Lorain County Public Health gets $450,000 award to fight addiction

The National Association of County and City Health Officials has awarded $450,000 in funding and technical assistance to Lorain County Public Health to decrease substance use, substance use disorders and overdoses while preventing adverse events in children and youth. NACCHO's Comprehensive Community Approaches to Preventing Substance Use program is supported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the organization said. It supports other programs that prevent substance use disorders or overdoses and may also prevent adverse childhood events. "Adverse childhood experiences" or events are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood between birth and 17 years of age. They include violence, abuse, or neglect; witnessing violence in the home or community; or having a family member attempt or die by suicide. They may also refer to anything that undermines a child's sense of safety, stability, and bonding, such as growing up in a household where adults have substance use problems, mental health problems or there is instability due to parental separation or household members being in jail or prison. LCPH will use a three-pronged approach to address individual, environmental, and systemic challenges related to substance use disorders and adverse childhood experiences in children up to 9 years old: The first will address families with children 0 to 3 years old through a referral system, notification, and data sharing process among partners to provide supportive services to at-risk families. The second will address children ages 3 to 5 by supporting early child care education centers in enrolling low-income families and increasing center support for parents with substance use disorders. The third will focus on children ages 5 to 9 by providing coordinated school wellness in elementary schools, with a focus on programs that support children with adverse childhood experiences related to substance use disorders. These strategies will use a multigenerational and socio-ecological model with a focus on health disparities and social determinants of health in populations most disproportionately affected in Lorain County. The plan involves working with data and the health department's community partners, Health Commissioner Mark Adams said. "This is more of a preventive piece," he said, and a rare grant that county public health officials thought was "a longshot" to get. Adams said he "could not be more impressed" with the grant writers on LCPH's Health Promotion Team, led by Pam Weiland, who were integral in securing the funding. "When writing a grant they don't glorify it. They know how to put it in a story format, for anyone to read it and say 'This is really a problem.' They do such a good job with that," Adams said. NACCHO supports nearly 3,000 local health departments across the country. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @daveobrienCT.