Adena continues its frontline work to combat opioid use disorder in our community

In 2023, there were 50 deaths due to drug overdose in Ross County. In 2024, by May 5, 14 people had already lost their lives to drugs. For community health leaders at Adena Health, those numbers are simply too high.

“In our communities, the opioid epidemic has touched almost every life — whether it’s someone who has faced addiction or knows someone battling addiction or has lost someone to addiction,” said Jennifer Crawford, Adena interim director of community health and development. “Our why for getting involved is simple. Adena’s mission states, ‘We are called to serve our communities.’”

For more than a decade, Adena has been on the frontlines of combatting opioid use disorder in its community. Adena has not been fighting alone, as it partners with addiction treatment providers, mental health professionals, law enforcement, community action, health departments and more key leaders and organization to provide prevention, early intervention, and access to treatment and recovery resources.

“Opioid use disorder is an epidemic and we need to be on our game,” said John Gabis, MD, Adena medical director of community partnerships. “We need to continue to find more effective ways of helping people.”

In 2015, Adena joined with a number of other Ross County agencies and organizations, as well as key state governmental partners, to form the Heroin Partnership Project, later renamed the Hope Partnership Project (HPP). In 2019, HPP, with Adena as the lead agency, received a grant from The Health Resources & Services Administration’s Rural Communities Opioid Response Program. The grant helped to implement a medication assisted treatment (MAT) program and to begin forming a peer recovery network in Ross County.

With peer recovery, patients work with people who have successfully completed a recovery program themselves.

“People dealing with opioid use disorder feel safer talking to a peer — a neutral person who can meet them where they’re at,” Crawford said. “The peer bridge to outpatient care has truly helped our success rate.”

In 2022, the Hope Partnership Project received a second grant from RCORP. With this grant, the focus remains on MAT, but with an expansion of access. The grant also helps fund harm reduction initiatives, which can reduce certain health and safety issues associated with drug use.

“For a person struggling with opioid use disorder, there are a number of steps along their journey to treatment. Each person has different steps and a different sequence,” Dr. Gabis said. “Harm reduction is about keeping people alive while they find their way.”

The grant supports supplies for six harm reduction vending machines in Ross County. The machines include hygiene items, fentanyl testing strips, sharp object disposal, pregnancy tests, and information on peer support and treatment programs. In August 2024, 294 items were dispensed from the machines.

“The harm reduction kit offers treatment options, but also information on how to use more safely,” Crawford said. “Harm reduction helps people make healthier choices.”

“We’re not helping support a person’s use of drugs, we’re helping support them not getting sicker,” Dr. Gabis said. “For example, cleaning needles may help prevent the spread of hepatitis and HIV.”

HPP’s efforts are making a difference with the number of overdose deaths in Ross County dropping by one-sixth. This success has been recognized nationally as earlier this year, the Project was one of 38 teams out of 200 who were selected to present on their work at a RCORP Reverse Site Visit in Washington, D.C.

“Hopefully, we are coming down the other side, but we have to keep pushing,” Dr. Gabis said. “We have to continue to equip people to provide compassionate, evidence-based care for this brain disease.”

Part of that continued push is for Adena and its partners to continue to expand MAT access and the peer recovery network in not only Ross County, but also Fayette and Pike County.

“We are going to continue to grow our partnerships in the community with the goal of ultimately making it easier for individuals who are battling addiction to get treatment and for those who are in recovery to access employment, housing and other essential needs,” Crawford said.