By: Makenzie Huber – April 27, 2025
Shame consumed Cameron Nielson as he lay curled and shaking on an emergency room bed.
Nurses shouldn’t have to rush to care for him, he thought. Other patients deserved attention more than him. This was his seventh relapse.
His mother drove him to the emergency room with severe withdrawal symptoms from opioids and Xanax last summer after his drugs were stolen from his safe, he said.
“I hated myself,” the 27-year-old Sioux Falls resident remembered.
He accepted medication from one of the nurses to stop the withdrawal symptoms. His head was clearer and he could fall asleep, but the shame remained.
Vanessa Needles entered the room after he woke up. She wasn’t a nurse, but a peer support specialist meant to connect Nielson to resources. His shame turned to embarrassment, but it soon became gratitude for the medical staff and Needles.
Needles is one of nine peer support specialists in eastern South Dakota with Sioux Falls-based nonprofit Emily’s Hope. Their work is part of a pilot program overseen by the state Department of Social Services and launched in January 2024 to reduce overdoses by providing “essential supports and strengthening connections” to local resources, according to a statement from the department. Rapid City-based Project Recovery piloted the program in western South Dakota.