- [Stephfond] Tonight on "WPBS Weekly, Inside The Stories", a look inside the overdose epidemic.

We sit down with one expert to talk Opioid addiction, prevention, and recovery.

And New York Times bestselling author, Ellen Marie Wiseman, digs into her most recent book, "The Lost Girls Of Willowbrook."

Also, how well do you know your partner?

This Valentine's Day we put you to the test to see what you know, and what you don't.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly, Inside The Stories."

(gentle music) (gentle music) (gentle music) - [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly, Inside The Stories" is brought to you by, The Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center.

(gentle music) Carthage Savings.

(gentle music) The J.M.

McDonald Foundation.

(gentle music) And, the Dr. D. Susan Badenhausen Legacy Fund of the Northern New York Community Foundation.

Additional funding from the New York State Education Department.

- Good Tuesday evening, everyone.

And thanks so much for tuning in to "WPBS Weekly, Inside The Stories."

I'm Stephfond Brunson.

Well, it's Valentine's Evening, and many of you are out celebrating your love for one another.

But that person you're sitting across from at dinner, how well do you know them?

We headed to Salmon Run Mall in Watertown to find out.

WPBS Weekly's, Luke Smith, asked some of you basic questions about your partner, and not everyone answered correctly.

Right, Luke?

- Hey, Stephfond.

No, not everyone was on the mark when it came to their partner's eye color, shirt color, or even their favorite meal.

But, everyone gets points for trying.

Hi, do you wanna play a trivia game?

- You bet.

- Sure.

Alright, I'm gonna have you stand right here, back to back.

- Okay.

- All right, and I'm gonna start with you.

- Oh no.

- Can you tell me your partner's eye color?

- Hazel.

(bell dings) - Can you tell me their current shirt color?

- Light blue.

(bell dings) - What is their favorite meal?

- Pizza.

(bell dings) - Can you tell me what your partner does for a living?

- He's retired from the sheriff's department.

(bell dings) - Alright.

Now I'm gonna come on over here.

Can you tell me your partner's favorite candy?

- Turtle's.

God, the chocolate and the peanut, the turtles.

(bell dings) - What is their favorite movie?

- Oh, good Lord.

- He is failing.

- She doesn't like movies, that's the problem.

Her favorite TV show would be like "The Good Witch," something to that effect.

But anything with Hallmark, a love story, that's her.

(bell dings) - And what does your partner do for a living?

- She's a retired Home Health Aid.

(bell dings) - And then, favorite flavor of ice cream?

(upbeat playful music) - Oh God.

I'm not drawing a blank, it's birthday cake, from, can't remember the name of that company.

They were right here in Watertown, they went out of business.

Coldstone Creamery.

It was the birthday cake.

(buzzer buzzes) - What is your partner's eye color?

- Green.

(bell dings) - Alright, their Shirt color currently?

- Gray.

(bell dings) - What is their favorite meal?

- Steak.

(bell dings) - How do they like their steak cooked?

- Usually medium rare.

(bell dings) - My man.

(laughs) And what does your partner do for a living?

- He's military.

(bell dings) - More specific.

- Infantry.

- I'm gonna ask you the same questions, starting with your partner's eye color.

- Blue.

(bell dings) - [Luke] Their current shirt color?

- White, pink.

(buzzer buzzes) I don't know.

- [Luke] Anything on the Crayola crayon?

- Yeah.

- Favorite meal?

- She likes chicken.

(buzzer buzzes) Yeah, she likes chicken.

- [Luke] What kind of chicken?

- Sesame.

- [Luke] Sesame chicken.

(bell dings) - I'd say sesame chicken, yeah, sesame chicken.

- What is your partner's eye color?

- Green.

(bell dings) - What's their favorite meal?

(upbeat playful music) - Anything with pasta.

(buzzer buzzes) - Currently, what's their shirt color?

- Gray.

(bell dings) - [Luke] And what does your partner do for a living?

- Welder.

(bell dings) - Alright, what is your partner's eye color?

- Blue.

(bell dings) - Shirt color?

- Currently black.

(bell dings) - Favorite meal?

- Ooh.

