New UCHRA Coordinator Looks To Help Combat Opioid Crisis

The UCHRA’s new substance abuse coordinator looks to help combat the region’s opioid crisis.

Coordinator Glen Sayes said his duties will include analyzing how the region currently addresses the issue and finding ways to improve.

“First of all is identifying the assets of the Upper Cumberland region, visit all the counties, and find out what is already in place, what is already being done to address the drug and opioid problem,” Sayes said. “Second will be identifying where there are holes in the system or gaps in the system where things are not being handled effectively.”

Sayes and his family moved to Cookeville from Seattle last summer and volunteered with the UCHRA and UCDD for several months. The UCHRA hired Sayes two months ago after acquiring grant funding late last year.

Sayes said although he has helped in fighting the national opioid crisis for nearly five years now, the issue has hit close to home.

“I have a son who was in a snowboarding accident 14 years ago… and during the surgery, they prescribed oxycontin to him, so [now] I have a son who for 12 years has been a heroin user and abuser,” Sayes said. “I have seen how devasting the drug problem is on a personal level.”

Sayes said solving the issue goes beyond rehabilitating the person, but involves what he calls a “restoration.”

“Everyone will know what their place in the system is and how they can cooperate and work together to get good results in moving people through this restoration process,” Sayes said. “I like to call it a restoration process rather than rehab. You’re ‘restoring’ a person to who they ought to be, and giving them the opportunity of being back to the person who they should be.”

Before moving to Cookeville, Sayes spent 21 years in the high-tech computer industry specializing in large manufacturing systems. Sayes has also volunteered with the Power of Putnam anti-drug coalition since moving from Seattle.