Aryana Misaghi (Content Disclaimer)

Before we begin, we'd like to make you aware that the following episode mentions substance use, overdose, addiction, homelessness and mental health issues. Listener discretion is advised.

Jordan Dennison

I knew that I wanted to kind of help people, you know, within my own community. Because I've seen, you know, the damage that's been done here. What better place to pursue that than with the people that already knew you? Just meeting somebody that came up in the same environment and they were able to make it out, you know, that kind of makes you feel like you could do the same.

Aryana Misaghi

I'm Aryana Misaghi and this is Appalachian Care Chronicles, a podcast bringing you stories from every corner of West Virginia's health sector. Join me as we journey alongside a variety of problem solvers, change makers and daily helpers, who are all working behind the scenes and on the front lines to care for our communities. Together, we'll explore what they do day-to-day, the steps that got them there, and the why’s that continue to draw them back. How in the face of some of the most challenging situations possible, do they manage to keep themselves and the rest of us from falling apart? Far from predictable, the paths they've walked are full of twists and surprises, discovery and purpose. This podcast is for anyone who's ever even thought about going into the healthcare field or has a passion for caring for others in times of need.

Thousands of people in communities across Appalachia have a substance use disorder. Whether transitioning from correctional facilities, completing rehab programs or facing homelessness, these individuals are suffering from a medical condition that not only requires understanding support, but also compassionate guidance and connection to resources. Our guest today, Jordan Dennison, plays a pivotal role in this effort as a Peer Recovery Support Specialist and Community Outreach Coordinator based in Charleston. Jordan draws on his own experiences with substance use and homelessness to offer empathetic and informed support for those in need.

Jordan Dennison

So what we’ll do is, we'll just, we kind of just ride around, see if we see, you know, any of our regulars. You know, just stop and check on them, see how they're doing, seeing if there's anything that we can do for them. And also, we're looking for new faces, right. Because every so often, you know, there's, there's new people around. So we'll just try to make sure they have Narcan. You know, if we find people that we talked to last week and we talked to them about treatment, they didn't want to go, but, you know, today we pull up on them, they say, “Hey, you know, I'm ready to go. You know, I'm sick of this.” Right? So we just have to stay out there and meet people where they are, right? Because a lot of times they're not necessarily going to come looking for us.

Jordan Dennison (addressing two young men sitting outside a gas station)

I’m gonna get y'all a couple waters.

Client

Thank you.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

No problem.

Jordan Dennison (to gas station attendants)

Hey, how are y'all doing? Good, good.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

Here you go buddy. No problem, man.

Client

Thank you so much.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

Y'all, y'all stay out here?

Client

Not much, but so, yeah.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

So I'm with the CARE Office, so we just go around and try to check on—you familiar with the care office?

Client

Yeah, I love Trace. Ben. Yeah.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

Oh, cool. Okay, good, yeah. So if you see those guys around, if there's anything we can do for y'all man, we do housing, birth certificates, IDs…

Client

I need to get my Thursday. And can you help me?

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

You want to do that Thursday?

Client

It has to be Thursday, right? Yeah, yeah. All right, Thursday, I have to be there before nine. All right.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

Hey, walk over here and give me your information…

Aryana Misaghi

Jordan has this instant rapport with all kinds of people. He's worked on the nine member CARE Team in Charleston for about two and a half years. It stands for Coordinated Addiction Response Effort, and it's run by the city. They offer all kinds of services. In addition to arranging transportation to the DMV, they respond to overdoses and mental health crises. They connect people to resources and treatment, distribute Narcan and train people how to use it and more. As you might expect, every single day looks different, and what may seem to some like a small task like getting a replacement ID can present plenty of obstacles for unhoused people and those just trying to focus on staying sober and safe.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

Okay. What I'll do is I'll call you this afternoon to get your address, and then about 8:30 on Thursday, that's when I'll send an Uber to get you.

Client

Alright. Thank you so much.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

You got your birthday. I'm getting all that.