Mm, scalloped potatoes.

(bell dings) - And what does your partner do for a living?

- He works at a paper mill currently.

(bell dings) - How'd she do?

- Very good.

- How well did he do?

- He did pretty good.

- And how well did she do?

- She did really good.

- How well did he do?

- Pretty good, yep.

- And how well did she do?

- Oh, she was spot on.

- I was better at it than he was.

- Well, thank you so much for playing the game.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

(upbeat playful music) - Thanks, Luke.

We all have some work to do.

While some of us are out celebrating Valentine's Day, others are celebrating quietly at home.

Perhaps, curled up with a good book.

Tonight we go inside the studio with local author, Ellen Marie Wiseman, to discuss her most recent book, "The Lost Girls of Willowbrook."

Our Joleene Desrosiers joins us now with more.

(gentle music) - Yes, that's right.

Thanks so much.

We are here with Ellen Marie Wiseman, who many folks of the North Country are familiar with.

She's a New York Times bestselling author, a North Country resident.

So we have a gem right in our backyard.

And if you're familiar with this tremendous author, she published, just last August, "The Lost Girls of Willowbrook", which we're gonna talk about.

An incredible story that feeds into actual events that occurred some 30, 40, 50 years ago.

First of all, welcome, to you.

- Thank you for having me.

- Yeah.

So, tell us a little bit before we dive in, what is this story about?

And talk to us about your storyline.

- Okay.

"The Lost Girls of Willowbrook" is set on Staten Island at the real life Willowbrook State School that Geraldo Rivera did an expose in the 1970s.

And it follows Sage Winters, who is a 16 year old girl who believes that her twin sister had died six years previous of pneumonia.

Then she overhears her stepfather tell someone that her sister's actually missing from Willowbrook State School.

So, she is determined to go find her sister, and the doctors all mistake her for the twin, and she gets locked up and finds out what Willowbrook is really like.

- And that's where the book gets really good.

So that's the exciting part, is it's a case of mistaken identity, but it brings us into this world that actually happened.

- Right.

- So tell me a little bit about, in 1972, Geraldo Rivera did this expose of Willowbrook School, which is not an actual school, on Staten Island.

Tell us a little bit about what that school actually was.

- It was basically a warehouse for mentally and physically disabled children.

I mean, there was adults there too, and teenagers.

Some of those children grew up in the institution.

But, this was back when people didn't know how to take care of their disabled children.

Doctors back then used to encourage parents to institutionalize their kids for the sake of the family.

So, it was a state run institution, it was overcrowded, it was underfunded, it was basically this underground city that kind of developed its own hierarchy in society, and closed off from public site.

So, there was a lot of violence and crime, and abuses going on there.

- And it was not very cleanly either.

So these young adults and children lived in filth, and were treated poorly.

When did you first learn about Willowbrook yourself and decide, wow, I can create a story around this.

- Well, I actually heard of Willowbrook when I watched a documentary about "Cropsey", which is an urban legend about a supposed serial killer that lived in the tunnels below Willowbrook.

And then I realized that this was the state school that Geraldo Rivera did the expose on, and I thought, why didn't I know more about this?

And so, I really like to uncover social injustices of the past, and so I thought, I need to set a story there.

And I kind of mixed urban legend and fiction together to come up with this story.

- And you did an incredible job too, learning about "Cropsey" and the adventures, and I don't wanna give the story away about Sage, but certainly a page turner.

So the thing that's interesting about your writing is, you delve into these pieces of social injustice, and then you grow a story from there.

How much research did you have to do to learn about this?

What really drew you to this story?

- Well, I had written about an insane asylum down in the Finger Lakes, Willard State, and I knew that because this was called a school, it's supposed to be a school for these disabled children, I knew there was a difference between an insane asylum and this supposed school.

So I really knew I needed to get that right.

And so I did a lot of heavy research.

I usually buy a few books on the subject that I've chosen to write about.

The one that really helped me the most was written by David Goode, and it was co-authored by Dr. Bronston, who was a doctor that worked at Willowbrook, and it's called, "The History And Sociology Of Willowbrook State School."

