BY THE NUMBERS
Overdose deaths in Butler and Warren counties:
Butler County
2014: 137 deaths
2015*: 115 deaths
Warren County
2014: 42 deaths
2015*: 31 deaths
*January through June 2015
Source: Butler, Warren county coroner’s offices
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
Dorothy McIntosh-Shuemake talks about her daughter, Alison. In Alison’s obituary, it said the 18-year-old died of a heroin overdose, a bold statement her parents hope sends a message around the area, which is grappling with a heroin epidemic.
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A new program aims to reduce the number of drug-related deaths by making home visits to those who have recently overdosed.
Fort Hamilton Hospital has launched F.O.R.T. — or Fort’s Opiate Recovery Taskforce — which is modeled off a program launched in July by Colerain Twp. to proactively help drug addicts open to treatment.
“Now they make a house visit upon identification of an overdose person,” said Jennifer Mason, a paramedic and Emergency Medical Services coordinator for the hospital.
This summer, the Colerain Twp. Fire Department provided resource information to families of people who overdosed and were revived. The department follow that up within three days with a home visit, according to our news partner WCPO 9 On Your Side.
As part of the Fort Hamilton Hospital program,the hospital will identify overdose patients who’ve been revived and are seeking treatment.
A social worker and pharmacist from the hospital, as well as a law enforcement officer, will make a house visit within 72 hours to help begin the road to recovery. The pharmacist and social worker will take a resource packet for families and opioid overdose kits with narcan to educate the addict and their family.
Opioid dependence in American adults grew 50 percent from 2002 to 2011, according to the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration. While a single dose of heroin costs about $10, the true cost of a heroin addiction is about $150 a day for 15 hits, or $54,750 a year.
So far in 2015, there have been 146 overdose deaths in Butler and Warren counties.
Mason said she knows firsthand how a person’s drug abuse can be concealed from family and friends. She never knew about her own son’s escalating drug use until she got a call in 2008 that he had overdosed on heroin and was at Fort Hamilton. Her son lived and has been clean for two years now, she said.
Mason said while heroin or other drug use is a voluntary choice at first, it can quickly become a compulsive addiction for many. Within hours of using heroin, physical and psychological withdrawal takes over — ranging from sweating, nausea and heart palpitations to anxiety, insomnia and depression.
“Once we get to this point, we aren’t seeking necessarily that high but we’re seeking just to feel normal, just to be able to get out of bed so I’m not sick and throwing up so I can get my kids’ clothes on so I can get them to the bus,” said Dr. Quinton Moss, director of psychiatry at Fort Hamilton. “The greatest fear is not death but withdrawal.”
Moss, also director and founder of Modern Psychiatry and Wellness in Hamilton and West Chester, said early in his career he "fell victim" to the stigmas often associated with people addicted to drugs. He said that changed after he started treating people for drug addiction and witnessed their struggles and triumphs.
Moss said there are not enough resources and access to available resources to help all the drug addicts that need it. He’s had potential patients fatally overdose waiting to get an appointment.
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