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Krissy McAfee getting ready for the special wreath presentation for Action

Editorial: Mother Who Lost Son To Overdose Weighs In On Treatment Centers

As I sit having my coffee this morning, I have been thinking about the most recent overdoses and deaths from an overdose in Santa Clarita recently.


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It makes me so sad and brings back memories of Trae’s death and the deaths of children that so many of my friends are still grieving. I felt I needed to speak my heart this morning. Our children all had multiple rehab stays and had a period of sobriety when they passed away. It only took that “one more time” to take them away from us.

What myself, my friends and many others didn’t know is that there is an 80% chance of relapse for those addicted to opiates even after a year of sobriety. According to The Opiate Report “the entire detoxification process for opiate addiction is about 12-18 months and it happens in three separate stages, The bloodstream takes 3-7 days, the physical lasts for 60-90 days and finally, the emotional and psychological detoxification doesn’t start until 4-6 months into the process.”

My friends and I all thought the first time our child went to rehab and then came home that they were “cured” and we would all go back to our previous lives before their addiction. Unfortunately, each of us learned that was not true. There are many rehabs that have popped up since this epidemic started in our country. There are many rehab owners that are only “in it” to line their pockets with thousands of dollars. They will put an addict in their rehab for 30 days at a time over and over again, which is not long enough but they make a lot of money from the insurances companies by doing this. Some rehabs even kick the addict out when their insurance won’t pay anymore, with no place to go and definitely no follow up plan to continue treatment.

My point is, Please be very picky before placing your loved one into a rehab. Remember they need a long-term program to deal with all the stages mentioned in The Opiate Report. Our children and loved ones are far too important to us and deserve every chance to get through their addiction with the program that will give them the best chance to achieve life long sobriety.

My prayers and love go out to the families who are grieving over the most recent losses and also the families still struggling with loved ones still battling addiction.

Please help break the stigma of addiction and show compassion instead. We are losing someone every 10 minutes in this country because of addiction to prescription painkillers and heroin.

– Krissy Mcafee

The above was an editorial submitted to KHTS by Krissy Mcafee

KHTS AM 1220 - Santa Clarita Radio

Editorial: Mother Who Lost Son To Overdose Weighs In On Treatment Centers

6 comments

  1. Krissy Mcafee so sorry for your loss of your Son. I hope your news article will reach some family and save their child. This is a terrible situation with drugs…..

  2. I commend you for bringing this out in the open. It saddens me when I hear of someone overdosing and their family chooses to “sweep it under the rug.” Recently I heard of a family wanting to avoid an area in Castaic because they were afraid of drugs and thought to myself, there are drugs everywhere in Santa Clarita, especially in the more influential neighborhoods. Please stop being so ignorant, most likely you know someone who is addicted to legal opiates (prescription medications). I commend every family member of someone who has succumbed to the disease of alcoholism/addictive that speaks the truth in their time of grieving, because it is necessary. God bless you Krissy and may the loss of your son not be forgotten.

  3. I have learned that going out of your “network” to areas like orange county for a rehab is the best idea.
    Since they are not “In Network” they are reimbursed more money for in patient and out patient care then the contracted price then “in Network” local rehabs. They will keep them for months in patient even when the insurance companies stop paying for inpatient and only pay for out patient (IOP which stands for intensive out patient). I told them I could only afford what the insurance companies paid and nothing else and my son was kept for 6 months. We could have kept him there longer too. Wonderful people and great rehabs. Group therapy for 3 hours a day, 1 hour of personal therapy, meet with medical Dr. and Psychiatrist once a week, Co-diagnosis, anger management, etc. Good recreation (which teaches them to have a fun sober life) and other classes. Nice areas. Some of the names of the best ones I have found are Coastline, Lotus Place Recovery, Miracles, all located in Huntington Beach and surrounding areas.
    I did have good insurance, Atena, which makes a difference. There are many more there too. If you can’t get a bed at one of these then ask them for referrals in their area. There is a whole network of them there that people come to from around the country. Better to get them out of SCV anyway while they work on sobriety. Alcohol, Meth, Heroin. I hate them all!

  4. Krissy – you’ve inspired so many, and comforted hundreds with your informational and heartfelt talks. It’s an honor to know you, and you wrote this from the heart — and some very tragic experiences.

    Love and prayers,

    Linda Hopkins

  5. Krissy – you’ve inspired so many, and comforted hundreds with your informational and heartfelt talks. It’s an honor to know you, and you wrote this from the heart — and some very tragic experiences.

    Love and prayers,

    Linda Hopkins

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About Caleb Lunetta

Caleb has been a Santa Clarita resident for most of his life. After attending Hart High School, Caleb went on to study political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara along with College of the Canyons.