Sen. Velis attends national conference for opioid policy

Date: 4/12/2021

WESTERN MASS. – State Sen. John Velis is one of 20 lawmakers from across the country participating in the National Conference of State Legislatures’ 2021 Opioid Policy Fellows Program.

These lawmakers attended a series of remote or in-person conferences and seminars to learn about innovative programs that can help with opioid use prevention and substance use disorder prevention in communities. The first conference for the program took place virtually on the weekend of March 26.

Velis, who was nominated for this fellowship by Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka, said he wants to learn more about what other states are doing to prevent opioid addiction, and how their plans can affect prevention programs here in Massachusetts.

“The way I would summarize is to find out the best practices, to hear from opioid use and substance use disorder specialists from around the country and world,” said Velis. In talking to these specialists, Velis hopes to uncover specific research that can help be implemented into public policy.

“COVID-19 has decimated the recovery community in terms of the usual things that happen,” he said. “This pandemic, if nothing else, is a pandemic of isolation. People are dying right now.”

According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), opioid-related deaths increased slightly within the first nine months of 2020 compared to the first nine months of 2019. There were 1,517 of these deaths in those months during 2020, 33 more than the same time period in 2019.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen an uptick, and many people are attributing it to COVID-19,” said Velis. “People are being cut off from services; people getting cut off from providers.”

The pandemic has also made it incredibly difficult for residents who struggle with addiction to have access to recovery programs and interpersonal connections, according to Velis. Many of these seminars will provide information on additional COVID-19 recovery techniques.

“There’s just so many good things that I hope to learn from [the program],” said Velis.

The goal for Massachusetts legislators, according to Velis, is to provide struggling addicts with a path to a new lifestyle filled with sobriety. The recurring problem, however, is that there are many gaps between the time someone is hospitalized for addiction and the time in which they are fully recovered.

The senator plans to look at what happens after someone who is struggling from addiction is released from the hospital. “What are we doing to ensure that, when a person overdoses, there is someone or something to meet them,” said Velis, who added that the state will look into an after-care and intensive outpatient treatment, as well.

“We need to provide some type of a catwalk from point A to point B to point C,” said Velis. “Too many people are falling through the cracks.”

More specifically, Velis argued that too many substance abusers are petitioned into Section 35 and then released without any proper after-care. Section 35 is state law in that allows a qualified person to request a court order requiring someone to be civilly committed and treated involuntarily for an alcohol or substance use disorder.

“There’s something to be said about all of these folks getting sectioned and then just being released out into the community without any type of proper follow-up,” said Velis. “My view of a good recovery for a person is whatever works for them.”

Velis added he believes that another collateral consequence of COVID-19 will be the impact that the virus has had on both mental health and substance use disorders. “We don’t know what that toll is right now,” he said. “The impact COVID has had on addiction, we’re just now beginning to slowly understand what it is. And it’s not good.”    

In the meantime, Velis is talking with constituents in his district about substance use disorders, and visiting Section 35 locations to discuss certain avenues for proper recovery.

For more information on substance use disorders and opioid addiction, visit https://www.mass.gov/opioid-overdose-prevention-information.