And that really was fascinating and heartbreaking research, but it really explained to me how this came about, and why it happened.

You know, what circumstances allowed that to happen.

It was only built for 4,000 people, and when it closed down, well, when it was exposed, there was 6,000 residents there.

- Was it heartbreaking and difficult to write?

- It was heartbreaking and difficult to write, but I'm always on a deadline, so it's kind of like, I gotta get this story out.

Usually when I'm doing the rewriting and stuff, then it really gets to me.

And I really had to tone it down, because it was a lot worse than I portrayed it in the book.

- When I was reading it, I actually would pause and Google, and I'm sure some people, when they decide to pick up this book, will do the same, because I could visualize these carts that, for example, Sage had to push that had other children on them that were so physically disabled, and they couldn't move and weren't moved.

This is pretty much where they lived.

And that was actual, it was actual to the book.

When you had the opportunity to meet Dr. William Bronston, what was that like?

Did you develop a friendship?

You learned so much from him.

- Oh yeah.

We're really, really close friends now.

He still emails me and calls me and stuff.

He's just an amazing man.

He worked at Willowbrook for three years, and he was punished all the time for trying to improve conditions.

He was punished for asking for painkillers for his patients.

He was punished for asking for sheets, and just even regular surgery suture thread to sew someone up, which he had to do a lot, because there was a lot of accidents.

But he eventually hired a lawyer so that every time he saw something bad, he filed a grievance against the administration.

The administration was just corrupt, because for every person that was there, they got more money.

So, Dr. Bronston, to me, is really responsible for closing Willowbrook down.

And I met him at the opening ceremony of the Willowbrook Mile on Staten Island, and him and I did a few events down in New York together.

And he's just an amazing man, he's 82 years old, he's still fighting against abuse in institutions, and institutionalization altogether.

He's really amazing.

- Let's talk about the Willowbrook Mile, so that folks who are tuned in understand it.

This was released in August of 2022.

The Willowbrook Mile was in September of 2022 at the site of where the school used to be.

What exactly is the Willowbrook Mile?

- The former campus of Willowbrook State School is now the State College of Staten Island.

So they opened a memorial, it's a walking tour that you can go around on the campus and it goes to the different buildings, because some of the buildings were refurbished for the school.

There's still some abandoned buildings on the campus, 'cause it was a 380 acre campus.

- [Joleene] Wow.

- So, you can walk around to these different stations and learn more about Willowbrook and what happened there.

- Are you able to go through the buildings at all, or?

- I'm sure that you can go in some of the college buildings that are being used for the school, but the abandoned buildings, you can't.

But you can get really close to 'em and look in the windows.

- What correlation did you make?

You said you were at Willard, I was at Willard.

I visited Willard, actually, to film something.

And when you're in there, you can feel the presence.

Did you sense any of that when you were in Staten Island?

Did anything come to you?

Did you have conversations with people where this really came full circle?

- Well, you know, at this opening, Geraldo Rivera was there, and Dr. Bronston, and Dr. Wilkins, he was fired from Willowbrook, but he gave Geraldo Rivera the key to get inside.

And there were also parents and former residents at this opening at the Willowbrook Mile, so I got to talk to some of them.

But yeah, especially the buildings that were abandoned, they had gates around them and stuff, but my publicists and I kind of found a way around.

But yeah, it's very moving.

And Dr. Bronston actually gave me one of his keys that he had been carrying around for 50 years, and it's one of the master keys that opens every door in Willowbrook, and that was very emotional for both of us.

- Wow.

Talk to me a little bit more about your quest for social injustice.

It goes further than this discussion you and I are having right now in this book.

There's more pieces to it.

- Right.

I think that this book is hopefully a reminder that we need to be more protective of the most vulnerable among us, and that every person has a right to learn and grow, and be treated with kindness and compassion.

And the thing is that the fight for disability rights is still ongoing.

You know, there's still some abuse and neglect going on, and I think it's important.

And to me it's just like, we always wanna read books about the Holocaust because we don't wanna forget what happened, and I think it's important for us to read books about institutional abuse and things like that, because I think it's important for us to not let that happen again.

- And you created a great heroin here.