Client

I don't have any of those dudes.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

Have you ever had ID here before

Client

I got my driver's license through Job Corp. Okay, cool. Just got my wallet stolen about three, four weeks ago.

Jordan Dennison (to Client)

Okay, so we can just get your replacement. That's no problem. All right, buddy, I'll give you a shot later on. All right. All right, take care, buddy, no problem…

Client

All right. Thank you so much.

Jordan Dennison

That's why a lot of people don't even attempt to get their lives together, because they know they have all these hurdles they have to jump. You know, they have to figure out a way to get an ID. And in order to get an ID, they have to have a birth certificate, you know. And a lot of like, outreach specifically is like, you know, we're looking for those calls that might end up coming into the Mayor's Office, like a man passed out on the sidewalk, you know, somebody might think he's dead or overdosed. Like, you know, we just want to prevent, you know, unnecessary 911 calls right, because a lot of times people are just sleeping, right? They're just getting some rest, or whatever it might be.

We serve a lot of the people that you, you know, you see out in the community. Know whether they're on a street corner holding a sign or if they're, you know, just sitting under a tree, right? We are in every neighborhood throughout the city. You know, anybody that has any type of needs when it comes to substance use disorder or, you know, behavioral health issues or housing issues, those are the clients that we connect with. Now, I'm not necessarily limited to those individuals, because, you know, I will help any type of, you know, vulnerable population. So we also, you know, sometimes I have a lot of elderly clients, you know, just people that have needs, that they need help getting met. You know, I will kind of step in and try to cut out those barriers for them.

Aryana Misaghi

Jordan's own story is remarkable, and it's an important part of how he connects to others. People seem to relax a little more and open up with Jordan knowing he was once right where they are now. He grew up poor in Huntington with addiction and mental health issues in the home, and he says he was a well mannered kid who made good grades until he developed his own problems with drugs. When he's talking to people with substance use disorders, he's candid about his experience.

Jordan Dennison

My father, he was incarcerated for selling drugs from the moment I was six months old. I didn't really get him back until I was about 15 years old. My mother, she was addicted to drugs, pretty sure, you know, even while she was pregnant. So my childhood, you know, she was in and out of jail, you know, in and out of treatment. That led to me, you know, bouncing around like from grandparents to grandparents, you know, moving around a lot. A brief stint, you know, we like, lived in her van, till my grandmother found out, you know, and then she came and got me. So that kind of led to me, you know, being kind of an angry child. You know, I didn't really, I didn't really feel like I fit in anywhere. I couldn't understand why or why I didn't have normal parents like everyone else, you know, like I was very ashamed and embarrassed, you know. Looking back, you know, knowing what I know now is, you know, I dealt with some mental health issues, right? Like, I absolutely had depression, I absolutely had anxiety, you know, from a very early age, and that kind of led me down the path that I went down. I remember at the age of 13 was my first encounter with any substance, or well it was alcohol. I remember drinking for the first time, and I absolutely loved how it made me feel, you know. From that moment on, you know, I was drinking every chance I got. What it did for me was it made me more outgoing. It took some of that heaviness that was on my back, you know, off my shoulders, you know. It just kind of took my mind off of my reality, right? So from that point on, you know, I was every weekend, you know, I was trying to drink.

Aryana Misaghi

Jordan's substance use increased and expanded beyond alcohol. The insecurity about growing up poor, and a desire to have the luxuries his wealthier friends had led him to start selling drugs at age 14. He got arrested at 16, but managed to graduate high school.

