|
|
 |
 |
Attorney General Mike DeWine
Grants Available to
Address Opioid Epidemic
(TOLEDO, Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine joined Ohio Senator
Randy Gardner (R-Bowling Green), Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp, Lucas
County Prosecutor Julia Bates, Colerain Township Administrator Daniel
Meloy, and Cuyahoga Falls Police Chief Jack Davis announced details
regarding $3 million in grants that will be used to help replicate or
expand Drug Abuse Response Teams (DARTs) and Quick Response Teams
(QRTs) to address the opioid epidemic in Ohio. The grant funding will
support efforts similar to the QRTs in Colerain Township (Hamilton
County) and Summit County, as well as the DART in Lucas County.
“People who survive an overdose need support to overcome addiction, and
the DART and QRT teams that are already at work in Ohio have been
successful in helping many people move toward long-term recovery,” said
Attorney General DeWine. “We have to come together as a state to fight
addiction, and with these new grants, we can help even more Ohioans.”
Drug Abuse Response Teams and Quick Response Teams are made up of law
enforcement officers partnering with drug treatment providers and
others who assist overdose survivors in the recovery process.
Team members visit survivors after an overdose and offer counseling and
referrals to drug rehabilitation facilities for assessment,
detoxification, on-going drug treatment, and aftercare. These teams
work to reduce overdose-related deaths, reduce repeated overdoses per
victim, and increase the support network for survivors and their
families.
The $3 million in new grant funding, to be administered by the Ohio
Attorney General’s Office, is part of the state budget signed into law
last month. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office will begin
accepting grant applications on July 19 from qualified county
partnerships. At minimum, partnerships within a county shall include a
local police department or county sheriff’s office and a treatment
provider. It is strongly encouraged that applicants include other
partners, such as fire department personnel, emergency management
employees, faith-based leaders, and children's services organizations.
“DART has been a valuable program in the fight against drug addiction
in Lucas County,” said Senator Randy Gardner, who sponsored the budget
amendment that secured the grant funds. “I sponsored the DART budget
amendment because it makes sense to encourage other communities in Ohio
to utilize the DART concept in this important cause.”
“Since establishing our DART team in 2014, we have assisted nearly
2,300 overdose survivors and have had a 74 percent success rate in
getting survivors into detox and linked to treatment programs,” said
Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp. “Our program and others like it have
made a difference in Ohio, and I’m happy that these new grants will
allow others to bring similar programs to their communities to help
save lives.”
Colerain Township in Hamilton County estimates that their Quick
Response Team has conducted 250 investigations with nearly 80 percent
of the overdose survivors they have encountered entering treatment.
Summit County’s QRTs are based on the Colerain Township model and are
now operating in Cuyahoga Falls, Green, Barberton, Norton, Tallmadge,
Stow, Munroe Falls, Akron, Coventry, and Hudson.
The application process for this grant program can be found on the Ohio
Attorney General’s website at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov on July 19,
2017.
|
|
|
|
