GOSHEN – September is National Recovery Month, and local and state officials and addiction specialists gathered Thursday at Catholic Charities of Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster to memorialize the toll created this year in part by the COVID pandemic.
“Support plays a critical role in recovery,” said Dr. Dean Sher, president of Catholic Charities of Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster.
Six months after the pandemic crashed the regional economy, forcing the unemployment rates to soar and small businesses to close, overdoses have skyrocketed. Port Jervis has a 60 percent hike in overdoses, and Ulster County has seen those numbers rise 170 percent.
And that despair has been deepened by the state’s budget, which now faces a $13 billion deficit. That means less aid for schools, municipalities, and toward the battle against addiction.
And the state, said state Sen. James Skoufis, D-Newburgh, is waiting and hoping for some needed federal relief.
The senator said “We are hoping they actually come through,” he said. “We have been thrashed by the virus.”
