Nearly fifty concerned citizens, including business leaders and elected officials, gathered at HOPE Initiative headquarters Thursday to begin a candid talk about drug and alcohol abuse in Henry County.
The people chatting over a pasta and salad dinner could have been meeting for any simple get-together. The meal was catered by local restaurant Temptations. The room was filled with pleasant conversation and smiles. In the background, HOPE Initiative board members prepared the training room for the night’s forum.
The plates were eventually cleared away. The talk became somber. Nearly everyone at the meeting had been touched by addiction in some way, and they wanted to face the problem, no holds barred.
It was a night when parents talked about the phone call saying their child had died from an overdose. A night when sisters opened up about the brief hope they had for their brothers, only to see addiction win again.
“This is a subject that a lot of people like to act like an ostrich and stick their head in the sand,” said New Castle Mayor Greg York. “We’re very fortunate that we have a community that will look at the reality of what’s not only happening in our community but what’s happening in the rest of the state, what’s happening to our neighbor communities.”
York was not the only public leader to attend the forum. New Castle council members Aaron Dicken and Jerry Walden and Henry County Commissioner Kim Cronk added to the conversation. Corey Murphy of the local economic development corporation and business owner Brad Crowe showed the impact drugs are having on the jobs market.
The problem is not limited to illegal drugs like crystal meth or heroin. Prescription drug abuse is having a huge impact on the community. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the United States is in “the midst of a prescription painkiller overdose epidemic.”
The National Safety Council surveyed more than 200 Indiana businesses in 2015 and found that 80 percent had experienced an issue with prescription drugs in the workplace. Schools in New Castle and the surrounding communities had to deal with prescription painkillers in their buildings last year as well.
“I’m not going to say that we’re going to solve every drug problem, every issue in New Castle, in Henry County tonight, but at least we’re not afraid to face them head on,” York said. “If you act like it’s not a problem, it’s not going to go away. It’s going to grow, and it’s going to get bigger.”
Henry County Community Foundation executive director Beverly Matthews explained why the Foundation awarded HOPE Initiative with a grant last year to support addressing the drug problem in Henry County.
“We’re here to serve Henry County and Henry County residents,” Matthews said. “I do not know anyone who has not been touched by addiction.”
York opened the community forum with a nod to the oft-mentioned Post-It notes that marked the creation of the HOPE Initiative. HOPE co-director Cathy Hamilton began collecting the notes five years ago with the purpose of identifying the bright points in Henry County. Those notes became a roadmap to improving the community.
“In all reality, what it has helped us do ... it literally helped put us in front of the curve as far as what our needs are, what our wishlist is, what our assessments are of where we’re at right now,” York said, “The Post-It notes got to the heart of our community’s needs because you can put honest answers on there.”
HOPE board member Jerry Cash used the sticky notes Thursday night with an altogether different goal in mind. By the end of the night, the wall was decorated with pastel squares that spoke of the pain drugs had wrought on New Castle resident.
On the pink notes, members of the audience wrote down drug and alcohol treatments that they knew of in the community. Some offered Alcoholics Anonymous and Christian Addiction Services. Others mentioned in-patient facilities like The Healing Place. At least one note listed local law enforcement.
Hamilton acknowledged there are specific resources that the state makes available for addicts in the criminal justice system, but “this is an issue we cannot jail our way out of.”
The yellow sticky notes gave people a place to write down who they worry is being affected by drugs. Answers ranged from “the kids at home while parents are working” to “my own children.” The blue Post-Its revealed a harsher reality of the problem when Cash asked the people in the audience what personal impact drugs and alcohol had in their lives.
People probably didn’t expect to read statements like “I’m an alcoholic” and “I’m lost” on the notes, but that was the sort of truth that came from Thursday’s meeting.
The HOPE board members hosted several focus groups the week leading up to the public forum, Hamilton said. They met with medical professionals, local educators, business leaders, judges and law enforcers, church heads, and government officials. Hamilton said a question asked by each group was “What can we do?”
Hamilton pointed out that the doctors and other medical professionals met with HOPE members said one-third of people suffering from addiction could be easily cured of the disease. Another third could be cured, but it’d be a lot harder and would take longer due to the damage they had put their body through. Drug addiction and alcoholism will kill one third of addicts, Hamilton said.
“When we talk about drug addiction, a lot of folks still don’t see the word disease,” Hamilton said. “We need to be big hearted around that word cure.”
Hamilton gathered all the Post-It notes at the end of the meeting so that HOPE can put them to use outlining a new roadmap, one that will help people in Henry County escape from addiction.