September is Recovery Month, and as part of its monthlong recognition, Rice County invites residents to share their accomplishments with the community.
Residents can stop by the Community Corrections office at 118 Third St. NW, write their number of days of sobriety/wellness or sobriety date, and pin it to a bulletin board labeled “Recovery in Our Community” hung in the entryway. Participants have the option to add their name. Those who aren’t able to stop in during office hours may email Behavioral Health Services Supervisor Dante Hummel-Langerfeld at [email protected] with the information and she will add it to the bulletin board.
“It will be a good visual of how recovery does exist in our community, although sometimes it’s hard to see or know,” said Hummel-Langerfeld.
While it’s impossible to pinpoint the exact number of people in recovery from mental health and/or substance abuse disorders, these disorders do not discriminate, affecting people from every walk of life, every gender and every race.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in 20 U.S. adults experience a serious mental illness each year.
And though substance abuse can be equally invisible, the severity of the problem continues, particularly as the very powerful opioid fentanyl becomes more and more prevalent. In 2022, Rice County recorded 33 drug overdoses, five of them fatal. From Jan. 1 through July 31 of this year, Rice County saw another 10 ODs. Three of those were fatal.
Of the 43 overdoses, more than half involved fentanyl, another six involved heroin.
That’s why it’s so important our community remains dedicated to the recovery process by helping people address these preventable and treatable conditions, and supporting those in recovery, as well as their family members, says Hummel-Langerfeld. The bulletin board is not only a way for those in recovery to see that their good and often difficult work is being recognized, but to understand that there is an entire community here to support them, she said.
Contact:
Dante Hummel-Langerfeld, Behavioral Health Services Supervisor
[email protected]
507-384-6451
Angela Brewer. Rice County Community Corrections Manager
[email protected]
507-332-5981
Suzy Rook, Communications Coordinator
[email protected]
507-384-6509