Jordan Dennison

I was into pills, and then I started going to out-of-state like Michigan, and bringing drugs back here. Around that time is when I started doing opiates, you know, that was my true kryptonite. That's when I really fell in love with drugs, looking back. But what's crazy is, I had really harsh feelings towards addicts, right? Like, because my mom was one, and the things that she put me and my brothers through, you know. I absolutely, I hated drugs, you know, I hated what they did to people, and I couldn't understand how you could choose drugs over your family or your, you know, your kids, or whatever it might be, until it happened to me. So I quickly built up a pretty heavy habit, you know. I got to the point where I was spending $300-$400 a day on pills. I was able to do so because I was also selling them. So I was able to maintain that habit. And because of that, I was in complete denial that I was a drug addict, right? Because I never had to experience that desperation. You know, I wasn't robbing, cheating or stealing. I never had to go through that, you know, withdrawal sickness, you know, because I always had, you know, something around until I didn't, right? There came a point where, you know, I took a pretty major loss in my life, and it cut out all of my financial means. And it was at that point in time that reality had set in, because I didn't have the financial means to support my habit any longer.

Aryana Misaghi

Jordan was 21 when he learned he was going to become a father. Faced with this news, he felt compelled to be the kind of dad he never had. But around that same time, he also discovered heroin, and his addiction deepened. He went four years without seeing his son, sleeping outside and eating gas station hot dogs to get by. A friend told him about HELP 4 WV, a 24/7 call, chat and text line for people who have mental health or addiction issues, and he reached out for help and entered a detox program.

Jordan Dennison

While I was there, they brought some people in to talk to us that were from one of the 12-step groups, like AA and NA. They brought people in to talk to us, and one of the guys that came in to talk to us with someone that I was in the streets with. You know that I was homeless with. Yeah, I honestly thought that he was dead or in jail because I hadn't seen him in years, and little did I know that he had just turned his life around. He had been clean for like, three years. He got his kids back in his life. He got a career. And I was always the kind of addict that thought I was worse off than everyone else. Seeing him—somebody I knew that was just as bad as I was—and seeing him be able to turn his life around, you know, that really excited me. You know, that gave me hope. And I was like, Wow, like, I'm gonna try it too, you know? Like, you know, I have nothing to lose. So I went on from that detox with a pretty good mindset, you know, I was serious about recovery. I decided I was going to do everything that was suggested to me. I was going to, you know, try to find people that had what I want and latch on to them and allow them to guide me and mentor me into recovery. So I ended up in Charleston. I came here and went to the Kanawha Valley Fellowship Home, and it's a long term program, and it was, it was really hardcore, and I really hated it at first, but it was everything that I needed.

Aryana Misaghi

Over the course of his active addiction, Jordan says he overdosed 11 times. He was revived with Naloxone six times. Incredibly, our final guest from season one, former Huntington Fire Chief and Public Safety Director, Jan Rader, administered several of those doses that brought Jordan back to life.

Aryana Misaghi (Show Information Break)

Appalachian Care Chronicles is made possible thanks to the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. West Virginia Invests is the state's tuition free community college program covering tuition and mandatory fees for certificate or associate's degrees in in demand fields, including nursing and other healthcare careers. Find out if you qualify and apply at collegeforwv.com that's College For WV dot com.

Aryana Misaghi

Jordan got himself a job at Tudor's Biscuit World, and he began to mend strained relationships, including with family members he'd once stolen from, and with his son's mother. He could see a future for himself. Still, something was missing, a larger purpose. He started applying for jobs on indeed.com, and saw a call for specialists to answer phones for an organization. Only later did he realize it was for the very helpline that helped him.

