President praises Dayton family
Local officials welcome easing of limits for drug treatment centers.
The opioid crisis tearing through Montgomery County and many other communities across the nation is a public health emergency worthy of national attention, President Donald Trump declared Thursday.
Trump loosened up regulations to allow large drug treatment centers to access Medicaid funding — a move applauded by local health officials — and he drew a spotlight on a local fam- ily that has taken in foster children impacted by drug abuse.
“Jesse and Cyndi Swafford of Dayton, Ohio, have provided a loving, stable home to children affected by the opioid crisis,” the president said.
The Swaffords have cared for 13 foster children in the past decade,
all who have had families affected in some way by the opioid crisis or other drug issues.
Local health officials welcomed Trump’s offering of “relief” for state governments looking to access Medicaid funding for drug treatment centers with more than 16 beds.
Helen Jones-Kelley, executive director of the Montgomery County Alcohol Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services, said easing that regulation is “the one thing that can make a difference in this community.”
“That was one of the major impediments,” Jones-Kelley said. “The good news for us is that we can then stop using local dollars on residential beds and redirect those dollars into increased services.”
Trump’s announcement — which Democratic critics said provides too little, too late — comes amid a dip in the number of monthly overdose deaths in Montgomery County as local and state officials aggressively organize an effort to blunt the unprecedented torrent of deaths.
After 81 people died of overdoses in Montgomery County in May, the number of overdose deaths has declined, according to county coroner data. Preliminary results show 35 people in the county died of overdoses in September, and another 15 died as of Oct. 20, for a total of 517 so far in 2017.
Last year, 349 people died of overdoses in Montgomery County.
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democratic candidate for governor, conceded the president’s announcement was a “small step in the right direction,” but said the declaration, which comes with no new dedicated federal dollars, does not go far enough in addressing the crisis’ extreme human and financial toll.
“We need resources to combat this epidemic and deliver help to Ohio families,” said Whaley. “And this declaration does nothing to hold the big drug companies accountable for creating the mess.”
Others, like Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican candidate for governor, said he was “especially glad” Trump was ending the 16-bed rule for Medicaid.
“Earlier this month, I lead an effort supported by attorneys general from across the county to eliminate this decades-old rule that limits residential treatment options,” DeWine said in a statement. “In announcing that he is removing this barrier to treatment, the president will help more Ohioans get the help they need to overcome this devastating disease.”
State Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, said the move will provide more access to treatment.
“The 16-bed issue is one that affects us all in Ohio,” Antani said. “We can’t deliver drugs to addicts in jail, so we can’t help them until they get out of jail.”
Trump said his afternoon announcement at the White House “marks a critical step in confronting the extraordinary challenge we face.”
“It is time to liberate our communities from the scourge of drug addiction,” Trump said, referring to the situation as “a worldwide problem” and “national shame.”
The president also called “on every American to join the ranks of guardian angels like ... the Swaffords, who help lift up the people of our great nation.”
“I’m incredibly honored and thankful,” Cyndi Swafford told the Dayton Daily News after the announcement. “We give all glory to God for all of this. We can’t wait to see what comes next.”
The impact of the crisis is felt especially hard in southwest Ohio. A new Ohio State University report turns a spotlight to the Dayton area and beyond, saying: “This is a particularly critical issue in the rural areas of southwest Ohio, where opioid abuse rates are high but local access to treatment is limited.”
The report revealed the opioid crisis was likely as costly as the state’s spending on K-12 education. The study found opioid addiction, abuse and overdose deaths cost the state from $6.6 billion to $8.8 billion.
“To put this in perspective, Ohio spent $8.2 billion of general revenue funds and lottery profits money on K-12 public education in 2015,” says the report from OSU’s C. William Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy.
Between 92,000 and 170,000 Ohioans were abusing or dependent on opioids in 2015, the study found.
The Swank report sounds an alarm about the state’s capacity to actually deal with the problem.
“We estimate that in the best-case scenario, Ohio likely has the capacity to treat 20 percent to 40 percent of the population abusing or dependent on opioids,” the study says.
The report revealed the opioid crisis was likely as costly as the state’s spending on K-12 education.