The View from the Front Lines

N estled near the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, much of Fayette County is closer to Morgantown, West Virginia than it is to Pittsburgh. Like many communities in the region, Fayette County has an aging population and has been hit hard by the opioid crisis. Despite these problems, Erica Usher is optimistic about her children’s future in the area.

Pennsylvania map with the an outline of Fayette County.

Usher was born and raised in Fayette County, and now she is raising three preteen children there. She serves as the Prevention Supervisor for the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission, where she has been working on the front lines of substance abuse prevention for nearly two decades. Though she is troubled by the scope and magnitude of the opioid crisis, she knows that opioids are a symptom, not the cause of the problem.

“Not unlike the rest of the country, alcohol is widely abused in Fayette County. We also saw really high overdose death rates from opioids. Before the opioid crisis, there was a lot of concern about methamphetamine use. Now that authorities are cracking down on the over-prescription of painkillers, we are seeing an increase in cocaine use.”

For people who work to address the complex problems of substance use, the landscape of substances is always changing. Fortunately, Usher noted, there is something that works against misuse of every type of substance: prevention.

“People need to know that there actually is a right or wrong way to talk to your kids about hard topics. When kids talk to you about substance use, there is a manual for how to respond, and evidence-based prevention programs can help equip families and teenagers with that manual.”

Erica Usher

Prevention Supervisor, Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission

Researchers at Penn State, like those in the PROSPER program that Erica works with, have demonstrated that building skills in families and middle school students can help prevent young people from misusing substances for many years.

Through the development of interventions in prevention, treatment, and recovery, Penn State researchers are working with government and community partners to solve real problems.