ASHLAND — A common theme of Ashland’s “Respect, Success, Value, and Purpose” conference Wednesday was valuing the insight of people with lived experiences.
Speakers covered topics ranging from mental health to substance abuse, but the impetus of the daylong event was to highlight how organizations are shifting to better address those challenges.
The first R.S.V.P. conference in 2008 started due to a community desire for a regional recovery conference.
The 2022 conference at Ashland University Convocation Center centered local issues and organizations, but also featured perspectives from across the country, including keynote speakers Sam Quinones, a longtime journalist and former LA Times reporter who has covered addiction, and Lori Criss, director of Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, who provided updates on statewide efforts.
An afternoon of workshops followed the keynote speakers, with updates on initiatives underway and upcoming.
Country- and state-wide lens
Ahead of the conference on March 23, Gov. DeWine dedicated part of the State of the State address to mental health and addiction services.
“The system isn’t broken — it was just never fully built,” DeWine said.
Criss from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services built upon this idea during Wednesday’s conference.
She outlined the state’s vision to support healthy people in the community and expand the state’s continuum of care, which is twofold: Growing community capacity (through independent housing, permanent supportive housing/adult care facility/recovery housing, short-term residential for hospital diversion or step-down) and sustaining support (through public and private psychiatric hospitals for civil and forensic patients).
Community plans for continuum of care are required for all ADAMH Boards.
OhioMHAS is in the process of improving the planning process and template used by the boards, including through conducting research, meetings with the OhioMHAS Enterprise Planning and Implementation Work Group, focus groups with approximately 50% of the ADAMH Boards and developing a steering committee (the first meeting of which occurred Feb. 16, 2022).
Also, OhioMHAS is hiring six regional liaisons who support local collaboration, specifically by serving as representatives to boards, providers and community partners. Once all positions are filled there will be local meet and greets, but a timeline was not shared Wednesday.
This summer Ohio will launch a new suicide prevention line.
Federal law will require all states transition from the 1-800 number to a three digit number — 988 — by July 16, 2022.
Mental health and substance use issues are not exclusive to Ashland County or Ohio, and journalist Sam Quinones provided a country-wide view.
Quinones recounted stories of addiction from across the country, drawing on his reporting in his books “The Least of Us: True Tales Of America And Hope In The Time Of Fentanyl And Meth” and “Dreamland.”
Ashland Source spoke with Quinones ahead of the event, where he highlighted programs that have seen some success dealing with addiction and its effects through community repair.
Peer efforts
Representatives from Ashland County Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse, Appleseed, and Job and Family Services informed attendees of peer support services currently in place in the county, employed across organizations.
Though peer support workers are certified through state-mandated training, peer support as a treatment model is not crisis care. Rather, it is support for daily living and the prevention of crises.
For example, recovery-oriented groups and programming that promote positive relationships and coping skills are hosted by Catholic Charities Ashland County’s Pathways Peer Support Program in Ashland.
Certified peer recovery support people also fill in gaps where social work ends, such as driving people to and from appointments and meetings — which certified peer support person through ACCADA, Lorie McLaughlin, has done.
McLaughlin has a background of substance abuse disorder, alcohol abuse disorder and mental health issues. She has been substance-free for seven years.
“I know what it’s like, and I’ve been there,” McLaughlin said. “When you’re trying to go into a new path of life in the recovery journey, it’s scary. If you don’t get that drug, you feel like you’re going to die.
“Coming into a new way of life is really scary. I didn’t know. I was like, seriously, there’s life after drugs and alcohol? I had no clue.”
McLaughlin now uses her lived experience to help others envision and prepare for a substance-free life.
Peer support can serve as a continuum of treatment for all involved.
“Being a peer support person has also helped me when I help people,” McLaughlin said.
Building a trauma-competent community
Judge Karen DeSanto-Kellogg and Fostering Family Ministries Executive Director Sherry Bouquet discussed Ashland’s progress toward becoming a trauma-competent county.
Ashland’s behavioral health and juvenile justice systems are shifting to incorporate the principles of trauma and resiliency into their day-to-day work with at-risk youth and families.
DeSanto-Kellogg said the current system is set up to make symptoms disappear, but often does not address the core problems. For example, judges are trained to look for periods of compliance when making family reunification decisions, not to unpack root causes.
A trauma-competent court will require more than changes within the court itself.
A multi-organizational understanding of the role trauma plays in the lives of the people the community serves is needed, DeSanto-Kellogg explained, which ranges from the schools that the court works with, its liaison programs, mental health providers, child welfare workers, law enforcement and attorneys.
Another place involved in the change is Fostering Family Ministries. Bouquet has found that cycles of trauma often repeat, especially when caregivers do not recognize and/or address their own trauma.
“We want to move beyond the Bandaids to really healing the wound,” Bouquet said. “And, sometimes we don’t even know there is a wound.”
While the county’s behavioral health and juvenile justice systems have begun exploring what moving to trauma-competent care could look like, an upcoming two-day multidisciplinary event will take the idea further. In late April, retired Texas judge Carole Clark and members of her court team will be in Ashland to speak about how they have used trauma-informed practices in their courtroom.
Family-involved treatment
Speaking of families, Dave Grove, a licensed independent social worker based in Westerville, spoke on the power of families to reverse the effects of substance and alcohol abuse.
He cited a 1983 study that contrasted the effectiveness of different models used when treating heroin addicts. One group of people, men aged 18-33 received traditional medical treatment. The other group received a family empowerment model — using outpatient family therapy sessions. The groups were studied over two years.
The results, he said, were staggering.
He said 80% of the men who received medical treatment were back to addiction within six months. But 80% of those in the family therapy group were totally sober for the full two years of the study.
He then offered anecdotal evidence as support for the model from the years he implemented it for clients.
“Too often we eliminate the family because we assume they won’t be helpful,” he said.
Quick Response Team
Rick Ford, director of ACCADA, spoke on the effectiveness of the county’s Quick Response Team, or QRT, which started in July 2020. The team is comprised of a law enforcement officer, mental health treatment professional and an advocate.
The goal of the team is to connect with a person who within 72 hours experienced and survived a drug overdose.
The idea is to offer the person resources that could eventually lead to treatment. The QRT often also distributes Narcan, a drug used to reverse overdoses.
In 2021, Ford said Ashland County experienced 62 overdoses and 10 confirmed deaths. Of those, 47 had visits from the QRT.
The 10 overdose deaths represent a 50% increase from 2020, Ford said.
