Plan to help abusers, families

By D.a. Wilkinson

LISBON — Columbiana County commissioners have given their formal support to the Family Recovery Center’s plans to seek $400,000 to fund programs to help abusers and their families.

The plan is simple. Instead of focusing only on treatment for the abuser, help can be offered to spouses or children who may be affected by the chemical abuse.

Eloise Traina, the executive director of the recovery center, said the goal is “a whole continuum of care.”

Under the grant guidelines, Traina said, the county will first be ranked and then told if it will get funding.

Traina said she is going to proceed with the concept even if the county is not funded.

The collaborative effort will include other agencies such as the county’s mental-health programs and a board that is working to develop various long-term solutions to end abuse in the county.

Kathy Chaffee, the associate director of the Columbiana County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, said that the effort will also be working with families, “to offer more peer support at different stages of recovery.”

Traina said that about one-third of people who seek recovery do succeed. Another third of abusers “are in a revolving door” of abuse, she added. The remaining third of abusers never make it to sobriety.

“Recovery management needs to go on for years,” Traina said.

One simple effort may be to have abusers talk more with their doctor about the effects of abuse. However, some abusers go “doctor shopping” to get prescription drugs, and some don’t have a doctor.

Chaffee said that abusers, “Need to do something so they won’t go into relapse.”

Another part of the plan is to help those affected by chemical abuse to use already-existing programs in the county to help find jobs, help with transportation to work, or provide food and clothing.

wilkinson@vindy.com