Valley deserves a voice on the RecoveryOhio council

Mike DeWine, Ohio’s new Republican governor, wasted no time last week in expeditiously carrying out one of the most important planks of his 2018 campaign for chief executive of the Buckeye State.

True to his word in last fall’s divisive campaign, DeWine set the wheels in motion for creating a promising multi-pronged Statehouse-based offensive against drug overdoses and deaths just moments after being sworn into office from his home in Cedarville.

There he signed an executive order creating the RecoveryOhio initiative, which acts like a grand central station to launch a variety of measures and protocols to lessen the ferocity of the ongoing drug epidemic plaguing the Mahoning Valley and all of Ohio.

That initiative holds potential to rid our state of its ignominious reputation as an epicenter in the United States for accidental overdoses and fatalities from opioids and other dangerous drugs.

Part of its strength lies in its mission to recruit and actively engage virtually all state departments and agencies in a united front against common and lethal enemies such as heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamines. Just as no part of Ohio has been left untouched by the epidemic, no part of state government should be excluded from the mission to find solutions.

According to the executive order, RecoveryOhio carries with it an ambitious holistic agenda aimed at concrete results and maximum success. For example, it seeks to:

Advance and coordinate substance abuse and mental health prevention, treatment, and recovery-support services at the local, state and federal levels

Engage private-sector partners to align efforts to do the most good for Ohioans struggling with a mental illness or substance- use disorder and their families

Initiate and guide enhancements to the state’s behavioral health system to improve patients’ experience during treatment and treatment outcomes.

At the helm of the bold initiative is Director Alisha Nelson of Akron. Judging by her recent credentials as the director of Substance Use Policy Initiatives under DeWine in his most recent position as Ohio attorney general, the new governor’s pick for Ohio’s opioids czar looks like an apt choice.

In her new role, Nelson will work with local, state and federal organizations to develop policies that combat the drug epidemic. She’ll clearly be well within her comfort zone. After all, she most recently served as co-chairwoman of the Ohio Joint Study on Drug Use Prevention Education, which developed a resource guide that has been used by schools and community prevention organizations statewide.

RECOVERYOHIO ADVISORY COUNCIL

Offering guidance to the agency will be members of the RecoveryOhio Advisory Council, a panel that DeWine unveiled earlier this week.

Nelson will serve as chairwoman of the council, which includes a diverse group of individuals who have worked to address mental illness or substance-use issues in prevention, treatment, advocacy, or support services; government; private industry; law enforcement; health care; learning institutions; and faith organizations. The council also includes individuals who are living with mental illness and/or a substance-use disorder and their families.

We applaud the governor for including such a cross-section of expertise on the council. However, we believe the panel should also include representatives from some of the hardest hit areas slammed by the opioid epidemic, and few regions in the state have been battered as ferociously as the Mahoning Valley in general and Trumbull County in particular.

We, therefore, call on the governor to select a representative from our region to offer insights and input. Even though the casualty toll from the epidemic has dropped noticeably in Trumbull County over the past year, about 75 deaths in 2018 from accidental overdoses there shows the county remains in crisis mode.

Given that DeWine has said new members would be added to the panel and given that a deadline for recommendations from the council has been set for March 8, we urge the governor to make such an appointment sooner rather than later.