ST. MARYS — Joint Township District Memorial Hospital is pleased to announce a $5,000 grant award from the Ar-Hale Family Foundation to support drug prevention education efforts in Auglaize county.
Grand Lake Health System is taking a very active role in the fight against drug addiction and abuse. It has partnered with law enforcement, local medical and mental specialists to provide this needed education.
In 2014, JTD Hospital Foundation established the Drug Prevention Education Fund. The purpose for this educational fund is to provide a financial resource for drug prevention education to the citizens in Auglaize and Mercer counties. Research shows that education is the first step in preventing one of our children from experimenting with drugs.
Recommendations for use of this fund may be submitted to the JTD Hospital Foundation and will be reviewed by the sheriffs of Auglaize and Mercer counties, a medical provider, and mental health representatives from the two counties. This coordinated effort utilizes the group’s collective strengths to influence the environment as it relates to underage drinking, prescription medication misuse across the lifespan, reducing the use of illegal substances with a special focus on opioids among young adults 18-25 years of age.
Drug overdose deaths in the United States hit record numbers in 2014. The majority of the drug overdose deaths (more than 6 out of 10) involve an opioid (narcotic pain reliever). Since 1999, overdose deaths involving opioids (prescription opioid pain relievers and Heroin) nearly quadrupled according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). From 2000 to 2014 nearly half a million people died from drug overdoses and 78 Americans die daily from an opioid overdose. Ohio had the second highest number of drug overdose deaths nationwide in 2014 according to the CDC. Nationwide in 2014 drug overdoses took the lives of 47,000 Americans and in the state of Ohio, Heroin and pain relievers took 2,744 lives.
We envision our communities as safe, healthy, and resourceful. We live in an area where communities embrace evidence-based substance abuse prevention efforts and are united on a path to positive solutions. All contributions are welcome, from any individual or community group, to help continue this effort to educate the public and especially the most valuable asset we have…our children.
If you would like to be part of this effort and would like to make a donation, you may send your gift to the JTD Hospital Foundation to be used for the Drug Prevention Education Fund. If you have any questions related to this fund, please contact Linda Haines, Executive Director, JTD Hospital Foundation at 419-394-3387, ext. 3574.
