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MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | Anoka County's Hope & Healing Expo Confronts Addiction, Treatment Barriers and the Challenges of Recovery
In separate interviews with MinneapoliMedia, Anoka County opioid prevention specialist Patti Constant and Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation recovery advocate William C. Moyers examine the difficulties of obtaining treatment, the pressures facing families and the need for sustained support beyond overdose prevention.
BLAINE, MN (November 14, 2026).
Anoka County's Hope & Healing Expo is bringing addiction recovery organizations, mental health professionals, treatment providers and community advocates together Saturday in Blaine, where residents will have an opportunity to learn about available services and speak directly with organizations working to address substance use disorders.
The gathering, scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church, 641 89th Avenue NE, is the county's third annual event devoted to substance use education and recovery resources. This year's program expands its focus to include mental health, reflecting an effort to reach residents whose concerns may extend beyond opioid addiction.
Approximately 49 community resource organizations were expected to participate, according to Patti Constant, Anoka County's opioid prevention specialist. William C. Moyers, vice president of public affairs and community relations at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address.
In separate interviews with MinneapoliMedia on Friday, November 13, Constant and Moyers discussed the difficulties that can arise when someone seeks treatment, the effects of addiction on families and the limitations of a recovery system in which services may exist but remain difficult to access.
Their accounts also raised questions about how Anoka County will address gaps in treatment, transportation and culturally responsive services as it determines the next priorities for its opioid settlement funding.
From opioid awareness to a broader conversation
For the past two years, Anoka County presented its annual gathering under the name Spotlight on Opioids. Constant said organizers reconsidered that approach after recognizing that the title might discourage participation by people who did not believe opioid addiction directly affected them.
The event was renamed Hope & Healing Expo, and its programming was expanded to address mental health alongside substance use disorders.
The gathering is organized through a collaboration involving the Anoka County Opioid Solutions Initiative and the county's substance use disorder collaborative.
Constant said the approximately 49 participating organizations would provide information about treatment, recovery support, prevention and related services. Bringing those organizations into one location is intended to help residents who may be unfamiliar with the resources available in their communities.
The program includes presentations addressing mental health stigma, physical activity and recovery, family support, cannabis and emerging substance use concerns. A session will examine 7-hydroxymitragynine, commonly known as 7-OH, while another presentation will address fentanyl and other drug trends.
Fentanyl-Free Communities is expected to bring a display featuring images of more than 80 Minnesotans who died from fentanyl-related causes.
Other sessions include Make It OK, focused on reducing stigma surrounding mental health, and Motion Creates Emotion, which examines physical activity as part of a recovery journey.
The expanded program reflects an effort to reach families who may recognize a problem but have little understanding of where to seek help.
Treatment access remains an obstacle
Constant described recovery as a process shaped by individual circumstances, with needs that can change substantially from one person to another.
During the interview, she identified transportation, financial uncertainty, withdrawal symptoms, employment responsibilities and family obligations among the obstacles that can prevent someone from entering treatment.
For some residents, the difficulty begins with finding an appropriate facility. Others may know where treatment is available but lack the means to reach it or remain there.
Constant said Anoka County has lost its principal detoxification facility and that a group is working toward establishing another facility in Coon Rapids. Until additional local capacity becomes available, some residents must seek services outside the county.
That creates further difficulties for people without reliable transportation or sufficient financial resources.
The challenges can also involve responsibilities that treatment programs do not necessarily address. Someone entering inpatient care may need arrangements for children, pets, housing or employment. The possibility of losing those supports can influence whether a person pursues treatment.
Constant was careful to distinguish her role from that of professionals who directly coordinate treatment placements. Her work focuses on opioid settlement funding, community partnerships and identifying gaps that county resources might help address.
Those responsibilities place her at the center of discussions about the next phase of Anoka County's opioid response.
The county initially directed settlement resources toward prevention, naloxone education and distribution. With the current funding round expected to conclude in the spring, Constant said officials and community partners are assessing additional needs.
An advisory council that includes people with lived experience, mental health professionals, treatment providers, law enforcement and other community representatives participates in those discussions.
Among the priorities under consideration are medications for opioid use disorder, housing, transportation, access to detoxification and treatment services.
Constant said the process remains underway. The county has not settled on the full range of programs that will receive funding in the next round.
Her account identified a significant distinction between making treatment available and ensuring that residents can realistically obtain it. A facility located beyond a person's transportation network may offer little practical assistance without additional support.
A keynote grounded in personal experience
Moyers told MinneapoliMedia that he accepted the invitation because he values opportunities to speak with communities in Minnesota, where he lives.
