Treating addiction is a difficult process that can become even more complicated when a person also suffers from mental health disorders.

Medical experts in New Jersey recently gathered to discuss the best ways to treat addiction and mental health disorders as part of Knock out Opioid Abuse Day.

Melissa Rose Cooper reports on the difficult things in treatment and why only a quarter of those suffering from both get help.

We know that the opioid crisis and the addiction crisis, you know, is impacting our entire city.

There is not a community, a demographic that is immune from this.

A major issue.

Angela Conover, director of opioid response and prevention with the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey, says is continuously resulting in the loss of friends, family and neighbors.

According to the Office of the State chief medical examiner, data shows more than 2500 people died of suspected drug overdoses in 2023.

That's down from about 2900 in 2021.

But Conover says it's still unacceptable.

We continue to put all of our resources in trying to prevent dependency, addiction and deaths.

And when we when we look at the issue, we have to see that there are some real connections to mental health.

And so it's important that we look at the entire issue and everything that everyone is facing in dealing with, you know, on a daily basis.

So experts are coming together, taking part in this learning webinar called When Addiction and Mental Health Collide to figure out the best approaches to treating co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders.

In the United States.

64.3% of adults with opioid use disorder suffer from a current comorbid mental illness.

And that's pretty high, right?

But people can have both comorbid mental illness and an opioid addiction.

Tim Vermillion, therapist with the Veterans Affairs Administration, says chronic pain is one of the top reasons people may turn to opioids for self-medication.

Because as these things happen, you know, as you're starting to have that chronic pain, it's not just that you had a mental health concern to begin with, but now that you have chronic pain or some other issue, perhaps that's going to cause some mental health concerns and adjustment disorders, maybe start to stimulate your a dormant major depressive episode or something like a bipolar episode or something like that.

But only a fourth of adults with concurrent opioid use disorder and acute mental illness receive treatment for both problems.

The concerns are always that how are we looking at a person from a humanistic approach?

So are we treating the person or are we treating just the substance?

So for, you know, for my work in the field, I really like to look at everything going on with the whole entire person.

So not just their diagnosis.

And I feel like a lot of people get caught up in, okay, you have an opioid use disorder, like that's how we're going to treat you.

And there's a lot of stigma that gets attached to that person and specifically that population.

But instead of treating all patients the same, experts say it's critical to figure out the root issues for each individual.

You look at someone who is using opioids daily, what else do they have going on?

So do they lack social support?

Do they lack housing?

Do they lack any type of shelter?

Do they lack?

Do they have food insecurities?

So if I were to sit here and say to you that every single person who has an opioid use disorder needs to go into a 12 patient inpatient, a 12 month inpatient program, that's not the case because everyone is different, Experts agree.

Early intervention and treating co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders is key.

They hope discussions like this will provide health care professionals as well as loved ones with the tools they need to effectively tackle these challenges.

Franchise Spotlight News.

I'm Melissa Ross Cooper.