Coalition tapped for ‘game changer’ study

Originally published in the Early Bird Feb. 1, 2020

By Bethany J. Royer-DeLong

GREENVILLE — The opioid epidemic is a broad-reaching issue that has devastating effects on
individuals, families, and their communities across the United States, including ours. The
Coalition for a Healthy Darke County has taken significant steps toward reducing its effects over
the last few years.

However, in October 2019, the Coalition was approached by representatives at Ohio State
University in what may be a game-changer, to participate in a ground-breaking HEALing
Community Study (HCS) to Help to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL).

According to information provided by OSU, the study is a National Institute of Health (NIH)
funded project with a committed $16.5 million per year for the next three years. Those funds
allocated to 67 counties in four states: Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio.

“It is a different kind of project because it really has a primary mechanism of community
engagement,” explained Dr. Pam Salsberry, Community Engagement Core Co-Lead. The idea to
work with and support communities to put into place interventions that will “reduce overdose
deaths” by 40 percent in three years across the entire study area.

The key is to create not a one-size-fits-all solution but a menu of options for communities to
choose from, the options driven by community-engaged interventions developed from a
comprehensive, data-driven community response plan with evidence-based practices or EBPs.

First wave counties such as Darke County will act as a guide to assist other communities to
“show others how to go to the next level,” explained Amy Farmer M.A. Community
Engagement Coordinator for the HCS.

Farmer’s position as a community engagement coordinator is one of several to play a significant

part in the study. Other positions include a community data coordinator and intervention
facilitator for data collection provided in thanks to the allocated funds.

The funds, ranging from $800,000 to $900,000, allows coalitions to obtain the necessary
resources for their community, whether it is meeting technical needs such as databases or to
provide educational workshops, even purchase items, to name but a few.

Dr. Salsberry, also Professor and Associate Dean Outreach and Engagement College of Public
Health at OSU, stated while chosen randomly, certain community criteria had to be met —
nonadjacent to one another, the extent of the problem, and also death rate percentages. She noted
it was fortunate Darke County was chosen given the work the Coalition has already done and
continues to do.
A focus area in this study will also include the stigma surrounding substance abuse disorders.
Something Salsberry states is recognized nationally as one of the barriers to opioid death
reduction.

“[It’s] not because we don’t know how to reduce deaths,” said Salsberry but barriers to resources
due to stigma that prohibits some communities from adopting EBPs, for example, a needle-
exchange program or NARCAN availability.

“There’s always the stigma that it is always the bad people,” added Dr. Laurie White, Director of
Counseling and Behavioral Health with Family Health and member of the Coalition. “However,
what we have found in just our efforts, it affects all levels of people and all ages.”

Dr. Tim Kathman, Darke County Coroner, and VP Medical Affairs for Wayne HealthCare and
also a Coalition member stated similarly. He shared he still encounters those who have a harsh
attitude towards addicts and that the cure for the belief that the “best addict is a dead addict” is
education and sometimes personal experience.

“Someone close to you, someone that you love and care for that gets involved in or is touched by
substance or alcohol abuse disorder. That tends to change people’s attitudes,” said Kathman.
“More and more families and more and more individuals are being personally touched by it.”

The stigma is something the Coalition for a Healthy Darke County has been aware of since their
founding in 2014 after a growing number of people were not able to pass drug screenings for
employment.

It was six years ago that nearly 60 community stakeholders participated in a strategic planning
meeting to create a comprehensive strategic plan to combat substance abuse in the county.

Since then, “We’ve learned about compassion, we’ve learned about stigma, we’ve learned that
addiction is a disease,” said Sharon Deschambeau, President, Darke County Chamber of
Commerce and President, Coalition for a Healthy Darke County.

Deschambeau personally sees the study as an opportunity for the Coalition, composed of
multiple sectors from healthcare to criminal justice, “to do even more” in the community.

While many stakeholders shared potential projects, agency cooperation, statistics, and more,
Diane Ewing, Liaison to the President and CEO, VP, Government Affairs, Premier Health, and
Coalition secretary, perhaps best captured the Coalition’s participation in the study.

“This is so exciting for Darke County, in a nutshell, it takes a nationally based program, and it
brings a study, it brings data, and resources to a grassroots level to really reach individuals,” said
Ewing. “We’ve always been thinking big, but I don’t think we ever thought something like this
would happen.”