North Dakota first lady Kathryn Burgum speaks about addiction stigma at UND event

Apr. 19—GRAND FORKS — When asked what advice she'd like to give people who are suffering from addiction and wanting to make steps toward recovery, the first lady of North Dakota said having the courage to reach out is the best thing someone can do.

"The shame keeps us from reaching out for help," Kathryn Burgum said. "But the person you reach out for help from — that you think might be judging you — might have the same thing going on in their life, might have the same struggles. There's so many places to reach out to. You just have to have the courage."

Burgum was the featured speaker at the 10th annual Women for Philanthropy Luncheon, which was held at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, April 18, at UND's Gorecki Alumni Center. She told an audience of approximately 140 in-person — and more tuning in remotely — about her experiences with addiction followed by 22 years of recovery, and how these experiences shaped her role as the state's first lady.

When Burgum first shared what she planned to prioritize as first lady — ending the stigma and shame around addiction — she made a choice to share how personal the cause was to her.

"What I'm doing is trying to face it head-on by being the face and voice of recovery," she said. "Shame and stigma have affected me for a huge part of my life."

Burgum and her husband, Gov. Doug Burgum, have worked to reduce shame and stigma across the state by establishing an annual conference focusing on recovery and collecting data.

In 2018, when the state's first survey on addiction stigma was taken, 63% of participants reported they believed addiction was a disease. By 2021, the number had increased to 74%.

"Feelings are one thing, but data is another," Burgum said. "Data can change minds, get funding and all those things. That's how the survey came about, so that we could tell the difference we made."

The state's annual conference, Recovery Reinvented, first held in 2017, aims to increase awareness of addiction as a disease, rather than a personal choice or failure, as well as destigmatize it.

"The whole point is to eliminate the shame and stigma of addiction," Burgum said. "It's a lot about people sharing their stories, sharing how the disease of addiction has impacted their lives, how they've found recovery."

Since Gov. Burgum will leave office at the end of this term, the conference will be held one last time on Oct. 30 in Bismarck. It's a one-day event featuring speakers who share their personal experiences, recognizing champions for the cause and providing information about what services are available in North Dakota, Kathryn Burgum told the Grand Forks Herald.

In a largely rural state, where resources are often limited and difficult to access, getting the word out about these services is essential, she said.

Some services include peer support specialists, of which there are almost 1,000 trained and certified across the state, she said.

"(That) gives us a big leg up, especially in the smaller communities," Burgum said. "There are so many people who want to give back and they don't have an opportunity to, but with this program, people can get paid for it. It can be a career opportunity for them."

Many peer support specialists have felony convictions related to their addictions, so they can be legally discriminated against and turned away from potential job opportunities, she said.

"Then it's just a vicious cycle, and you can't go anywhere," Burgum said.

The peer support field, then, offers an opportunity for people to use their lived experiences to help others — with finding a job, a place to live and other needs. Another option for support in North Dakota is the F5 Project, which provides housing and other resources, often for people leaving the criminal justice system.

"That's a great program," Burgum said.

It's important to meet people where they're at, she said, and that doesn't always mean a traditional treatment setting. Inpatient treatment is not accessible to everyone, for a multitude of reasons, such as location, personal obligations and finances.

"They can't drop everything," Burgum said. "They can't go without money."

The workplace can be a barrier, or a bridge, to treatment. For Burgum, the first person she told she needed help for her addiction was her employer. She was met with encouragement.

Jonathan Holth, managing director for the office of Recovery Reinvented and businessman with ownership stakes in the Toasted Frog and Urban Stampede, cited that experience — and his own — when telling the Herald about the opportunity he gives employees.

During onboarding, Holth lets staff know that if they're struggling at any point, they're encouraged to seek help and will not lose their job or income for doing so.

"If a business had an employee that needed to go get chemotherapy, you wouldn't think twice," he said. "But we don't do that if they need to go to an AA meeting."

Burgum believes this practice is a great example of treating addiction like the disease it is.

Her work in ending the shame and stigma surrounding addiction has been going on for close to a decade at this point, but it won't end once her husband leaves office, she says. Whatever comes next for her, she says, "has to be about giving back, helping people, being a resource related to the disease of addiction and, really, behavioral health."

"Because that drives a lot of people into addiction, you know? The drink or the drug is the coping mechanism."