A longtime national advocate for addiction treatment and recovery, Moyers has spent decades discussing his experiences with substance use disorders, treatment and the difficulties of sustaining recovery.
His appearance in Anoka County comes as organizers seek to address the stigma that can prevent people from acknowledging addiction or seeking professional help.
Moyers described his early struggles with alcohol and crack cocaine, which led him to treatment during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He said he established sustained recovery in 1994 and subsequently built a career advocating for people affected by addiction.
Years later, prescription opioid pain medication following dental procedures presented another challenge.
Despite his professional knowledge and years in recovery, Moyers said he found himself unable to stop using the prescribed medication without additional medical assistance.
He eventually sought treatment from a Minneapolis physician who prescribed buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder.
Moyers said the treatment helped address his cravings and became an important addition to the recovery practices he had relied upon for years.
The experience altered his understanding of what sustained recovery can require.
For much of his earlier recovery, Moyers had relied on practices that included a 12-step program, faith and personal discipline. When those approaches proved insufficient to address his difficulty with prescription opioids, he needed another form of treatment.
He also acknowledged the shame he experienced while confronting a problem he had spent much of his professional life helping others understand.
Moyers said stigma exists not only among people unfamiliar with addiction but sometimes within recovery communities, where individuals may face criticism for returning to substance use or relying on medication.
His experience underscores why recovery cannot always be measured by adherence to one treatment philosophy.
Medication and the misconceptions surrounding recovery
Both Constant and Moyers raised concerns about negative attitudes toward medications used to treat opioid use disorder.
Constant said some people regard medication treatment as replacing one substance with another, a misconception she believes can discourage people from accepting appropriate care.
She emphasized that opioid addiction can involve severe withdrawal symptoms and that medication may be necessary to help some individuals remain engaged in treatment.
Moyers described advances in addiction medicine as an important development in expanding treatment options.
He said medications such as buprenorphine can provide meaningful assistance when prescribed and monitored by qualified medical professionals.
His own experience demonstrated the limitations of assuming that recovery strategies successful at one point in life will necessarily remain sufficient under different circumstances.
The two interviews also challenged the expectation that treatment follows a predictable course.
Constant said people may require more than one attempt at treatment before achieving sustained recovery. She cautioned against interpreting setbacks as evidence that further treatment is futile.
Moyers similarly described recovery as a continuing process that can involve changes in treatment, support and personal circumstances.
Neither suggested that medication alone resolves the broader difficulties associated with addiction. Their accounts instead emphasized the need for appropriate care and support responsive to individual circumstances.
Families face consequences of their own
The interviews also examined the effects of addiction on relatives, particularly when someone enters treatment or returns home after receiving care.
Constant said families often struggle with questions about boundaries, financial assistance, personal safety and how to respond when a loved one returns to substance use.
She challenged the assumption that withdrawing all support until someone reaches a crisis point is necessarily the appropriate response.
Families, she explained, need information about how to provide support while maintaining boundaries that protect their own well-being.
Thrive Family Therapeutics, an organization receiving Anoka County opioid funding, provides services intended to address those needs.
Constant said the organization offers free online family support and recently began holding weekly in-person support meetings in Coon Rapids.
Its programming helps relatives understand addiction, establish boundaries and develop approaches to supporting loved ones who may be in treatment or continuing to use substances.
Representatives of Thrive are scheduled to participate in the Expo, including a presentation addressing family experiences with addiction.
Moyers also discussed the consequences of his substance use for his family.
He acknowledged that his behavior damaged relationships and caused fear, anger and distrust among people close to him. His recovery, he said, did not automatically resolve the harm they had experienced.
He encouraged relatives affected by addiction to seek counseling and support groups, including families who have lost loved ones to overdose or other substance-related causes.
Their experiences point to a continuing need for services that address families independently of whether the person struggling with addiction has entered treatment.
The difficulty of finding the right assistance
Anoka County has organizations providing peer recovery support, community navigation and services for people returning from incarceration. Constant said residents may nevertheless struggle to identify the appropriate organization or determine which programs they qualify for.
She identified peer recovery navigators as particularly valuable because they bring personal experience to their work and can assist people in locating services.
Among the organizations she discussed were Begin Anew Recovery, based in Ramsey, and Minnesota Recovery Connection.
Constant said Minnesota Recovery Connection receives county opioid funding and provides programming in the Anoka County jail intended to support people preparing to return to the community.
She also described changes in the jail's approach to social services, including the addition of a social worker and increased attention to the needs of people experiencing substance use disorders.
