new program in Allentown expanding support to children and families affected by substance abuse.<\/a><\/p>\n“I relapsed in 2020 on meth. I watched myself lose everything; I lost my house, I lost my cars, I lost my job, and then ultimately, my kids,\u201d said Amber Shook.<\/p>\n
The woman went through a dark relapse and lost everything when she became addicted to Methamphetamine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe types of drugs people have been getting addicted to in recent years are shifting; the problem changes. It’s changing from opioids to some other drugs,\u201d District Attorney of Lehigh County, Gavin Holihan, says.<\/p>\n
Stimulant use is the new battle Lehigh County is trying to fight, with an increase in use from 19% in 2021 to 25% in 2026.<\/p>\n
“When they’re in addiction, they’re more likely to commit crimes, and those are crimes that resonate throughout the community,” explains Holihan<\/p>\n
Now, the launch of a new program with Change on Hamilton in Allentown is helping families recover.<\/p>\n
“The Journeys program and the Westminster Mommy and Me Program are a place where families can recover together, so we can prevent the cycle of generations of families becoming addicted,\u201d Molly Stanton, Assistant Administrator for Lehigh County Drug and Alcohol, said.<\/p>\n
The new effort is being funded with Opioid Settlement dollars. Children and parents get the help they need during recovery; this includes mental health treatment, stable housing, childcare, and transportation. It’s given people like Shook a new look at life.<\/p>\n
“I chose to fight for my sobriety, fight for my kids, and I met people along the way who thought I was worth the fight too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Efforts at Change on Hamilton are paying off, as Opioid overdose deaths declined from 37% in 2021 to 26% in 2026.<\/p>\n
“These are people I knew that I represented when they were committing crimes when I was a criminal defense attorney,\u201d Shook explained.<\/p>\n
“I see them now, and they’re clean, and they’re sober, they’re reunited with their families,” says Holihan.<\/p>\n
Recovered addict Amber Shook shared with 69 News what she’s doing now.<\/p>\n
“I work in behavioral health, so I get to meet people where they’re at now. I get to do the same job for somebody else that somebody did for me, it’s full circle,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Shook wants to see others take that step in their journey.<\/p>\n
“My story is a pathway for somebody, so their story can be a pathway for somebody else along the way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa. – Lehigh County is stepping up the fight against addiction. On Friday, officials celebrated the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,433],"class_list":["post-308349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-lehigh-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}