Sitting in a Cell with SUD

Once again in my time of blogging, I find myself eating lunch at the Applebee’s on Aramingo Avenue following a wonderful visit at RCF with “Melanie,” my Delaware County neighbor.  As a patient of SUD, she sits in her jail cell minute after hour after day after week after month awaiting word that the legal system has found a bed for her within the medical system for her to go to that will meet her rehab needs.

She’s been sitting there waiting in a jail cell designed for criminals longer than your standard 30 days of typical private insurance rehab.  It’s a time for her to contemplate her navel or come to the conclusion that the system just does not care.  Rather than receive the emotional and spiritual healing that could be had within rehab,  this extended stay in jail only adds to the emotional trauma that she has experienced thus far in life. To the system, she’s just one more ‘case.’ 

To those of us who know and love “Melanie” for who she is with her fun, lighthearted and playful spirit, we mourn her prolonged and unnecessary suffering in a cell – an oversized toilet stall shared by previous strangers who now sleep in neighboring cots and share an exposed toilet.

Let us remember now and never forget, “Melanie” and the hundreds/thousands of other sons and daughters who are sitting in cells with SUD when they should be in rehab getting therapy.