Religious Community Helps Combat Opioid Epidemic

The Tennessean’s Holly Meyer reports that Tennessee’s religious communities are helping people combat opiate addiction through faith-based recovery programs. Two years ago, the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services began a faith-based recovery program, which includes Christian halfway homes and church-sponsored 12-step programs. Today, 180 congregations are involved in the program. Monty Burks, the director of the health department’s faith-based initiatives and projects, said, “The key component in recovery is faith. So why not try to educate them and let them harness that number and that power and that belief and helping people in recovery.”

Read at The Tennessean

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