- Thank you, yeah.

She's a brave young woman who, you know, her love for her sister really makes her risk everything, and she finds herself trapped in a nightmare.

But in the end, she uses her heartache to turn it into something, a force for something good.

- And you like to write about young folks in your book?

- [Ellen] Yeah.

I think that I have to stick with my brand now, and my first book was about a young woman in Germany during World War II.

So, all of my books are about young women who are brave and courageous.

And, I like to write about that.

- [Joleene] Where can folks go to get this book?

- Locally, they can go to the little bookstore in Clayton, or Target, or at Barnes and Noble in Syracuse, any bookstore, online, on Amazon, anywhere.

- All right.

And the response has been great, I imagine, 'cause it's fascinating.

- Yes, it was Barnes and Noble Pick for September, it's been on the Publisher's Weekly Bestseller List, Costco pick for September, USA Today Bestseller List, and New York Times Bestseller List.

- And none of us are shocked by this, of course.

So, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you for having me.

- We really appreciate it.

And folks at home, dig in and enjoy the book.

And again, thanks so much, Ellen.

- Thank you.

- We switch gears now to go inside the story of one of the most challenging issues in America today, the Opioid crisis.

As part of WPBS's Overdose Epidemic Project, Joleene Desrosiers sits down with Chris Baszto, the Senior Director of Farnham Family Services in Oswego, to discuss Opioid addiction, and prevention, in our young people.

(bright music) - Currently in America, we're dealing with an overdose epidemic.

And in this pocket of the nation, an Opioid crisis.

Tonight we talk about the status of that crisis in Oswego County.

This is not limited to just the county, but this is where we're directing this conversation tonight.

And here to talk more about addiction and prevention, we're joined by Chris Baszto, the Senior Director of services at Farnham Family Services.

First of all, welcome.

We appreciate your time.

- Oh, thank you, thank you.

Thank you having me.

- Yeah, for sure.

So let's dig in a little bit, and we'll start with the basics.

What are Opioids?

I'm interested in what they were primarily created for, and how accessible they are to the general public.

And then talk to me about the different forms that we see them in.

- Yeah, so Opioids in general are a class of pain relieving medication, or drugs.

And my understanding is that, although Opiods in some form have been around for thousands and thousands of years from poppy plants, they first were medicalized in Civil War time, for morphine for soldiers, about 1861.

And so from there they've been developed, increasingly in the medical field, to treat pain.

And so, you find them in the forms of common pain medications.

So we have, on the one hand, prescribed pain medication in the form of Hydrocodone, OxyContin, Oxy, Tylenol, Codeine, things that we commonly find prescribed.

And then we also have illicit forms of substances as well like Heroin and Fentanyl, and so forth, that you can get off the street.

- Let's dig into that Fentanyl.

It's a synthetic Opioid, and as you said, it's found its way into many drugs, not just Heroin, it's common in Heroin.

When did we start seeing Fentanyl make its way into these drugs?

- So the Opioid Epidemic, I would say, probably is many epidemics.

It comes in three waves or so.

And so, you get the first one in the nineties with the over-prescribing, let's say, of pain medication.

And then you get into 2010 when heroin became the big concern.

And then into 2013 with things like Fentanyl.

So I would say 2013 probably is the Fentanyl wave, when it began, and it continues to this day.

- Wow.

So there is an Opioid Epidemic in Oswego County?

- [Chris] Absolutely.

- There has been for some time.

Can you talk to me about how long it's been an issue, and how young folks, in particular, are affected?

- I would say the Opioid Epidemic in Oswego County maps pretty closely onto the Opioid Epidemic in the Country.

So those three waves that I just mentioned happened also in Oswego County in exactly the same way.

It was declared a public health crisis in 2017, but, of course, it's been going on for quite some time.

And, the second part of your question was about young people, and I would say, by and large, that young folks are disproportionately affected by an Opioid Epidemic, simply due to the fact that there's, understandably and developmentally, a lot of risk taking that happens when, I hate to generalize a whole category of people, but when we're young, we take risks.

And, on some level, those are also rights of passage in our culture for risk taking.

