The same scene plays out far too frequently at the ADM Crisis Center.
Barb Steese, a nurse at the detox clinic, said she watches clients return over and over because they’ve got nowhere safe to go after they rid their bodies of drug toxins.
“A lot of what I see is repeat clients because they have such a long wait time to get into IBH [Addiction Recovery Center] or [Community Health Center’s] RAMAR [inpatient facility],” said Steese of Norton.
She explained that often addicts go through detox but go right back into their old environment while they’re waiting for a rehab bed to open. That means they never distance themselves from the drugs that tempt them.
“It’s like a baby learning to walk — we get them on their feet, and they fall,” she said. “They’re just not strong enough to stand and do it on their own yet. The cravings are still there, and they start using again. So when they get the call to get into treatment, they can’t go in because they need detox again.”
Steese was one of hundreds who submitted their ideas on how to solve the drug crisis at the Beacon Journal’s heroin-focused forum last week at the John S. Knight Center.
The responses covered just about every topic related to drug culture.
Many of the suggestions are starting to be addressed. Steese’s concerns are among them.
Jerry Craig, who oversees Summit County’s government-funded addiction rehab services, said the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADM) Board is already taking steps to set up “interim housing” for the most at-risk addicts after detox.
“It’s not only a feasible idea, but it’s something we’re laying the groundwork for next year,” he said. “What we’re trying to do now is figure out how to staff something like that responsibly.”
He said ADM already has interim programming that involves coaching by phone to keep addicts who complete detox on track. It’s not effective for everyone, Craig said.
Suggestions run gamut
Among the hundreds of suggestions submitted after the event, most said the county needs more inpatient drug treatment facilities to help addicts and better awareness campaigns to overcome the stigma of addiction. Some suggested pursuing stiffer penalties for drug dealers or rewriting Ohio’s laws so drug users are less likely to face criminal charges for possession.
Others posed more extreme solutions — like using the death penalty to punish drug dealers, completely closing the county jail to turn it into a rehab facility or suspending civil rights under martial law to arrest drug users and dealers.
Adding inpatient beds
The most commonly suggested solution — more inpatient rehab beds — is already in the works.
Craig said the ADM Board has allocated funds to add 20 inpatient rehab beds at IBH.
“IBH is working on acquiring the staff to be able to expand and accommodate the 20 extra beds,” Craig said.
He said the beds should be available very soon, but no specific timetable was in place. The expansion will boost the number of inpatient rehab beds in Summit County to 127 — 97 of which will be funded through ADM.
Another suggestion: Teach the dangers of drug addiction in schools the same way students are educated about the dangers of drunken driving.
Publicizing photos
Linda Mahan, of Cuyahoga Falls, said she recalls seeing gruesome pictures of crash victims when she was in school, and she’s convinced it’s part of the reason she’s so wary of driving while intoxicated decades later.
“You can talk to kids until you’re blue in the face and give them handouts,” she said, “but pictures stick out in their minds forever.”
Mahan, whose relative is an addict, said she wished images of drug overdose victims would be publicized more often in the hope it would achieve the same end.
“The message needs to be clear for kids: Don’t try it that first time,” she said.
A photo like the one she described has gone viral on social media.
Police in East Liverpool, on Ohio’s northeast border, posted a picture of two unconscious adults who overdosed in their SUV with a 4-year-old boy in the back seat.
In less than 24 hours, the image was shared more than 20,000 times.
East Liverpool police Chief John Lane said the goal in posting the image was to spread awareness about how the heroin epidemic affects families.
“We’ve got a major problem, and no one is talking about it. Everyone likes to turn away and pretend it’s not happening,” he said. “How many times do you think this kid witnessed these two knuckleheads getting high and passing out like this?”
Lane encouraged other police to follow suit and share similar pictures from their jurisdictions — despite the mixed reaction on social media.
“It opens people’s eyes,” he said. “Some departments might not want their communities portrayed this way, but it’s happening to every community and people need to have their eyes opened to it.”
Alerting families
Another suggestion offered to the Beacon Journal was that hospital privacy laws should change to allow doctors to contact the family of addicts as a last resort.
Jeanette Edmunds of Akron made the suggestion. Her stepdaughter died last month after a long struggle with addiction.
Edmunds said her stepdaughter visited hospitals 15 times in a month in the hope a doctor would prescribe her painkillers.
“We had no idea,” Edmunds said. “The cops told us — they were able to pull her records up.”
She said privacy laws at hospitals blocked them from contacting her or other family members. As a result, no one in the family knew the woman was abusing drugs.
“If somebody had just gone in the back room and made an anonymous call, maybe we could have done something,” Edmunds said. “We at least would have had a chance. We didn’t even know she was on heroin.”
John Palmer, director of media and public relations for the Ohio Hospital Association, said such a change in privacy laws would require a great deal of logistical planning.
“How would the health care provider know who to contact?” he said. “Unless they’ve been convicted of a crime, hospitals don’t have anyone in their systems to contact.”
He said hospitals do have a system to stop addicts from obtaining painkillers to abuse. But adult addicts are considered responsible for their own health care decisions.
Electronic records help hospitals know when patients are “doctor shopping,” or visiting many doctors to obtain painkillers.
He said privacy laws are different when the patient is a minor, though.
“For minors, you have a guardian listed,” he said. “But with adults, there’s nothing like that.”
Nick Glunt can be reached at 330-996-3565 or nglunt@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @NickGluntABJ and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ngfalcon.