The period following incarceration can carry an elevated risk of overdose, particularly for people whose tolerance to opioids has declined during incarceration. Constant emphasized the importance of naloxone access and continued support during that transition.
Outside the correctional system, residents may encounter difficulties that fall between the responsibilities of treatment providers and other community organizations.
Constant described an individual who had completed inpatient treatment but faced losing belongings held in storage because of an unpaid bill.
She connected the person with an Anoka County substance use navigator, who helped address the problem.
Although the immediate issue involved a storage payment rather than medical treatment, its resolution mattered to someone attempting to regain stability after inpatient care.
The account illustrates the practical responsibilities that can accompany recovery and the importance of connecting residents with people who understand the broader service network.
Culturally responsive services need further development
One of the more consequential portions of Constant's interview concerned the county's ability to serve residents from different cultural communities.
Asked about treatment barriers affecting Native American and African American residents, Constant acknowledged that she does not yet have sufficiently detailed information to describe those barriers specifically within Anoka County.
She said her previous work in Hennepin County gave her familiarity with community leaders and culturally specific organizations there, but establishing comparable relationships in Anoka County has been more difficult.
Constant attributed part of that challenge to limited staffing capacity and the need to establish broader countywide programs before concentrating on individual populations.
She said the addition of a health equity specialist and another staff member could help strengthen outreach and improve the county's understanding of culturally specific needs.
Constant identified Uplift Treatment Center in Coon Rapids as an organization serving East African residents and participating in the county's advisory council.
She expressed interest in developing stronger relationships with organizations serving other communities, including Hmong and Native American residents.
That work, she acknowledged, requires more detailed information about where residents seek services, which organizations they trust and whether they must travel outside Anoka County to obtain culturally appropriate care.
The county's ability to address those questions will be an important consideration as it determines future funding priorities.
For now, Constant's account establishes that culturally responsive treatment access remains an area requiring additional assessment rather than a problem the county can claim to have fully addressed.
Beyond the number of fatal overdoses
Overdose deaths remain a critical measure of the opioid crisis, but Constant said Anoka County is also examining whether residents understand how to recognize an overdose and respond.
She described surveys conducted at community events during two successive summers. Participants were asked whether they knew about naloxone, carried it, knew where to obtain it free of charge and felt comfortable administering it.
Constant reported increases ranging from approximately 10% to 60% in affirmative responses across the questions.
The interview did not establish the surveys' sample sizes, methodology or full results. Those details would be necessary before treating the findings as evidence of a countywide change in knowledge or behavior.
Constant nevertheless described increased awareness of naloxone as an important objective of the county's prevention work.
She also discussed Faces of Hope, a documentary developed to share the experiences of people affected by addiction and recovery in Anoka County.
The documentary has been screened at community events and, according to Constant, received an Upper Midwest Emmy nomination and was shown at the Twin Cities Film Festival.
She said some viewers have responded by acknowledging that they previously did not recognize the extent to which opioid addiction affected people in their own communities.
The county maintains educational information and resources through its Faces of Hope website. Constant said organizers plan to record Moyers' Expo presentation and make it available there.
The recording would allow residents who cannot attend Saturday's event to hear his account and learn more about recovery.
What comes after the Expo
The Hope & Healing Expo provides an opportunity for residents to meet treatment providers, recovery organizations and mental health advocates in one location. Its longer-term significance will depend partly on whether those connections help people obtain services after the event.
Constant said Anoka County's work will continue through community partnerships, resource development and the next round of opioid settlement funding decisions.
Moyers, meanwhile, emphasized the importance of making treatment accessible to people who lack adequate insurance, financial resources or established support networks.
He said Minnesota has developed meaningful treatment resources but continues to face gaps between the number of people needing care and the services available to them.
Those concerns are evident in the issues Constant described locally: residents traveling outside the county for treatment, families struggling to navigate services, people leaving incarceration without sufficient support and communities whose culturally specific needs have not been fully assessed.
Saturday's gathering will not resolve those challenges. It does, however, bring together organizations involved in addressing them and gives residents an opportunity to seek information without first having to navigate the system alone.
For Anoka County, the next test will be whether the relationships strengthened through the Expo, together with future funding decisions, translate into more accessible and sustained support for people affected by addiction.
MinneapoliMedia will examine these issues further in forthcoming Community Interview Series features with Patti Constant and William C. Moyers.
EVENT INFORMATION: The Hope & Healing Expo is scheduled for Saturday, November 14, 2026, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Christ Lutheran Church, 641 89th Avenue NE, Blaine, Minnesota.
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