And the big unfortunate thing is that these risks come with severe consequences that outweigh the benefits.

And oftentimes, young people aren't aware that the risks that they may be taking, which is developmentally normal and understandable, comes with the potential for a high cost if there's Fentanyl, for example, in a pill that they might be trying with a friend, or something like that.

And so it affects young people, I'd say, disproportionately.

- Yeah.

And you know, a recent discussion paper by the National Academy Of Medicine actually speaks to this and writes, "The brains of adolescents are still developing and may not thoroughly evaluate these long-term risks.

- [Chris] Absolutely.

- [Joleene] And they're not fully developed until around age 25.

- [Chris] Right, right.

- Why do some people become addicted and others don't?

- Well, that's the big question.

So, I can pretend to have a couple answers for it, but no one truly knows, I think.

There's a lot of reasons.

I think that for young people in particular, for this focus, I would say that it's a combination of things, really.

We speak in terms of protective factors and risk factors for young folks.

You know, how many protective factors am I surrounded by?

And I think the way to understand protective factors is, think of growing up.

Who did you have around you that supported you, who cared for you, who you could talk to, who you could trust?

How many places in your life did you feel safe?

What was your social group like?

Did you have a sense of meaning and purpose, and so forth?

And so if you're surrounded by all these protective factors, by and large, the susceptibility, let's say, to being hooked on any particular thing goes way down.

And that's a very broad understanding of it.

Of course, there are biological and other physiological factors.

But I would say, by and large, the protective factors are the things that make or break someone's potential to be, I'd say, less dependent upon, or have adverse effects with the substance.

- This leads me to my final question, as a matter of fact.

Those protective factors, we should find them in organizations, we should find them in schools.

How can local schools and organizations like yours help educate teens, and their parents, on this crisis?

- I think it's things like this.

I mean, education efforts, outreach, awareness.

Farnham and other agencies go to Jefferson County, you have Pivot and Credo, which are great.

Prevention community events and tailoring events, and awareness.

But also, I think another fundamental piece here is reducing stigma.

And I think the stigma reduction is a big part of this, because we can't talk about it.

If we can't talk about it, then we can't talk about it.

And so I think any effort to say, what's going on is happening a lot of places for a lot of people, and what can we do to talk about it so that we can enter it into some of these harm reduction efforts.

So for example, there are Fentanyl test trips.

I dunno if you've heard about 'em, but if kids are at a party or something and they're doing these things, you could take something that you're about to experiment with, for example, and test to see if there's Fentanyl in there, and reduce your risk.

And so, although I'm not trying to condone anything necessarily, - [Joleene] Understood.

- the ability to at least take a realistic stance at it and reduce risk, I think, can save lives long enough to then put some of those protective factors in place, and get some support.

So, awareness, education, harm reduction efforts, and easily accessible treatment when people want it.

- Thank you so much, for all of this.

- Yeah, thank you.

- We really do appreciate your time tonight, - Yeah, same, thank you.

- and we will have another conversation with you soon enough.

- That sounds great.

- Thanks so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

- [Stephfond] This interview is part of the Overdose Epidemic in New York, a service of WPBS and the New York State Department of Education.

For more interviews and stories on the epidemic, visit wpbstv.org.

In addition, WPBS will be airing additional programming created by New York State PBS Partners all this week, February 13th through the 19th.

Check your local listings.

That does it for us tonight.

But don't fret, you can join us next week for more stories in your region.

It's our cheesiest episode yet.

We take you to Lowville to Schultz Family Cheese, where curd is made in bulk.

And, the food doesn't end there.

Our next segment of Johnny On Fire features Sean Massey and his recipe for Maple Bourbon Chicken.

Also, meet Short Walk To Pluto.

This alternative rock band hails from Toronto, Canada.

Meantime, we want to tell your story.

If you, or someone in your community, has something meaningful, historic, inspirational, or educational to share, please email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for now, everyone.

We'll see you again next week.

Goodnight.

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And, the New York State Education Department.

- Turtles.

Oh God, the chocolate and the peanut, the turtles.

(bell dings) - What is their favorite movie?

- Oh, good Lord.

- He is failing.

(gentle music)