GroundTruth

The South Bronx, New York's poorest neighborhood, has been dealing with a deadly heroin epidemic for generations. We look at the origins of the epidemic, residents' efforts to handle the crisis and the birth of a stigma that continues to kill, as opioid abuse spreads to the suburbs and beyond.

Rampant prescriptions for painkillers laid the foundation for a deadly heroin epidemic in the mostly white, blue-collar community of Staten Island. Now, the old and new epidemics exist just a few miles apart. But the stigma of addiction has stopped these suburban neighborhoods from confronting the crisis.

To deal with the crisis on Staten Island, health officials and law enforcement are pioneering new kinds of treatment options. But residents are largely in denial about the problem, and those wanting to get clean are more likely to go far away for rehab – making them more vulnerable to relapse when they return.

In the South Bronx, healthcare providers here are pioneering an approach that is way ahead of the rest of the country. This system, where all of the patients' needs are met in once place, allows them to live high-quality lives, despite a world of stigma outside of the clinic walls.

On Long Island, the rate of death from opioid overdose is rising the fastest in all of New York. Here, providers are being trained in basic communication and learning to treat substance abuse like any other chronic disease. It starts with a conversation that many doctors still don't know how to have.