ATTC Embracing Change blog series post from Southeast ATTC.

Like much of the substance use disorders (SUD) treatment field, South Carolina’s providers experienced the early impact of COVID-19 as a steep rise in the need for services combined with a steep decline in capacity to meet that need. In communities, fear, isolation, loneliness, and financial stress escalated, while social support diminished. Traditionally marginalized populations were disproportionately affected.

Many individuals were already deeply troubled long before the pandemic hit. For decades, more and more people had been: 

• suffering the effects of early, chronic, intergenerational, historical, and/or racial trauma; 
• deeply affected by inequities and disparities in the social determinants of health, diminishing their resilience and resources;
• afflicted with multiple substance use disorders, mental health conditions, and chronic physical health conditions; and/or 
• bearing the social, psychological, and financial burdens of years spent in the foster care, juvenile justice, and/or criminal justice systems, or on the street.