Mother who lost son to fentanyl overdose wants to share message about substance use

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (WJLA) — In January 2023, Thurraya Kent’s son Malcolm died of a fentanyl overdose.

He was 17 years old.

“I want for our family and his friends to always remember his laugh, his hugs, and how really talented he was,” Kent told WJLA Reporter Nick Minock. “We are sandwiched between bereaved Mother's Day, which some people don't know exists, and Mother's Day, and Fentanyl Awareness Day, so it's all coming to a crash.”

Through this tragic experience, Kent has learned a lot about Virginia’s and Fairfax County’s approach to addressing youth substance use.

“It's hard when you find out that your child has a substance problem,” Kent said. “The child recognizes it and says, ‘Mom, I want to get help.’ And then all you do is get on waiting lists, waiting lists after waiting lists, and you call and you call and you write and then someone will say, ‘Oh, well, we can't take someone who is on the autism spectrum. Oh, we have a female bed but not a male bed. Or well, the closest bed that will take your insurance is in Texas, or in Florida or something like that.’ And your child is looking at you and saying ‘Mom, I don't want to go to Texas, but I want to get better. I don't want to have to go so far away from home, but I want to get better.’ So why isn’t that care available in Virginia? Why have we limited so many youth beds? Our capacity to treat youth in our own state is not keeping up with the demand, unfortunately.”

On her behalf, WJLA asked Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin what is the Commonwealth doing to increase the number of youth treatment facilities including in-patient care and how the Commonwealth and insurance companies regulate private youth treatment facilities. And what is the measure of effectiveness?

In a statement, Gov. Youngkin’s Press Secretary Christian Martinez told WJLA:

The Governor’s proposed budget amendments included $1.6 million over the biennium to increase the number of inpatient and residential treatment facilities to serve adolescents with substance use disorders. His Right Help, Right Now plan includes the implementation of a pilot program to provide training and education to providers on adolescent substance use disorder treatment, including the use of Medication Assisted Treatment when appropriate.

The licensing regulations were recently updated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to adopt the evidence-based framework of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). The ASAM model of care was widely adopted in Virginia and serves as the model for building out the continuum of services under Virginia Medicaid in the Addiction Recovery Treatment Services (ARTS) program. It includes services ranging from prevention, early intervention, active treatment, through recovery. Virginia Medicaid is the largest payer of substance use disorder treatment in the Commonwealth and requires all Medicaid Managed Care Organizations to be trained in the ASAM model for service authorization and delivery.

Virginia Medicaid has an established contract with Virginia Commonwealth University to conduct an annual evaluation of the ARTS program since its inception in 2017, which includes a review of the availability of services, use of emergency departments, overdose, care transitions, utilization of services, and outcomes that include recovery. Evaluating Medicaid - Department of Health Behavior and Policy - Virginia Commonwealth University (vcu.edu).

Kent would like a law requiring standardized procedures that keep minor children in the ER after a suspected overdose until a follow-up appointment for treatment is secured, and a law requiring emergency rooms to test for fentanyl.

“They don’t test for fentanyl,” Kent said. “The only person that actually tested it for my son for fentanyl was the medical examiner. That doesn't do me any good at that point after he passed away.”

Kent would also like procedures in local schools that help children with identified substance misuse issues succeed in treatment and school.

On behalf of Kent, WJLA asked Fairfax County School board members what is the role of county substance abuse prevention specialists and given increased awareness of drug misuse by teens, why are many of them responsible for more than one high school.

WJLA asked Kent why this question was important to her.

“Our children are hurting and we need to figure out how to help them. Having part-time help on something that is a matter of life and death seems kind of silly,” said Kent. “We need to really value the lives of each of these children and help them figure out that they can recover and move forward.”

Fairfax County Chair Karl Frisch didn’t respond to WJLA's interview request, but At-Large school board member, Kyle McDaniel did.

“First, my heart goes out to this family,” said McDaniel. “No family should have to go through that.”

McDaniel said FCPS has 21 authorized substance abuse prevention specialist positions right now.

FCPS created these positions in 2018 and what they're geared to do on the school side is provide education, provide some intervention services, and really try to bring families, students, and community groups to the table in partnership with our county partners at the CSB, the community services boards,” said McDaniel. “I think, specifically when we're talking about staffing levels, having 21 authorized positions right now, a couple of them are vacant and they're being filled. Which to your point doesn't allow one specialist per High School pyramid. Now we have about two dozen high schools. What I am gathering and what I'm being told on my end is we try to shift these positions in places where we have higher cases of these types of referrals and these situations. So, it's kind of targeted. I would almost call it a needs-based staffing formula. There isn't a federal or state standard for staffing like you would have with other positions such as teachers or mental health counselors. So it's one of those things where we have to target that staff in a way that makes the most sense given the resource constraints that the public school system is facing.

“The [Fairfax] Board of Supervisors passed their budget; it's likely going to be that the school system receives a lot more money. Do you think some of those resources should go to positions like this to address the opioid [and fentanyl] crisis?” WJLA Nick Minock asked McDaniel.

“One of the things that we have to do is take a look from a top-down function of how we go about delivering these types of services, whether it's drug intervention specialists, mental health counselors, that's another component of this is the shortage of mental health counselors, not just in Fairfax County, but across the country, and not just in terms of them being hired, but also being able to fill those positions with qualified individuals. So as we continue to go through the budget cycle, this is certainly going to be something that I monitor and pay close attention to,” answered McDaniel.

Kent said Malcolm had started to self-medicate.

“Is the supplier still out there?” WJLA Reporter Nick Minock asked.

“Yes,” Kent replied.

“What do you think about that? Does that alarm you?” WJLA asked McDaniel.

“One of the things that I'm looking at and I'm trying to work with some of our regional partners at the school board level is pulling together a regional federal task force where we have schools and we have law enforcement,” said McDaniel. “We have counselors, we have community groups at the table. The pills and the distribution is not micro-contained to a school whether it's a high school, middle school or elementary school. It's a regional challenge. I think there needs to be a regional approach to addressing this.”

Kent also has concerns about vape shops in Annandale and Kratom that produce opioid stimulant-like effects.