Jordan Dennison

There were several times I overdosed where they just found me, like, in the woods by myself. Like I should have died, but just so happens, like somebody decided to walk through a trail and see me laying there, like that happened at least twice. Like I was completely alone when I overdosed. Yeah, so this is like, there's a reason, you know, like, there's some reason. And I didn't want to take that for granted anymore, you know. So I go up there for the job interview at First Choice Services, and they're telling me that the role for helpline specialists is to answer calls for HELP4 West Virginia. And that was another time I got really excited, and I'm like, Wow, like, do you all even know how I got here? Like, it's because of you. You know, they trusted me as a professional, even, you know, I wasn't necessarily professional, but in the realm of substance use disorder, like, I know another thing or two, right? So they kind of, they allowed me to get involved in things that I was interested in, getting involved in. And through working with them, something that I was really interested in was Quick Response Teams. I wanted to be out in the field, you know, like I wanted to be out meeting people, you know, face-to-face, like, getting to talk to people and such. So one of my friends was telling me how Putnam County was really interested in starting one up. And there was an agency called Marshall Health, and they were kind of like spearheading it. They wanted to find a team to send out, like they were going to provide everything, like a vehicle, phones, all that type of thing. I met the lady, you know, so I connected with her, and she allowed me to really mold that team. So I started, me and another peer recovery coach, started a Quick Response Team in Putnam County, and I absolutely fell in love with that model. But during that time, I also got to meet with Taryn, which is my director at the CARE office. Now, she had just moved to West Virginia and took over the role as a Quick Response Team Coordinator, and I had a meeting with her, you know, I agreed to start going out with her for the Charleston Quick Response Team.

Aryana Misaghi

Jordan works with the Quick Response Team, or QRT on Tuesdays. QRTs are multidisciplinary teams that respond to overdoses and get people into treatment so that they can have the resources they need for recovery. Charleston's QRT has expanded to serve not just those who overdose on opioids or fentanyl, they check in with people experiencing all kinds of addiction, even alcohol. Jordan, or one of his colleagues, visit the courts at least once a month too, and their presence there is really important. On Mondays, in his role as a peer recovery counselor, Jordan looks to see who has court dates and post reminders on lockers at local shelters to make sure people get rides there.

Jordan Dennison

And we see who has been arrested, you know, over the weekend. To see if I need to go visit anybody that's in jail. Tuesday mornings, we have a meeting, and that's where, you know, all the service providers sit down at the table, and we go over a list of individuals that are, you know, signed up for housing. We go over who's at risk for eviction or who is up for housing.

Jordan Dennison (to colleague during ride-along)

Think what I'll do, Dan, is drop some Narcan off over at Green's house. There's this, there's this house here that we've been getting a lot of reports on and actually a lot of clients that I've worked with for years, like they kind of just went off the map. You know, I didn't know where they were, but they're all staying at this one house now. So there's been a lot of activity, a lot of overdoses. So I'm trying to pop in there, like once a week, and just see, see what's going on.

Jordan Dennison (to people at Green’s house)

What's up? Man, just bring y'all some Narcan, is Jenny here? Or Charlie? Is that Kevin? What's up? Man, how you doing, bro, I'm Jordan. Man, I'm with the CARE office. Just coming to check my bro. I've been coming through here, you know, about once a week make sure everybody alright. Appreciate that. No problem. Y'all heard of the CARE office before? Yeah, we help people with housing. Um, Charlie should have my number. Tell him to give me a call later. He asked me to help him with something last week, I was going to see if he still was needing help with that. Um, but yeah, tell Charlie to give me a call later on. I'll come back around, check on him. All right, I'll be safe. Man. All right, no problem. You too, bro, take care, man.

Aryana Misaghi

With so many communities in West Virginia impacted by substance use disorders, Peer Recovery Support Specialists are a critical resource working on the ground, in-person and directly with people who are dealing with so much more than just the challenging health issues related to substance use. Helping people navigate hurdles when it comes to reliable transportation, completing and retaining state and federal government documentation, accompaniment in court proceedings, Peer Recovery Support Specialists connect people with the resources they need on their road to health. To become a certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist in the state of West Virginia, applicants must have a high school diploma or GED and two years of continuous sobriety. They have to take classes in topics like ethics and clock 500 hours of relevant volunteer or paid experience. Even with a certification and a steadfast desire to help others, some parts of the job, like public speaking, didn't come naturally to Jordan. It might be hard to tell now, because he's really got the hang of it, but it did take some time for him to build his confidence as he began to share his story.

