progress,

A program as outlined in HB0519 acknowledges the experiences of peoples’ lives, the prevalence of substance use, the prevalent availability of substances, and the inadequacy with which we have previously responded to these truths. This program would put trained professionals in contact with some of the most secluded and vulnerable people in our state. Facilities like these would plant seeds of recovery, holding space for supportive relationships and trust to develop between providers and those seeking contact and help. Without an effort to develop these relationships and this nonjudgmental support—remedies to the shame and loneliness of addiction—the cycle is bound to continue.

Thank you for your attention and consideration of this testimony.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Armendariz

[1] National Association of Social Workers. (2008). NASW: Code of Ethics. Washington, DC: NASW. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/Code/code.asp

[2] National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2014). Drugs, brains, and behavior: The science of addiction. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/treatment-recovery

[3] U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Mental health and substance use disorders. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealth.gov/what-to-look-for/substance-abuse/

[4] Mate, G. (2007, January 18). Stop treating drug users as criminals. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/stop-treating-drug-users-as-criminals/article1069259/

[5] National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014.

[6] Lang, H. (2016, December 15). Maryland’s heroin and opioid crisis reaches an all-time high. WTOP. Retrieved from http://wtop.com/maryland/2016/12/marylands-heroin-and-opioid-crisis-reaches-an-all-time-high/

[7] Fenton, J. (2015, February 25). Report: Sandtown-Winchester leads state in number of people incarcerated. The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-baltimore-incarceration-report-20150224-story.html

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My impulse

Today more than once without even thinking about it, I opened a tab in my browser and begin to type “Fac-” before the rest of the URL filled in, and then I was there, staring at the page I saw earlier this morning when I signed out.

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Farewell, social media

I’ve had personal access to a computer and internet connection since I was 15 years old. My first machine was in parts, two humming blocks, desktop monitor and a hard drive warming my bedroom floor. Prior to heading to DC for college, I was given my second device, a laptop to cradle in bed. Simultaneously vulnerable and protected, I used these screens to allow the people I knew in reality further into my world.

I graduated high school in 2002 and was among the first class of people to gain access to Facebook in 2004, when you needed a .edu at the end of your email to enter this privileged space. Since, social media platforms have multiplied, and access to these networks has increased. After graduating college, my familiarity with the nooks of the Internet progressed into a career as a digital strategist, an online editor, a web specialist, an online communications specialist. I readily adapted to using Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat as they entered the market and evolved. I know the ways in which these platforms have changed over the years - the evolution of the algorithms, the arch toward conversations in these spaces dominating the news cycle.

I left journalism and digital strategy in 2015 to pursue a career in social work as a therapeutic professional and community advocate. This has given me the opportunity to think seriously and deeply about the function of these platforms - socially as well as individually. On a day where I consume limitless content through these channels, my brain feels heavy and my body feels edgy. Last year I took a months-long break from Facebook. A few months ago, I deleted Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram from my phone, but kept using Facebook and Twitter in my browser. Two months ago, I got Snapchat back under a new username solely to see images of my cousin’s baby. Ultimately, this feels like too much to manage.

I believe social media, staring back at me, palm and fingers tensed, affects my brain as an addictive substance would. I believe it fuels competition and hierarchy and insecurity and does more harm than good. I believe the thumbs and hearts are what hook us, and they are ultimately meaningless. The companies running this show don’t care about our well-being; they care about our data. They are not what will help us now.

This is my last semester in graduate school. On assignment for one of my classes, Clinical Social Work with Addictive Behavior Patterns, I am to give something up for at least 8 weeks that is significant enough to me that I will miss it on a daily basis (and process this change via daily journal entries, of course). So I am solidly giving up all platforms, minus this Tumblr blog, my new home on the web. Send me an email or give me a call if you’d like to share stories or news. I would love it!