Nov 14, 2021
Two weeks of paid leave would have bought Edmund Vance enough time to seek treatment without losing his job. He didn't get it.
Instead, Vance, 29, was forced to leave his job at a coal mine for a two-week treatment program.
He's now more than four years sober, but when he came back from treatment a host of new challenges were waiting for him. He took a job at a landscaping firm that paid less than half of what he earned in the mines. Medical costs for his three kids mounted, and childcare needs kept his wife, JoAnna, from working. The Vances had emerged from substance-abuse disorder, but they'd entered a yearslong struggle to regain their financial footing.