Success spurs new TMHF grant for anti-overdose program

WARREN

The Trumbull Memorial Health Foundation has announced a grant of $19,127 to a local overdose-prevention program credited with saving the lives of four people who would have otherwise died of accidental overdoses.

The grant is the foundation’s second to the Trumbull County Combined Health District’s Project DAWN (Death Avoidance With Naloxone), which provides training and naloxone kits to families, friends and social workers for those addicted to opioids like heroin.

“We are very concerned about heroin in our community but encouraged by the success our public health officials have documented in reversing overdoses,” said foundation chairman Patrick K. Wilson, an attorney with Harrington, Hoppe & Mitchell.

“We are also pleased that two of the individuals who avoided death from overdoses have enrolled in drug-treatment programs. They are very fortunate to have second chances.”

The foundation announces grants twice a year to initiatives that promote health in Trumbull County, with emphasis on public health issues.

The health district has made opioid overdoses a priority. It says more than 60 individuals had died of accidental heroin overdoses this year through July, nearly as high as the countywide record for a full year.  

The new health foundation grant will enable the county to provide training and materials to support 100 naloxone kits. The packages are good for about a year and a half after they are distributed.

“We are very appreciative of these funds because money is scarce and the need is great,” said Kathy Parrilla, a registered nurse and coordinator for Project DAWN.

In addition to the overdose prevention grant, the foundation approved a $15,000 grant for a youth-leadership program that discourages drugs, alcohol, bullying and other problem behaviors in local middle schools.

The PANDA initiative, operated by Meridian Community Care, recruits and trains student leaders in middle schools in Girard, Howland and Mineral Ridge to positively influence their peers. With the new grant, the program will expand to Maplewood Middle School.

The Trumbull Memorial Health Foundation provides grants to initiatives that advance the health of Trumbull County residents as well as scholarships to future healthcare professionals. With assets of more than $13 million, the foundation is the successor to the Trumbull Memorial Hospital Foundation, which was created by the hospital in 1976. Since 2012, the foundation has operated separately from the hospital as an affiliate of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley.