By J. Alexander Short

[Each month, the Addiction Legal Resource Team at Penn State’s Dickinson Law recognizes an exceptional individual for their contributions to the addiction treatment community. The individual recognized as Advocate of the Month for the month of October is Keegan Wicks. Formerly involved with the RASE Project, Keegan Wicks is now a Project Coordinator for Faces & Voices of Recovery, a national advocacy organization fighting for the rights of those affected by addiction. We are thankful for inspiration from our honored advocates and from Dickinson Law’s Inside Entrepreneurship Blog. To learn about our past month’s advocate, see here.]

Before I had the pleasure of speaking with Keegan Wicks, I knew about him. People spoke of him and did so with high regard. Whether at local symposia on the current opioid crisis, in the local Opioid Intervention Court, or during discussions with fellow law students, his name continued to echo in my life. His involvement with the RASE Project, a local recovery organization, led to his invitation to speak on a panel on the opioid crisis at Penn State’s Dickinson Law in the fall of 2018. There, Keegan spoke eloquently and candidly about his experiences and how they led to his becoming involved with the world of treatment and recovery. Hearing his words made me hopeful about one of the most serious health crises of my generation – not an easy feat. This was my introduction to Keegan. He is a natural choice to feature as Advocate of the Month. 

When I spoke with Keegan, he introduced himself in a few ways. He told me he was a person who had a connected relationship with his family, he was an upstanding citizen, and he was someone who is actively involved with his employer. Keegan then stated he also happened to be a person in long-term recovery. Not long into our discussion, he explained how he never imagined he would be someone with a substance use disorder. He never planned for this, but it still happened. His story parallels so many I have read about in the past year. While we spoke, I noted how forthright and sincere he was about these traditionally sensitive subjects. Whether discussing the struggles he faced in his past or the hardships our society is facing in the current opioid crisis, Keegan’s tone remained consistent. Everything he said resonated a singular message: The battle against substance use disorder is a fight which cannot be fought alone. 

As our conversation twisted from one topic to another, Keegan consistently stressed the importance of family in his personal journey. “I wouldn’t have been able to maintain recovery without others in my life,” he stated without hesitation. Without family, it would have been nearly impossible for Keegan to overcome substance use disorder and all the struggles associated with it. However, despite all of the difficulties associated with these topics, Keegan remained stubbornly optimistic. He went on to say that “family was just such an important piece in [his] receiving the care [he] needed.” It took little time for it to become clear that the manner in which Keegan successfully overcame his battle with substance use disorder informs his current outlook to this day in countless ways. Now, Keegan is able and willing to give back to others struggling and participate in the recovery community. It is this calling that drives Keegan’s work.

Like I mentioned earlier, I first met Keegan and heard him speak at a conference at Penn State’s Dickinson Law in the fall of 2018. There, he spoke about his story. Since 2013, he actively worked in the recovery field through roles in advocacy, counseling, and management. The organizations with which he has been involved reads like an alphabet soup: CRAFT (Community Reinforcement And Family Training); the Workforce Development Steering Committee for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office / Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs (DDAP) Collaboration; the Recovery and Resiliency Steering Committee lead by the Pennsylvania Recovery Organizations Alliance (PRO-A); the Pennsylvania Mental Health Consumers’ Association (PMHCA); and the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Service Mental Health Planning Council (OMHSAS MHPC). However, he primarily spoke about his work with the RASE Project, the advocacy organization which serves the needs of individuals in and seeking recovery in Central Pennsylvania. Specifically RASE is a Recovery Community Organization, meaning it is comprised entirely of staff and volunteers from the Recovery Community and it exists to serve the Recovery Community. The RASE Project allowed Keegan to become involved with the Central Pennsylvania community, but today he advocates on a larger scale. 

Keegan’s now focuses his energy fighting for the rights of individuals facing the same struggles he had to overcome in his life. Since June of 2019, he works with an organization known as Faces & Voices of Recovery. The organization’s mission reads as though Keegan himself authored it. Faces & Voices of Recovery is “dedicated to organizing and mobilizing the over 23 million Americans in recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs, our families, friends and allies into recovery community organizations and networks, to promote the right and resources to recover through advocacy, education and demonstrating the power and proof of long-term recovery.” At Faces & Voices of Recovery, Keegan advocates for people in recovery in a number of ways. Through his work there, Keegan focuses on the continued development of recovery organizations. Put simply, recovery organizations are organizations which help someone during the recovery process, oftentimes by pairing them with individuals who have already been through the process. In one project, he is working to coordinate and establish recovery community organizations in Florida run by members of the recovery community to assist those in recovery themselves. He noted that peer services like these are an essential component in developing a large-scale response to the current drug crisis in this country. Even when discussing this project, it doesn’t take long for Keegan to bring it back to family: “It’s really about going out into the community and educating people about the family dynamic.” However, Keegan recognized there are even more battles to fight.

One such battle is the overarching issue of stigma associated with substance use disorder. As Keegan spoke about stigma, it quickly became apparent how language is fundamental in educating people about substance use disorder as well as causing change in how institutions address it. Loaded language has the potential to identify people by their ailment, rather than their personhood. For instance, words like junkie or addict do harm to this cause and should be avoided. Instead, as Keegan explained, person-first language like ‘person in recovery’ or ‘person with substance use disorder’ refocuses the language in a far more positive manner. “Imagine if a doctor told you that your chlamydia test came back ‘dirty’,” Keegan said frankly, “and yet that language is regularly used in court proceedings everyday to describe positive drug screenings.” The need for careful language goes beyond everyday conversation and impacts legislation and policy.  

With equal conviction, Keegan discussed the importance of legislative advocacy for those affected by substance use disorder.  He discussed one such law which could impact the lives of anyone with a substance use disorder: 42 CFR Part 2. When enacted, these federal privacy protections were motivated by the understanding that individuals with substance use disorder may fear treatment due to stigma or the potential of prosecution. Currently, Keegan explained, there are efforts being made to align these protections with HIPAA, but there are large gaps in the law as it exists today that could harm individuals with substance use disorder. Check out a summary of the ongoing changes being made to these regulations here. 

The nature of most discussions about the opioid crisis or larger issues of addiction are naturally difficult to have. These topics cause people stress or discomfort. Even more often, people become exasperated about the colossal nature of the problem. Keegan is not like most people. Whether explaining his personal journey in recovery or detailing legislative developments of the past week, Keegan spoke with a contagious, unfettered optimism. It was hard not to feel refreshed and invigorated in my passion about this topic after speaking with him. 

In many ways, after our discussion, I understood why so many people spoke so highly of Keegan. In his demeanor and energy, he naturally shines a light onto topics so regularly tucked away into the shadows. Beyond that, Keegan puts in the hours each day to make the changes necessary to overcome a monumental crisis. Perhaps it is his history with recovery, his understanding of the magnitude of this crisis, or his work ethic that drives him. Whatever it is, Keegan continues his fight and is not looking back.