Jill & Josh Barker - (Harmony Ridge Recovery Center/WV Office of Drug Control Policy)

Jill & Josh Barker - (Harmony Ridge Recovery Center/WV Office of Drug Control Policy)

What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? This conversation with Jill and Josh Barker offers a raw, unfiltered look at how substance use ripples through a family, a career, and an entire community – and how recovery can reshape all three. Jill starts by sharing how she spent nearly 25 years in education, expecting to retire from Logan County schools, before her life suddenly changed.

Her husband Josh’s hidden opioid use came crashing into view when she found him unconscious at home. She recalls the shock of the paramedics telling her, “We had to Narcan him,” and the instant shattering of everything she thought she knew about her life. From there, she talks honestly about anger, fear, stigma, and the painful decision to insist on treatment: go to rehab or find somewhere else to live.

Jill explains how that crisis eventually led her to Harmony Ridge Recovery Center, where she now works on prevention through Brooke’s Hope. You’ll hear how she’s pushing to close the gap between schools and community services, and how they’re building youth-based peer support roles inside schools to reach young people earlier.

Josh then shares his side: a long career in government, a back injury, and a slide from a few pain pills a week to “50 to 60 pills a day like it was nothing.” He talks about overdosing on fentanyl, the boss who simply told him to “get better,” and how treatment at Harmony Ridge and staying in recovery groups changed his life.

Now, as Director of Substance Abuse Prevention and Recovery at the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office, he spends his days visiting treatment centres, championing respectful care, and pushing hard for better services for young people. If you’re curious how personal recovery can fuel systemic change, this conversation might leave you asking what gaps you could help close in your own community.