Community Health & Wellness

Few options exist for area youth with substance use issues

Posted on November 21st, 2024 By: Conor Wilson

When Peninsula School District students are caught or suspected of using drugs, counselors almost always refer them to staff from Crossroads Treatment Center.

Through a partnership with the district, the nonprofit has staff embedded in Peninsula schools. Described as “boots on the ground,” Crossroads has a presence at all three district high schools as well as some middle schools. They offer a range of educational and treatment programs around substance use.

Perhaps most crucially, Crossroads provides an outpatient treatment program for youth who – while not facing a severe addiction – have an extensive history of substance use. The program, offering group and individual therapy a few times each week in addition to assessment and urinalysis, is one of the few of its kind in Gig Harbor.

Shortage of treatment options

Adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 face a shortage of these treatment options in the region. Providers say finding enough clients to support youth programming can be a challenge. That has made Crossroads a valuable resource for the community.

“We care about these kids and want to have a positive impact,” said Crossroads Director Jeremiah Saucier. “I live in this community and I want to do whatever can be done to change lives.”

Resources for youth facing substance abuse have become a growing concern for the state amid the opioid epidemic. Fatal overdoses among those ages 14 to 18 statewide climbed threefold between 2016 and 2022, according to the Washington Department of Health. That increase is largely attributed to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin.

Pierce County Councilmember Robyn Denson, who represents Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula, held two community town halls last month on fentanyl. She said they left a lot of unanswered questions about the situation in her district.

“I had a lot of people wanting to know what’s the situation in Gig Harbor or on the Key Peninsula,” she said. “We definitely didn’t have that information.”

Panelists at the Facing Fentanyl town hall at the Gig Harbor Civic Center in October. They include, from left, Peninsula School District lead counselor Becky Maffei; Crossroad Treatment Director Jeremiah Saucier; PSD school safety officer Brent Campbell; emergency room physician Dr. Nathan Schlicher; Mike Dumas, medical division chief for Gig Harbor Fire and Medic One; Gig Harbor Police Chief Kelly Busey; Dr. Len Tran of St. Anthony Medical Center; and Tacoma Pierce County Health District youth program manger Len Adams. Photo courtesy Robyn Denson

Little data on fentanyl use here

Among Pierce County adults, opioids are the leading cause of preventable death, according to the Tacoma-Pierce Health District. The situation in Gig Harbor specifically, including among youth, is less clear.

Anecdotally, providers working with youth say that while cannabis and vape products are more common, they do see young people who use fentanyl. They also urge caution because fentanyl is a common adulterate of other illegal drugs. Some users end up taking it without intending to.

“We haven’t seen it much in our schools thankfully,” said Becky Maffei, lead counselor at PSD. “But it’s definitely in the community.”

The greater Gig Harbor area likely needs adolescent substance treatment beyond what providers offer. But the extent of that need is unclear.

Compared to adults, youth have more barriers and fewer avenues leading them to treatment.

Adolescents are unlikely to end up in an outpatient program unless they face probation, suspension or another consequence, said Sara Marez-Fields, executive director of Agapè Unlimited. Agapé, one of the few outpatient youth providers in Kitsap County, provides group care for about 20 teens.

“They don’t want to be there, they want to be kids, so that’s difficult,” Marez-Fields said. “They come in and they’re externally motivated and it’s our job to get them internally motivated.”

Gauging demand for youth treatment services

Recruiting enough clients to develop a sustainable youth program is also a challenge. As a result, not many agencies have an adolescent license, said Derek Murphy, director of clinical services at Gig Harbor Counseling, an outpatient provider run by the Olalla Recovery Centers.

“It’s a tricky program to run and sustain,” he said.

Gig Harbor Counseling previously partnered with Peninsula schools, taking referrals for substance use disorder assessments, but not for outpatient. Since that partnership ended, they have only seen a couple youth in for treatment within the last year.

The agency has not seen enough youth to establish an outpatient program, Murphy said. Further, few of his staff have direct experience working with youth, he says, which is different from working with adults and requires its own speciality training.

Jeremiah Dunlap, CEO of the Lakewood-based Rainer Recovery, says he frequently hears calls for more youth treatment options in Gig Harbor. But he has seen little demand for his youth outpatient program since opening a Gig Harbor office in January 2023.

“I hear it a lot that — there’s not really a lot of programming for youth — but then it also seems like there’s not a lot of people calling in for it either,” he said. “So I don’t know what the disconnect is.”

Dunlap, who is 15 years sober, is from Gig Harbor and said he spent many years of active addiction in the city. He said he wants to have an office there, but the traffic is slower than to Rainer’s offices in Lakewood and Puyallup. The youth program, for example, is serving only three adolescents.

“My heart is there,” he said. “I want to have an office and help people, but it’s just a lot slower.”

Crossroads served about 60 students last year

Being contained within the schools, Crossroads offers a sustainable model for outpatient care and eliminates many barriers that youth face accessing treatment.

There is no requirement that students use Crossroads. But the district officials say the resource, funded by voter-approved levy dollars, is available for families whose medical plan does not cover treatment costs.

Last year, Crossroad’s staff served roughly 60 students of varying severity levels, including some with lengthy histories of substance use as well as minor offenders.

“It’s a small group that we’re working with. I don’t want to put fear into everybody that there’s a big, big problem,” Saucier said. “I’m not going to say there isn’t a problem, it’s there, but it’s not like it’s totally out of control.”

How Crossroads works

Students generally enter Crossroads’ its program through one of two ways. A parent might call with a concern about their child, or school staff might catch a student doing drugs or possessing paraphernalia on campus. Peninsula School District counselors almost always refer students to Crossroads first, Maffei said.

Crossroads staff conduct an assessment and determine the appropriate level of care for a student. For a minor first-time offense they could be simply required to take a four-hour weekend class. Others may be referred to Crossroads outpatient program, going in once or twice a week for therapy. Saucier said fortunately most students only need outpatient care.

Still, the program is not a fit for all students. If their substance use reaches a “severe level,” Crossroads staff will try to stabilize and refer them to a higher level of care. That could include an intensive outpatient facility or a residential inpatient facility.

One parent, who requested anonymity to discuss their student’s experience, said their child went to Crossroads for a year, but continued to struggle academically. Their narcotic addiction got worse. The student requested failed drug tests not be reported to their parents.

“Crossroads couldn’t necessarily tell us that their issues were getting worse. At the same time, [they were] missing so much school and falling behind academically,” the parent said.

Success stories

After learning that state insurance would fully cover the cost of an inpatient facility, the parent had an intervention. Their child agreed to spend the summer at Sundown Ranch, an inpatient detox facility in Yakima. They are now three months sober and continuing outpatient treatment at Agapè in Bremerton.

“I believe that [Crossroads] had a good relationship with my student, it just wasn’t progressing as needed,” the parent said. “I feel like the area would be served tremendously if there were another nonprofit similar to Agapè in the greater Gig Harbor area.”

Agapè is a nonprofit treatment provider in Bremerton that serves roughly 20 youths in recovery who are between the ages of 13 to 18. The program is not tied to local schools, which the parent says was a benefit for them. Their child no longer misses class to attend treatment. There are also more frequent updates on their recovery, the parent said.

Saucier admits he does not have all the answers but says he has seen many success stories from their program. Some students have become completely sober while others are using less frequently.

“The schools that we’ve worked in, we’ve seen some really good things and we’ve seen some that didn’t work out real well,” he said. “But it’s important you know our heart is in the right place.”