Med Collect boxes coming to county

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Med Collect boxes which will be used for people to dispose of medication are set to be shipped by the end of the week, Bill Showman, manager of prevention and evaluation services at the Paint Valley Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health (ADAMH) Board, said at this week’s virtual Highland County Drug Abuse Prevention Coalition meeting.

He said Med Collect received the payment earlier this week and the boxes are being shipped to Kratzer’s Hometown Pharmacy in Lynchburg, Corner Pharmacy in Greenfield, Downtown Drug in Hillsboro and the Highland County Sheriff’s Office in Hillsboro.

Showman said the boxes will be attached with Geofencing. He also said the organization has made an ad to remind people to dispose of their medication.

“When people go and pick up their medication from each of those pharmacies, if they have their cell phone with them, their cell phone is going to communicate with the ad,” he said. “They’re going to see that ad 30 days after they picked up their medication as a reminder to dispose of their medication.”

He also said a “really great” part of this method of medication collection is that each of the boxes has a container inside that is shipped directly to an incinerator, and the medication isn’t touched after it goes inside the box. Showman stressed that the Highland County Drug Abuse Prevention Coalition and the ADAMH Board are the organizations that provided the boxes, and that funding was provided by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the HRSA RCORP Consortium.

Ada Amburgey, a registered nurse at Highland County Community Action, and Tara Campbell, deputy director of HCCAO, were at the meeting to talk about one of their new programs. This new program is funded through the Youth Resiliency Grant. They said the grant is from the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) and that it is a Maternal and Child Health Grant focusing on youth resiliency.

They said the program was offered to all the school districts in Highland County, and three of them said they were interested, but they didn’t say which school districts. They said they partnered with the school districts to offer holistic health education for students ages 11-17, meaning the organization will be administering it in middle schools and high schools. They also said the class will be selected by the leadership in each of the schools.

Amburgey and Campbell said the first year of the program has been a planning year so “implementation of this education to the students will begin in the 21-22 school year and continue on in 22-23 school year.” They also said the organization hired an adolescent youth coordinator that is going to do the education and organization.

“It is an evidence-based practice program, and it focuses on mental, emotional, social, physical health, nutrition, substance use prevention, healthy relationships, violence prevention, healthy study habits, wellness practices,” they said. “So, the students will actually be able to do a wellness plan as well as goal setting and also receive resources that’ll help them with mental and emotional health. We’re pretty excited about this project here just because it is focusing on a holistic approach for these students.”

In other news from the meeting:

* Gena Bates, associate director of the Scioto Paint Valley Mental Health Center, detailed another State Opioid Response (SOR) 2.0 Grant the organization received, which is for mental health in jail. Bates said this program will be in all four of the county’s jails.

“One of the really neat things about this grant is it allows us to have individuals seen by psychiatric providers in jail and receive medication,” she said. “That’s not something that we’ve really been able to do previously, so they’re able to get started on their psychiatric meds while they’re still in jail.”

* Creed Culbreath, president of the Highland County Drug Abuse Prevention Coalition, had a couple of new updates. He said the Highland County Quick Response Team is anticipating a new naloxone shipment from Columbus “any day now.” He said the priority for this new shipment is to replace naloxone that is at or close to its expiration date. He also said that for people that have expired or expiring naloxone, “they’re welcome to contact” him.

Culbreath also highlighted two new intensive outpatient houses that REACH for Tomorrow will be opening soon. He said, “if all goes well next week,” it will be opening Nicole’s 28th Chapter, a “house named in honor of the daughter of some folks that wanted her memory to go on.” He said the house will be exclusively for women and people that don’t have safe housing while in the IOP program. He also said a house for men in the IOP program will be opening “hopefully next month.” It will tentatively be called Life Triumphant, and is located over the border in Ross County.

The next coalition meeting will be Wednesday, May 26, from 12:30 to 2 p.m.

Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.

Two new outpatient houses opening in area soon

By Jacob Clary

[email protected]

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