Dayton, Ohio
Target Neighborhood: East End
Dayton, Ohio Rallies Partners to Address Heroin Abuse
To stem the tide of crime and death that heroin has brought to the poverty-stricken East End community in Dayton, Ohio, a multi-sector coalition brought together through the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation (BCJI) Program is combining law enforcement, public health and community resources in new ways to help addicts get treatment. Dayton has been using CBCR resources from the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance since 2012 to address crime and its drivers in East End.
“The Byrne (Criminal Justice Innovation) grant has been fantastic,” says Emily Surico, the BCJI coordinator for the convening agency, East End Community Services, a local comprehensive community development organization. “It’s allowed us to have a dialogue that wouldn’t have happened without the program.”
Long a problem in the East End, heroin use in Dayton’s Montgomery County reached a turning point in 2014, with 264 accidental drug deaths, a record for the county and the second highest total for any county in Ohio. Police data showed that more than 90 percent of people arrested over six months had a history of drug use or drug related arrests, and data analysis by county agencies found “an epidemic” of drug overdose cases in the inner East Dayton neighborhoods.
To address the issue, the BCJI taskforce brought together the City of Dayton Police Department, the county sheriff’s department, the Drug Enforcement Agency, local treatment programs, and community groups like the Families of Addicts organization. The discussion identified a lack of coordination among partners and road blocks to recovery, from health care insurance to limited options for detox before treatment. So, for example, when police officers answer an emergency call to administer Narcan for an overdose—a moment when the victim could very well be receptive to getting clean—there was no system for connecting that individual to treatment.
In the spring of 2014, the coalition started Conversation for Change, a bi-monthly meeting for anyone struggling with heroin addiction. People in recovery give testimonials, as many as ten treatment and support providers are on hand, ready to sign people up, and the presenters even offer free Narcan kits and training on how to use them. Invitations are sent to households where the police made a Narcan call, and attendance has steadily risen month by month, with more than 60 attendees at the last meeting. To date, about one in seven attendees has accessed treatment following a meeting.
To offer a more immediate response, this year Surico and colleagues began the Getting Recovery Options Working (GROW) program. Within a day or two of a Narcan call, she, Major Brian Johns of the East Dayton Police District, a trained peer supporter and a representative from a health care provider visit the home to offer support and see if the victim can be connected to treatment. GROW has shown positive initial results, even as it has often been taxed by demand. In March, for example, the East End had 15 Narcan overdoses in one week.
Next, the BCJI coalition is working to start a front door program, a clear path to detox and then treatment that currently does not exist. The program would create a system for law enforcement officers to take an addict directly to a treatment provider after a Narcan save if requested, create a network of trained volunteer supporters, build a system to identify open treatment slots more quickly, and start incentives to treatment, including assistance in securing Medicaid.
“If we have a person ready, we should be able to help them then and there,” Surico says. “Instead of working in silos, indirectly connecting resources, we’re so much more effective together.”
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