On the Front Lines of the Opioid Crisis: A Q&A with Cheryl Hull
By Bashirah Mack, City Bureau
Published in the Chicago Defender, January 17, 2018.
The opioid crisis was proclaimed a national emergency by the Trump administration just a few months ago, but local resident Cheryl Hull, deputy director of Chicago Recovery Alliance, has been fighting to save lives, challenge stigma and facilitate harm reduction for 25 years.
Just a few weeks ago, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office launched a digital database that maps all opioid-related deaths from August 2014 to present. For Cheryl Hull, these deaths aren’t just numbers. One block east of our West Garfield Park interview, she remembers a 54-year-old black man who succumbed to a lethal combination of heroin and fentanyl. One block west, another victim faced a similar fate. After 25 years of providing addiction treatment to vulnerable populations on the South and West Sides, Hull recounts each loss as a person she likely knew or served through her work at Chicago Recovery Alliance — in its offices across the city and its mobile van, which provides services on-wheels where needed. City Bureau spoke with Hull about her work, what she’s seen in 25 years and why her work is important.
Tell me about Chicago Recovery Alliance.
We do harm reduction, needle exchange, and we help put people in treatment if that’s their desire. We don’t force it on people, but we do help them if they come to us and say, “I would really like to get in treatment” or “I would like to get on the methadone program.”
So, you focus on people who are suffering from the opioid epidemic?
Yes. People come because they know family members that are using drugs and they say, “I heard you do overdose prevention, can you teach me?” So, I see all kinds of people. Doctors, lawyers, in the early days I used to see even policemen come here. One thing about Chicago Recovery Alliance that may be hard for people to understand is we don’t judge people because of their drug use.
Why is that?
We don’t feel like that’s our place to do that. I’m here to meet people right where they are, wherever they are. I may believe that you should stop using, but who am I to tell you that? But I can be an example for you.
Does Chicago Recovery Alliance only provide outreach on the South and West side?
Nope, we’re on the South Side, West Side, North Side, East Side. We contract with people in Rockford, Joliet, Indiana, and we’re sending syringes right now to Puerto Rico.
For people caring for loved ones with addiction, what is the biggest misconception?
Trying to force them to get clean when they’re not ready. It doesn’t work like that. Disease of addiction is just like cancer. It eats away at you. A person has to get to a point where that’s what they want to do. Not because you are telling them, or you are screaming at them, or you are locking them in jail.
I went through that with my daughter; she was using drugs. A lot of people were like, “How could you still work on the van, knowing that you lost your child because of her drug use?” That only makes me wanna do it more. I kept on doing what I needed to do. And I’m still gonna be here as long as I can.
Why do you believe so strongly in this work?
Because it saves lives. It’s just that simple.
What are some of the most unforgettable moments doing this work?
People that have overdosed that I knew and got attached to. I lost a lot of people on this van. From each site, 47th Street, 68th Street, 61st Street, oh my God — 63rd, the office. There was a time when we came out here, there would be people standing from the front door all the way to the back of the van. Those people are dead.
How does that make you feel?
Horrible. Sometimes I’m at home and I think about them because I knew the majority of them, because I was here all the time. And, I think about them and I get really sad inside. But then I get happy that I did have a chance to [pauses] they always told me that they loved me. You know how sometimes people just say that? It wasn’t just a saying, you could feel it.
What are your hopes in terms of addiction treatment, what would need to change for people to be better, for the system to work well?
Open more treatment centers. There’s people who come to the van wanting treatment but if you can’t put a person in treatment right then, you’re going to lose them.
Do you have any advice for people coming into the mental health and substance abuse profession?
Don’t be judgmental. Meet people where they are, wherever that is, meet them there. And always, be kind. It doesn’t matter if a person has a mental illness or has substance abuse issues. Still treat people the way you would want to be treated. I believe in that. And I’ll never change that.
This report was produced by City Bureau, a Chicago-based civic journalism lab. Learn more at www.citybureau.org.
Originally published at issuu.com.
