Drug Treatment in Costa Mesa: Abuse Statistics and How to Find Help
Costa Mesa is not free from the scourge of addiction. This pretty California community contains plenty of people who take drugs, abuse alcohol, or both. Many of these people probably long for recovery, but they’re not sure where to go to get the help they need.
Thankfully, there are many facilities in Costa Mesa that can help with addiction issues, including some organizations that provide care on a nonprofit or state-run basis. These options can be good for residents of Costa Mesa who struggle to pay for care.
There are for-profit organizations that offer high-quality care at a reasonable price. These can be good options for those who have the ability to pay for the treatment they need.
Treatment Centers Are Common in Costa Mesa
In addition to nonprofit and state-run options for addiction treatment, there are private and for-profit organizations that also provide addiction care. In fact, Costa Mesa could be considered a hub in California for addiction treatment.
As The Orange County Register points out, Costa Mesa has 102 addiction rehabilitation centers, with a population of about 110,000. It has one of the highest per-capita rates of addiction care in all of California.
It makes sense that there would be many addiction treatment facilities in Costa Mesa. After all, the location is beautiful. It can be hard for some families to convince an addicted person to get needed care. Sometimes, looking at a facility located in a beautiful location can be enticing, helping families to motivate their loved one to get care.
Not everyone is happy about the number of addiction treatment facilities in the area. According to some experts quoted in another article in The Orange County Register, there is the possibility that some people do not complete addiction care and move into homelessness in the area. Other factors contribute to homelessness, but some people feel the addiction industry contributes.
Referrals and Support
Since there are so many treatment options available, it can be difficult for people to understand where to start the search and what should happen next.
The OC Links program, provided by the Orange County Health Care Agency can help. Here, people can call a hotline and get a referral to behavioral health programs run through the agency. There is no cost to call, and those who do will be connected with trained navigators that can help.
As part of a comprehensive plan to address addiction, people may choose to go to meetings that follow the Alcoholics Anonymous model. According to Orange County Alcoholics Anonymous, there are many meetings held within Huntington Beach every day. There are specialized meetings for those who speak Spanish, for young people, for those in the gay community, and more. Often, these meetings are held in HOW Hall, which is located in the heart of Huntington Beach. HOW Hall exists, according to the organization’s website, to provide a safe space for 12-step meetings. It could become your home away from home as you fight addiction.
Opioids Are the Main Issue
While drugs of all sorts play a role in the addiction rates in Costa Mesa, opioids are a particular concern. These drugs, including prescription painkillers and heroin, work on receptors within the brain almost immediately, bringing about a sense of euphoria and comfort that can be hard to forget and harder still to get back once more.
Brain cells tend to grow accustomed to the presence of drugs, and they become less responsive to the impact of opioids. That means people must take more and more of the same drug in order to achieve the same high. In time, people can take doses that are so high that the dose can overwhelm the body’s vital systems. That can lead to death.
According to the Orange County Health Care Agency, overall overdose rates have increased 82 percent in Orange County since 2000. Of those overdoses, 66.8 percent were related to opioids, and more than half involved prescription painkillers.
People who are in an overdose situation tend to go to hospital emergency rooms for help. According to the Orange County Health Care Agency and the sheriff-coroner in the county, the number of people visiting emergency departments due to the use of opioids has risen dramatically. In 2011, there were 74. In 2015, there were 174.
Steps to Address Opioid Abuse in the Area
These numbers are alarming, and they indicate that many people are losing their lives due to the use and abuse of drugs. Officials have noticed, and they are attempting to curb the issue. According to the Orange County Health Care Agency, the county is hoping to reduce the amount of painkillers that are available within the community.
They plan to hold multiple drug take-back days that allow people to dispose of the drugs they have been prescribed, so they are not sitting in medicine cabinets to be sold or stolen. The county also hopes to work with doctors to ensure that drugs are not prescribed at high rates, so there are fewer spare drugs available.
These steps could help to ensure that there are fewer drugs washing through the community, and that could make it easier for those with addictions to get the help they need. They will know that supplies are dwindling, and that could be enough of a prompt to encourage them to get care.
Steps like this could also result in fewer people who develop an addiction in the future. If there are fewer drugs available, perhaps fewer people will begin to take them and develop an addiction as a result.
Reaching Out for Help
Residents of Costa Mesa can be part of the solution. Every time a person with an addiction makes the choice to fight back and get better, the community begins to heal. If many people make this choice, the entire state could sense the healing beginning.
Since addiction is a chronic disease, it’s not a matter of deciding to stop abusing drugs. People need evidence-based, comprehensive treatment to effectively manage the disease.