Jordan Dennison

I dealt with like severe like social anxiety early on, like it was really hard for me. You know, me and my dad, we have a good relationship, you know, today. And when I was kind of starting out this process, I remember he was telling me, you know, that you got to get uncomfortable to become comfortable. So that's what I did, you know, I put myself in a lot of very uncomfortable situations. Until, you know, now it's kind of just like normal for me, right? Like, I remember my first time, like, public speaking, you know, because I've done a lot of that at this point, you know, like, I go and do prevention speeches at like, some of our local schools, middle schools, high schools, UC, you know, just different things like that. But I remember the first time I went to do something like that, like I could have puked, like I was a mess. Honestly, probably the first 15 times I was like that, like, it didn't get easier for a long time. And I learned that, you know, doing things my way is kind of what got me in the predicament that I was in, so I kind of just allowed other people to guide me kind of to where I needed to be.

Aryana Misaghi

For people looking to make a meaningful impact on others' lives, becoming certified as a Peer Recovery Support Specialist and gaining experience working with vulnerable populations may lead to larger careers in behavioral health. While certification is considered a short-term career training program that features a condensed curriculum, individuals could take the next step into a 2- or 4-year program in Nursing and Health Sciences through West Virginia's Community and Technical Colleges.

Jordan Dennison

For so many of us, you know, we never thought that highly of ourselves, you know, and then we get in a role like this, and we're able to help other people, so we finally find some, you know, self confidence and some purpose. And we love that feeling, so that's all we want to do, right? But that's just not sustainable and it's not realistic. So we have to find things, you know, outside of work to kind of, to balance that out, find new hobbies, or, you know, whatever it might be.

Aryana Misaghi

Jordan's work doesn't always involve helping those in addiction or in recovery. His office once got a call from a woman in Kansas who called about her brother in Charleston. He'd spent a month under anesthesia in the ICU, but made an unlikely recovery and was due to be released during that uncertain period. Though she said he lost his apartment and all of his belongings, and the man had nothing.

Jordan Dennison

So we went out to visit him, and his sister said she would pay for him to stay in a hotel for like, a week. But that's the only means that she had, so she put him in the Days Inn here in Charleston. So we went there and visited him. And it was just like it was a heartbreaking story. Like he was such a nice guy, like you could tell that he had never been in any circumstances like this before. You know, he's always been able to provide for himself. So we were able to put him in a hotel. And we also, you know, we got him signed up for Social Security to try to, you know, get him some income. You know, the guy had no clothes, you know, so we had to go get them clothes. You know, we were taking them food, like every day, just trying to keep them afloat until we could figure out some solutions. So we worked with one of our partners that, you know, houses people, and they were able to, you know, get him into his own place. You know, working with him has kind of showed me that, like, anybody could end up out there, you know, like one bad day, something that's not a fault of your own, could happen, and that could leave you without anything.

It's been rewarding, you know, to find a sense of purpose. You know, it's something I want to do with my life, you know, become a good, you know, role model for my children, you know, for my family members. And you know, I still have friends that are still in addiction, and then, you know, I've been able to help a lot of them, which has been great, you know. And being able to be somebody that others, you know, rely on, is not something that I ever saw myself being, so that’s been cool.

Aryana Misaghi

Appalachian Care Chronicles is a production of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, Health Sciences Division, which is solely responsible for its content. Guest opinions are their own.

Special thanks to the CARE Team and the City of Charleston.

If you or someone you know is in need of support. Help for WV offers a 24/7 call, chat and text line that provides immediate help for any West Virginian struggling with an addiction or mental health issue. You can call OR text HELP 4 WV at 1-844-HELP4WV or chat online.

This was the fourth and final episode of Season Three. If you enjoyed this season, we encourage you to check out past episodes to hear from incredible healthcare professionals like flight paramedic Heidi Stump, rural family docs Mary Gainer and Peter Wentzel, home visit nurse Anitra Ellis, and West Virginia's first female fire chief, the one and only, Jan Rader. There are so many great episodes demonstrating the wide range of ways people can find careers caring for others. I'm Aryana Misaghi, thanks for listening, and see you next season.