LOCAL

'Unified approach' needed to combat substance abuse, overdoses, panelists say

Cole Behrens
The Columbus Dispatch

Panelists representing experts from the medical field, outreach groups and first responders who gathered Wednesday for a public forum agreed that a unified approach is needed to battle the drug overdose epidemic affecting Greater Columbus, Ohio and the nation.

Columbus Public Health marked International Overdose Awareness Day on Wednesday by placing nearly 6,500 pinwheels on the front lawn of their headquarters at 240 Parsons Ave. to represent county residents who overdosed or died from overdoses in 2021.

Brian Pierson, vice president of community health and well-being at the Mount Carmel Health System, said the people on the panel may represent different organizations and different things, but remain connected in their focus on improving outcomes of people struggling with substance abuse disorder.

"And when we came here this evening, after a lot of us hadn't seen each other for awhile face-to-face, what was apparent is this: we all know each other, we are all working together in Franklin County," Pierson said. "I think that's a blessing within Franklin County — you've got a unified approach to how we're going to help manage addiction in general, because it's so fluid."

Pierson was among the panelists who spoke at a public forum, "What is the state of the opioid crisis in our community?", which was presented by The Dispatch as part of its "Columbus Conversations" series. Amelia Robinson, Dispatch opinion and community engagement editor, was the moderator for the event, held on International Overdose Awareness Day.

Brian Pierson, vice president of community health and well-being at Mount Carmel Health System, speaks Wednesday about the opioid crisis during a public "Columbus Conversations" forum held at Ohio State University's Fawcett Center.

Medical experts representing local health systems said the overdose problem has escalated in recent years, driven by the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl mixed with other drugs.

Emily Kauffman, an emergency medicine physician at OSU Wexner Medical Center East, said the situation with fentanyl contamination in other drugs has become "exceedingly dangerous" for even those who are not regular drug users.

"People do not know what they're getting. Whether they have developed a full substance use disorder or whether they just have intermittent use, they are at extreme risk of death" Kauffman said. "It is a very dangerous time to use and we want to keep people safe."

Krisanna Deppen, program director of the OhioHealth Grant Addiction Medicine Fellowship, said patients with substance abuse disorder noted that people are coming in and appearing more sick and have more medical problems associated with substance abuse.

"Overdose is the tip of the iceberg from where we sit," Deppen said. "We are seeing young, otherwise healthy, people presenting with heart disease, or infections in their blood and skin infections. We started using the term "end stage substance use," because some of these people end up in hospice."

Dr. Erin McKnight, medical director for Medication Assisted Treatment for Addiction Program at Nationwide Children's Hospital, said more children are dying of overdoses after being poisoned with fentanyl in what they believed were prescription medications they took recreationally or experimentally.

Dr. Erin McKnight, medical director for the Medication Assisted Treatment for Addiction Program at Nationwide Children's Hospital, speaks Wednesday at a Dispatch "Community Conversations" event on the opioid overdose crisis.

"It is dangerous and deadly to not have those conversations with teenagers about what to do if you're going to use a substance what an overdose looks like," McKnight said.

Deppen said an important part of offering medical care is working to recognize substance abuse disorder as a medical problem and standardizing medical treatments for substance abuse.

"One of the things that is really important in the health care system, from where I sit, is that we need to standardize this work — so that no matter when your loved one comes to my hospital or any other hospital — they will get the right evidence-based care to treat their disease," Deppen said.

Columbus Fire Capt. Matt Parrish said in the years since the beginning of the opioid epidemic, members of the public safety community have become more aware of the importance of outreach and harm reduction. Since 2018, teams of paramedics, police and case managers who are part of RREACT (Rapid Response Emergency Addiction Crisis Team) have gone door-to-door providing follow-up services for opiate overdose patients.

Columbus Fire Capt. Matt Parrish speaks Wednesday at a Dispatch forum on the opioid overdose crisis at Ohio State's Fawcett Center.

"Not one person is going to do it alone," Parrish said. "...Where public safety fits in is in that continuum of getting folks to that next right step (of treatment). ... We can go to a scene and revive somebody, but if we don't take them to the right place in the right amount of time, they're not going to get the help they need.

"I think first responders play a vital role, but we're only as successful as our partners in the prevention piece and then the conversation on recovery."

Erika Clark Jones, CEO of the Alcohol Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County (ADAMH), said the organization often acts like a "silent partner" in helping directing funding and resources to assist in prevention, harm reduction and education. Recently, ADAMH has used grant money to install dozens of naloxone boxes throughout the city of Columbus to provide easy access to the overdose-reversing medication.

"We think it's really important that families have the connections to the resources that they need," Clark Jones said.

Erika Clark Jones, CEO of the ADAMH Board of Franklin County, speaks Wednesday during a Dispatch town hall on the opioid overdose crisis.

The goal of treatment and helping with harm reduction, panelists said, is helping individuals reaching recovery. Juliet Dorris-Williams, executive director of The P.E.E.R. (Peers Enriching Each other's Recovery) Center, a drop-in recovery and wellness center, said recovery is "the process of change."

"It's getting real with yourself and it is you're getting real and you get authentic. You show up," she said.

Juliet Dorris-Williams, executive director at The P.E.E.R. Center, listened to another panelist speak at a Dispatch town hall on the opioid overdose crisis held Wednesday at OSU's Fawcett Center.

Dorris-Williams said she has heard one of her colleagues talk about "surrendering to yourself, choosing yourself.

"And when you choose yourself, sometimes that means you have to choose to separate yourself from other people and other situations and other circumstances that feed into a life that you don't want anymore."

Part of making treatment and recovery accessible to everyone is making sure those with substance abuse disorder are included on the dialogue toward a solution to the crisis, said Andrea Boxill, administrator of alcohol and drug services at Columbus Public Health.

"You walk in (to a support service) and it's not based upon, 'We're going to start the treatment,'" Boxill said. "It's 'Do you want to eat? Do you want to have water?' Do not open a wound that you can't close before somebody walks out the door because you're doing a lot more damage for that individual than you are helping them."

Andrea Boxill, administrator of alcohol and drug services at Columbus Public Health, speaks Wednesday during a public panel discussion on the opioid overdose crisis at Ohio State's Fawcett Center.

Boxill and other panelists said hard work over the years, and numbers showing a slight reduction in Franklin County overdose deaths in 2021, give hope that a better future is possible.

"These conversations are forcing us to confront that ugliness that we talked about and to take away the stigma just by having a conversation and normalizing that this, like anything else, is still a disease," Boxill said.

McKnight said the concerted effort of local groups has one aim: to save the lives of people struggling with substance abuse.

"I want people to leave here knowing that there are people who are on your side that are working so hard in order to get everyone access that they need," McKnight said. "We show up every day knowing how hard the work is that we do. But what keeps us going is knowing that we can help you survive and thrive."

A recorded livestream of the panel's discussion is available here.

Cole Behrens is a reporter for The Columbus Dispatch covering public safety and breaking news

@Colebehr_report

Cbehrens@dispatch.com