Police Department Snares State Grant for New Heroin/Opioid Effort

 
The City of Strongsville will receive an $83,542 grant to help combat the heroin/opioid epidemic, Attorney General Mike DeWine said during a news conference here.
 
It is among 40 grants totaling $3 million issued by the Ohio Attorney General’s office to fund local law enforcement agencies that are stepping away from traditional methods of dealing with drug addicts.
 
DeWine announced the grant recipients at Strongsville’s police station Sept. 6.
 
“The goal is to get these people into treatment and support them -- and their families -- on the road to recovery,” he said.
 
The grants will fund various Drug Abuse Response Teams and Quick Response Teams, made up of law enforcement officers partnering with drug treatment providers and others who help get overdose survivors into treatment and then assist during recovery.
 
Team members visit survivors – and their families – after an overdose and offer counseling and referrals to drug rehabilitation facilities, and work with families for aftercare and support.  
 
Strongsville’s grant will help fund its multi-tiered, community -based program that will focus on treatment for addiction and support during recovery.

The effort will give the police department – traditionally focused on enforcing drug laws – a new role as a catalyst for changing the lives of drug addicts.

Police Chief Mark Fender said Strongsville’s Community Opiate-Outreach Program (CO-OP) includes two key components:
  • Safe Passages, a Strongsville Police Department program in which residents who want help for drug addiction can simply walk into the police station during normal business hours and ask for it. The department will quickly arrange for the person to be admitted to a treatment facility, help with insurance forms and even provide a ride, if needed.
  • The Quick Response Team, a unit of police officers, Strongsville paramedics, members of local churches and treatment specialists that will swing into action when an overdose is reported. The team will visit the survivor – and his or her family -- at home within 72 hours to offer referrals to treatment centers, and follow up through the recovery process with support and advice.
The Police Department will also install a drug drop-box so people can safely dispose of prescription drugs that are no longer needed. Internally, the department will prioritize cases of heroin trafficking for investigation and prosecution.

“Our objective is to eradicate the (opiate) problem locally – to get people clean, and to keep our community safe and thriving,” Mayor Tom Perciak said.

Perciak appointed Council President Ken Dooner to chair the new CO-OP effort. Dooner pointed out that safety forces in Strongsville are witnessing the addiction crisis first-hand. So far in 2017, police and firefighters have administered 73 doses of Narcan – an opioid antidote that reverses the effects of an overdose.

“We want to confront this crisis on a local level,” Dooner said.

DeWine said the DART and QRT programs are a significant departure from traditional police work, where officers have always focused on enforcing drug abuse laws. But as officers responded to more overdose calls, departments began “stepping up and dealing with the problem and helping to get people into treatment,” DeWine said, adding that he applauds their proactive efforts.

“They don’t have to take this on, but they are doing it,” he said.

The state grants went to some of the biggest law enforcement agencies in the state to a village of 1,000 in southern Ohio. Sixteen went to law enforcement agencies in northeast Ohio, including Berea and Parma police departments.

The heroin/opioid epidemic has not only killed more than 4,000 Ohioans in the last year, it has cost children their homes – about half of kids in foster care are there because of a parent’s addiction, DeWine said – and has made a significant number of people unemployable because they can’t pass a drug test.

DeWine, who started a heroin unit to assist BCI in drug investigations, said that while individuals who overdose may now be let off the hook in the criminal justice system, law enforcement is still taking aim at those who provide heroin and other drugs.

“We’ve got to go after the drug dealers, we’ve got to lock them up, but that’s not enough,” he said.

In addition, police will try to use “the tragedy of an overdose as a teachable moment” for an offender, and there will be a renewed effort on drug abuse prevention through education.

Locally, to raise awareness of the addiction issue – and offer options for those who struggle with addiction, or care about someone who does – the city, police department, local churches and local businesses will present a three-part Community Forum at the Ehrnfelt Recreation Center, 18100 Royalton Rd., at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 12, 19 and 26.

The sessions will discuss the biology of addiction and how it impacts families and society (Sept. 12); resources for support and recovery groups and first-hand stories from recovering addicts (Sept. 19); and the criminal justice and health care systems’ role in addiction. Representatives from recovery programs will attend (Sept. 26).

“It takes a community becoming involved in the lives of its people, being accepting and non-judgmental, helping to take away the stigma of addiction,” said Becky Zatezalo, director of adult discipleship at Strongsville United Methodist Church, who represented the faith coalition team.

“It’s time as a community to realize that we can no longer sit on the sidelines believing the issues of addiction will go away.  It’s time to join the fight.  The community of Strongsville is all in.”

For more information on the forum, click here.