Heroin Treatment Center to Open in Resource-Strapped Medina County

With the heroin addiction and overdose epidemic reaching astronomical levels in Northeast Ohio, regional leaders are coming to grips with the dearth of treatment centers in some areas. In Medina, for instance, "four newborn babies at Medina Hospital last month tested positive for heroin at one time," according to an alarming Chronicle-Telegram news story. Medina County has not had any in-patient treatment or medically assisted treatment program to offer.

Until now, that is.

The Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Inc., a nonprofit, is going to set up a treatment center in Medina County, where opiate addiction accounts for 70 percent of the local Job and Family Services department's workload.

From the newspaper:

LCADA will offer a day treatment program, including individual and family counseling, education about addiction, group therapy and what is called ambulatory detoxification, which helps the client through a medically monitored withdrawal from opiates. The day treatment is three hours per day, five days a week.

If a client needs in-patient treatment, [LCADA CEO Tom] Stuber said he or she would be transported to LCADA’s assisted living facilities in Lorain.

He said the organization has a “recovery home” with 18 beds for men and 16 for women.

A social services levy on Medina County ballots last year would have brought in some $19 million for the next five years to assist Medina County Job and Family Services (and two other county organizations), but voters rejected the measure. The new LCADA plan not only reflects Northeast Ohio's budding penchant for regionalism, but also shelves the demand for new taxes.

Read more here.