Things that have happened in Medina:

1. BCS – resource page in newsletter
2. Medina County Jail – Opiate Wing
3. Promoted GTH website at St. Ambrose
4. Medina County Library – rooms available for discussion
5. Lodi Library and Lodi PD – Hidden in Plain Sight Program
6. Celebrate Recovery Programs
7. Channel 8 Promo
8. St. Ambrose Jail Ministry
9. Alternative Paths – connecting people to resources post-jail. Expanding alcohol and drug treatment with ADAMHS board
10. Mental Health Addiction and Advocacy Program – access to coverage for services
11. Adequate resources in state budget for treatment centers, advocacy etc.
12. Solutions Behavioral Health – working throughout Medina County… detox and recovery
13. Opiate Taskforce
14. Medina County Jobs and Family Services – # of children has doubled over the past few years. Working with kinship relatives, Foster care can’t sustain that many children. Have changed operations
15. Increased and improved communication (channel 8, Newspapers etc.) specific to Medina County
16. Greater Than Heroin second meeting on Feb 7th.

We will be meeting again on Wednesday, February 22nd at 11:30am at St. Ambrose.
Please RSVP to Jake Bihari if you’re able to attend. [email protected]

Goals:

  1. Services in Medina County…. Accessing services easily… Funding for home based or residential treatment – where children can be with parent?
  2. Demographic needs? Who needs the services. Are the services we do have available coincide with the need
  3. Promoting Fostering (Hope Church) – Seminar for interested families – connect with agency/county to outline and explain
  4. Continue to raise awareness. Still a fringe topic. People don’t realize how big an issue it is…. Send out a mailer…get the info out. Advertise as topic for prayer meeting… Make sure people know what resources are available
  5. Full continuum of services available for folks with substance abuse disorders
    a. Ways to get info out
    b. List of soup to nuts – what is available in area. Distribute in variety of ways
    c. Impact of health care coverage for access to the full continuum
    d. Importance of services with faith based component
  6. Develop coordinated multi-tier approach for prevention
    a. Schools
    b. Medical
    c. Etc. etc
  7. Education at large
    a. Support for families of loved ones
  8. Empirical research on reality of addiction
  9. Community connections event
    a. Community wide event, what we do today, take to the whole region.
    b. Improve conversation and quality of living
    c. Identify community leaders who are residents – someone in the community people listen to
    d. Feedback from specific people of their needs to improve quality of living; form focus groups specific to gender, age etc.
  10. Increasing awareness of services and access to services. Make sure what is available is communicated
  11. Broaden community base – reach the people
  12. Immediate access to care – waiting lists for treatment.
  13. Medina County Hotline… supportive person for addicts and families
  14. Education and physician engagement; appropriate prescription of opiates
  15. Educate staff members
  16. Early intervention
  17. Increase education in community –get to the communities. Understand what’s going on with drugs and addiction
    a. Reduce the stigma – addicts and family members shouldn’t be embarrassed