County event to provide a holistic approach to addiction recovery

Various agencies from across Lorain County will come together in Elyria next week to pool their resources in pursuit of a common goal: getting Lorain County residents off of drugs and into recovery. The "Operation BRIDGE" event will take place from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday at the Elyria Walmart Supercenter at 1000 Chestnut Commons Drive. Developed by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Operation BRIDGE events bring together law enforcement agencies, social services, private service providers and health care officials for the public to access all of them at once. Lorain County Sheriff's Maj. Richard Bosley said the idea is to put all the resources that residents struggling with addiction could need in one place. It is the first time the program has come to Lorain County. "The purpose of the event is to try and bridge the gap between the law enforcement community which does enforcement and the outreach community that does treatment and recovery because we all have the same goal," Bosley said. People dealing with drug addiction can face many challenges that can make it even more difficult for them to get and stay in recovery, Bosley said. Addiction can cost people their jobs, leave them homeless, make their mental health worse or lose crucial things like their driver's license or birth certificates. "It's an event where we are going to try to have all of those resources there, plus services there to try to remove the obstacles to recovery," Bosley said. Partners who will be attending the event include the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Lorain County Court of Common Pleas and Adult Probation Court, the Ohio Department of Mental Health and the Lorain County Community Action Agency. "Meeting people where they're at is crucial for harm reduction," Katie Bevan, Public Information Officer at Lorain County Public Health, said in an email. "Sharing recovery and prevention information in places where people go every day can break down barriers to treatment and saving lives." Bosley said by helping people find housing, get employed or work through their legal issues, the organizers hope to remove burdens which prevent people from successfully getting sober. "We're trying to help with any barrier that we can think of that might be stopping someone from going into treatment and being successful," Bosley said. "We're trying to find ways to aid them and assist them with the things that impact their lives outside of recovery. … It's a trap that anyone would need help out of, and that's essentially what the BRIDGE event is for." Local law enforcement instills a similar principle in its day-to-day responses to overdoses and drug cases with quick-response teams. These teams pair police officers with outreach personnel to go to people who have overdosed or are experiencing drug addiction to see how they can begin to work toward recovery. There are six quick response teams in the county: One each is operated by the Sheriff's Office Drug Task Force, Lorain police, Elyria police, Avon police, Avon Lake police and Amherst police. Those teams will be available at the event, and residents can ask them to visit loved ones who may need a kick-start to begin treatment. Public Health will also be providing naloxone, the generic version of the overdose-reversing drug Narcan. "One way people can help their loved ones who struggle with substances is by having a naloxone rescue kit with their first aid supplies," Bevan said. "We'll have naloxone at the Operation Bridge event. Or, find a naloxone pickup location at LorainCountyHealth.com/opioids." Bevan said that in 2023, the health department distributed 6,191 naloxone kits in the county, which saved a reported 346 lives. Last year the county had 118 overdose deaths in total, down from 120 in 2022. Bosley said that along with the courts and public health, the Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services Board of Lorain County has been another crucial partner both in the planning for the upcoming events and the county's recovery efforts more broadly. "The MHARS Board is a partner that we could not survive without," he said. "They have been tremendous for us." Bosley said it was on a trip to a state-sponsored summit for quick response teams, with members of the MHARS Board and of several response teams from the county, that the Sheriff's Office learned about the Operation BRIDGE program. "The state was really saying we all know this is not anything that we are going to arrest our way out of," Bosley said. "We have to be holistic with everything that we're doing." In addition to connecting the general public to the resources available to them for recovery, Bosley said the event would serve to inform law enforcement personnel of where they could send people who they meet for help with addiction or other issues they face. He said that state researchers have found whenever a major drug supplier is arrested or shut down, there is a spike in overdoses as users look to other places for drugs. "One of the things they are trying to teach us — and I think the data bears this out — when we go into an area and make an arrest like that, we need to send these teams out to try and be involved in the community and provide assistance," Bosley said. "Don't wait for the overdose to try and do something, let's try to be more preventative." Law enforcement officials will also be serving free food at both of the events and no registration is required. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.