ASHLAND — Ashland County Juvenile and Probate Judge Karen DeSanto Kellogg said a trend the court has picked up on is co-occurring substance use and mental-health crisis.
“Over and over again in cases we’re finding that parents were really struggling to parent through, what I will say, is their child’s crisis, whether that was substance use or a mental-health issue,” Kellogg said.
The court identified a gap in the types of resources needed to help address these issues, she told the Ashland County Board of Commissioners on Thursday. This sparked a relationship with Catholic Charities Ashland County.
The court and Catholic Charities have developed a program that may be launched as early as August to provide quick and direct education to parents who are working through substance use and/or mental-health issues with their child.
“The overwhelming amount of students on our probation case load have substance issues and we’re working with providers to address those issues. Most of them have corresponding mental health issues that relate to their using substance to try and treat the mental health issues,” Kellogg said.
“Parents just are not sufficiently educated on some of those issues and then they certainly don’t have some of the resources they need to be able to address them actively, not just leaving it to providers.”
The court’s “Hidden in Plain Sight” trailer was stationed at Wednesday’s Community Health and Wellness Day in Ashland, displaying to parents a variety of household items — including deodorant containers, lint rollers and water bottles — with hidden compartments designed to conceal drugs.
Kellogg said the trailer was gifted to Ashland County from another county and is used by the court to educate adults ages 21 and over and equips them with different tools or resources.
“We had a set of grandparents that were told that something they found in their house was their (grand)child’s Lego piece,” she said. “They came through our trailer and they realized that was not a Lego, it was actually a vape.”
‘We see the need,’ says Kellogg
The court would like to expand what it can provide with the trailer by purchasing some additional educational materials and medical models to exemplify the damages that can be caused by smoking and substance use.
“We also want to draw attention and really kick off some initiatives for parent education and some community conversations and really changing what we’re offering parents and people in the community for child mental health and suicide prevention is part of that,” Kellogg said.
She specified a national non-profit and documentary project called “Tell My Story,” which facilitates youth mental health conversations through film screenings and guided discussions.
“We want to have a conference to sort of highlight that, using that non-profit’s platform and some of those documentaries to start that movement,” Kellogg said.
“I believe that the settlement proceeds, or some portion of settlement proceeds from the opioid settlement, directly align with the vision of providing additional substance abuse and mental health awareness, education and connection to resources in Ashland.”
Kellogg did not assign a specific dollar amount to the court’s request Thursday for funding from the county’s opioid settlement fund, but commissioners said they will strongly consider the ask.
As of Friday, Ashland County has $51,000 of settlement money available in its coffers, said Ashland County commissioners deputy clerk Sherri Maneese.
Should the board grant the court’s request for funds, the money would come from the county’s opioid settlement. The settlement is against the pharmaceutical industry as a consequence of its role in the national opioid epidemic.
Some of the settlement money in Ohio is administered through OneOhio Recovery Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization created at the direction of state and local leaders to distribute 55% of the funds.
There are guardrails as to what opioid settlement funds can be used for, but commissioners said the efforts Kellogg described — preventative education and resource connection — would fall within the established parameters.
“We see the need. I see the need in the kids’ faces and the parents’ faces and it’s wrong to not go back and do more to help keep kids from being in that situation of heartbreak,” Kellogg said.
Commissioner Denny Bittle asked Kellogg how success is measured with educational or prevention programs.
She said the court does keep track of how many youth make multiple appearances in court and evaluates what resources they may or may not have received the first time to determine what could be done differently.
“If you’re not sure if there’s a need, look at your child welfare budget and how many of those kids are high needs with substance issues and serious mental health issues,” Kellogg said. “That’s what’s driving your costs right now probably, is residential placements because of those high needs.
“Almost every kid that’s made it onto supervision in my court is a substance and mental health issue (related case).”
Commissioner Jim Justice said the efforts proposed by Kellogg would not be a duplication of any existing county program.
“Prevention is always hard to quantify,” Justice said. “I’m still old school in saying if you’ve helped one, you’ve helped generations.”
