Leaders with a local organization got a visit from a member of the John Kasich administration on Tuesday after the governor's State of the State address in Steubenville.
Women living at the Fleming Home in Lisbon, staff members and members of the community came together to discuss the governor's speech with Orman Hall, the director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. Hall said Kasich plans on fighting the growing prescription drug addiction problem in this state.
The Fleming House in Lisbon is a transitional housing program for homeless women recovering from drug addiction and their children. Hall stopped at the recovery home to talk and connect with the women who have found success.
"I am not the person I was when I walked in the door," said Amy Scharrer.
Scharrer walked into the Fleming House in 2009 and this past fall, she graduated from its recovery program. She's just one of the graduates who shared her story with Hall.
"Listening to women who are in recovery is an amazing experience and I think that those of us who work in Columbus need to spend more time at programs like the Fleming House," Hall said.
Hall said the administration has made important steps in 2011, but there is still work to be done, starting with the doctors.
"We need to make sure that the vast amounts of prescription opiates that are available in our state, that physicians begin to use them in a much more judicious way. The second thing that we need to do is we need to make sure that there is effective treatment available for the large number of people in our state who are opiate addicted," Hall said.
The Fleming House provides a safe place for women and their children who are coming out of treatment to transition back into society. The facility has 10 apartments that women can live in for up to 24 months.
"We need programs like this so that we can re-group and gather ourselves together and realize that we are an important member of this society and that we can become an extremely productive member of this society," Scharrer said.
Ohio has seen a 335 percent increase in deaths because of unintentional drug poisoning.
ODADAS launched a new campaign last week called "Don't Get Me Started," which is aimed at a younger crowd.
"It is a modern ad campaign that we think is going to make a big difference in terms of reaching young adults and older adolescents in delivering the message that opiates are highly addictive and can be very lethal," Hall said.
QR codes for smartphones and a Facebook page are ways the campaign hopes to tap into a younger demographic.
