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Finding ways to help drug addicts has been among the biggest challenges in battling the substance abuse crisis. Now, we in the Ohio Valley have an important new asset in that regard: the Serenity Hills Life Center.
As we reported Saturday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the center on Friday. The facility is located on a 149-acre tract of land in northwest Ohio County.
What differentiates Serenity Hills from many other addiction treatment centers is that it is for women only. And, in addition to the 72 beds in the main treatment facility, it has a separate building with 10 beds for pregnant women.
That is of critical importance because of the number of neonatal abstinence syndrome cases in West Virginia. NAS sufferers are babies born with drugs in their bloodstreams because their mothers were substance abusers while pregnant. About 5% of babies born to Mountain State mothers suffer from NAS. Marshall, Ohio and Wetzel counties have among the highest NAS rates in the state -- with Marshall County's double the overall state level.
Serenity Hills Life Center's expectant-mother center may save some babies from NAS, which can have lifelong consequences. No doubt helping other women escape addiction also will reduce the potential for NAS.
Simply by specializing in treatment of females, Serenity Hills can be expected to achieve good results -- our guess is they will be better than addiction treatment centers for mixed-gender patients. Women, simply because their bodies and the lives they lead are different, clearly have different needs in treatment.
An example of the difference involves susceptibility to addiction from use of prescription drugs. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, "Women are more likely to have chronic pain, be prescribed prescription pain relievers, be given higher doses, and use them for longer time periods than men. Women may become dependent on prescription pain relievers more quickly than men."
Many women pay the ultimate price for their addictions: death by drug overdose. In both West Virginia and Ohio, about one-third of the overdose deaths each year involve females. In 2017, overdoses killed 283 women in West Virginia and 1,385 in Ohio.
Clearly, then, we in this area need a treatment center like Serenity Hills. We join many others in applauding the facility's opening and wishing it every success. In this case, that means saving lives.