DeWine taps ex-Gov. Strickland to help addicted, mentally ill
With four cabinet COLUMBUS — members in tow, Mike DeWine “wanted to hear from the people living it.”
Ohio’s new governor received an earful of complaints Friday, as well as suggestions about how his administration and its RecoveryOhio initiative can better help the mentally ill and the drug-addicted.
DeWine appointed a 16-member advisory council to help guide his RecoveryOhio, with the group then hearing for an hour from peer counselors to addicts and mentally ill individuals at the PEER Center in Franklinton.
“I made it out, but they’re dying,” one of the counselors said of those not receiving the needed help.
Among what the group heard from the counselors, some of whom have been sober for more than two decades:
■ Treatment programs are geared toward opioid addictions, making it hard to find beds for those, including pregnant women, enslaved by other drugs.
■ Treatment money does not follow a recovering addict from one county to another as they change residences.
■ There’s a lack of collaboration among those fighting to help addicts — and too much government bureaucracy.
■ Smaller counties and communities are not receiving their fair share of resources and state assistance.
■ A person who is “couch-surfing” with acquaintances is not eligible for homeless assistance until they are on the street or living in their car.
■ More counselors and treatment programs are needed in hard-hit neighborhoods to “meet the people where they’re at.”
DeWine said afterward he was “grateful for the honesty and candor” to help repair what he considers a broken system.
Improving drug abuse intervention and education, particularly in schools, and improving treatment services are at the top of RecoveryOhio’s agenda.
Led by opioids such as fentanyl, a record 5,111 fatal drug overdoses were recorded in 2017 Ohio, which had the second-highest death rate among the states.
DeWine asked his new advisory committee, which includes former Gov. Ted Strickland and former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, to report back to him by March 8.
He wants recommendations on a host of issues, as well as suggested amounts to fund RecoveryOhio in the Republican’s first state budget recommendations expected to be submitted in mid-March.
Strickland, a Democrat who served as governor from 2007 to early 2011, was gratified to be asked to help. He and DeWine kicked around the topic, and others, over a near two-hour breakfast.
“The governor has a genuine commitment to caring for people,” Strickland said.