The Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress updated the community on a significant pivot for the organization, from nearly three years of working to create a collaborative addiction and recovery system, to putting the system into operation in Columbus and Bartholomew County.
More than 200 people gathered Monday evening at The Commons to hear the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress give its progress report to the community.
ASAP officials, as well as Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin and Dr. Kevin Terrell, addiction medicine physician and medical director of Columbus Regional Health’s Treatment and Support Center (TASC), spoke at the event about ASAP’s progress, the scope of substance abuse in the community now and the challenges ahead.
Jeff Jones, a retired Cummins executive who has led ASAP as a volunteer executive director since its inception and now is returning to retirement, said the community has made enormous strides to create the system to help those seeking addiction recovery, though more work needs to be done. ASAP was established in 2017 as a community-wide response to address substance abuse, including the opioid crisis, in Bartholomew County.
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“I’m pleased to report that the community is on the right track,” Jones said during the event. “I’m also reporting that our experience during this time has validated what we believed at the very beginning — that this is a long, difficult journey with lots of obstacles and unknowns to face for many years to come.”
Among the highlights of the event included a virtual tour of the newly opened ASAP Hub, a 2,000-square-foot recovery resource center, located in the Doug Otto Center at 1531 13th St., for individuals, families and friends who are impacted by substance abuse disorder.
Staff at the Hub, which opened last week, will help people struggling with substance use disorders connect with recovery services, apply for insurance and offer family support, substance use disorder education, recovery coaching, case management, life skills development, host recovery meetings, among several other services, said Nathan Walsh, the Hub’s director. Staff members had a table at the event, one of 25 information tables set up around the back of The Commons, for people to learn more about the recovery community and prevention opportunities.
The Hub has already served one individual, a homeless man struggling with substance abuse who hadn’t eaten in several days, Walsh said. The man arrived unannounced, simply seeking help.
Walsh said ASAP officials at the Hub were able to get the man medical coverage, food, water, clothes and a bus pass to get to recovery meetings and then connected him with TASC, where he was given an assessment and started addiction treatment.
“(With the Hub) we finally have the opportunity to partner together with other agencies and with the community in ways that we haven’t before,” Walsh told The Republic after the event. “When people didn’t know where to go or what to do, they didn’t have a clue where to find help. (Now) they can literally walk in the door and we can help them right at that moment in time. We know that time is most critical element in this process, so we’re ready to serve all the time.”
The Hub is officially open, but will celebrate a grand opening for the community in September, time and date to be announced.
Walsh told the crowd on Monday evening that ASAP wouldn’t be where it is today without the help of volunteers.
“To date, the Bartholomew County community has already donated over 7,300 hours in volunteer time and that is the equivalent of $185,906 that we’ve received in volunteer activity,” Walsh said.
Jones, Walsh and Doug Leonard, who led Columbus Regional Hospital before his retirement and who will replace Jones as ASAP’s executive director, said ASAP will work to address prevention and treatment gaps that still exist in the community.
“While much progress has been made to expand prevention efforts, increased treatment capacity and expand options for recovery and recovery housing, many gaps still exist,” Leonard said.
ASAP will be focusing on recovery housing and other gaps in the community, including a local detox program, a lack of transportation to recovery meetings and jobs, a comprehensive workforce strategy to assist employers with employees who are dealing with addiction and the development of metrics to monitor our efforts in order to understand ASAP’s progress, Leonard said.
“Those are the challenges that will define the continuing role of ASAP,” Leonard said.
Jones, who received two standing ovations from the audience, emphasized the complexity and severity of the opioid crisis in the community during the meeting.
“The misuse of prescription opioids and the tsunami of illegal drugs like heroin, fentanyl and meth have elevated this crisis to unprecedented levels in recent years,” Jones said. “No community in the country has been spared, including Bartholomew County.”
Bartholomew County and the surrounding area, similar to much of the country, have seen a surge in opioid overdoses, emergency room visits and opioid-related deaths in recent years.
In 2017, 21 Bartholomew County residents died from opioid overdoses, compared to a total of 13 from 2011 to 2016, according to data from the Indiana State Department of Health, which tracks causes of death by county of residence, not necessarily the county in which the person died.
Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting said nine people have died from overdoses so far this year, with a possibility of a total of 10 pending one case’s toxicology results.
A total of 4,000 Indiana residents — including 84 people who resided in Bartholomew, Brown, Jackson and Jennings counties — died from opioid overdoses between 2011 and 2017.
Additionally, Bartholomew County residents have visited hospital emergency departments a combined 468 times for non-fatal opioid overdoses from 2011 to 2017. Across the state, opioid overdoses resulted in 26,884 emergency department visits over the same period — or about one visit every 2 hours and 17 minutes every day for seven years.
Benjamin, who supervises the Bartholomew County Adult Drug Recovery Court, also thanked the community during Monday’s meeting for its efforts and extolled the positive impact ASAP has had so far.
“To stop a crime from happening again or drug use from continuing, we need to know who the inner person is,” Benjamin said. “You can’t fix someone if you don’t understand what’s broken inside. …If we treat the substance use disorder without touching on the underlying issues or lack of life skills, we most likely will resolve little and be back again. But now, we, you, us, together are putting in place response to address those issues along with treatment.”
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The ASAP Hub, which is open, is a 2,000-square-foot recovery resource center for individuals, families and friends who are impacted by substance abuse disorder.
Staff at the Hub will help people struggling with substance use disorders apply for insurance and offer family support, substance use disorder education, recovery coaching, case management, life skills development, host recovery meetings, among several other services, said Nathan Walsh, the Hub’s director.
The Hub is located in the Doug Otto Center at 1531 13th St.
Visit asapbc.org/asap-hub/ for more information about ASAP and the Hub.
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For more on the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress Community Progress Report, check out the August, 2019 program booklet inside today’s Republic.
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