Fall or Fly
By: Wendy Welch
FALL OR FLY: the strangely hopeful story of foster care and adoption in Appalachia tells the story of how the opioid crisis affected the region’s most vulnerable population, creating compassion fatigue and losing a generation in the process. Solutions suggested by those in the midst of the crisis feature in the more than sixty interviews with social workers, parents, and children (bio/foster/adopted) and community stakeholders. There’s a lot the public doesn’t know about how the foster care system works. (Ohio University Press 2019)
FROM THE FRONT LINES OF THE APPALACHIAN ADDICTION CRISIS: healthcare providers discuss opioids, meth and recovery includes stories from doctors, nurses, and therapists dealing on a daily basis with the opioid crisis in Appalachia should be heartbreaking. Yet those told here also inspire with practical advice on how to assist those in addiction, from a grass-roots to a policy level. Readers looking for ways to combat the crisis will find suggestions alongside laughter, tears, and sometimes rage. Each author brings the passion of their profession and the personal losses they have experienced from addiction, and posits solutions and harm reduction with positivity, grace, and even humor. Authors representing seven states from northern, Coalfields, and southern Appalachia relate personal encounters with patients or providers who changed them forever. This is a history document, showing how we got here; an evidenced indictment of current policies failing those who need them most; an affirmation that Appalachia solves its own problems; and a collection of suggestions for best practice moving forward.
From the Front Lines of the Appalachian Addiction Crisis
Edited by: Wendy Welch
Forward by: Lauren Sisler
Public Health in Appalachia
Edited by: Wendy Welch
Forward by: John Dreyzehner
PUBLIC HEALTH IN APPALACHIA: essays from the clinic and the field is divided into three sections: problems, solutions, and important theories on rural health. Welch edited more than contributors writing on the intertwined nature of economics and health, the need for both patient and provider responsibility, and the ways in which small town doctors first blew the (ignored) whistle on painkiller marketing in areas dependent on physical labor jobs. Cultural competency, policy influence, political maneuvering and more (McFarland Press, 2014)
Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium 