Continuing the conversation

Ask questions, and keep having conversations.

Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition led a community forum Wednesday about plans for recovery housing.

Jay County Opioid Settlement Taskforce has been looking into potential locations for a sober living facility for months. In December, the group preliminarily selected a house in Redkey, and Jay County Commissioners approved a $35,000 request from National Opioid Settlement dollars to conduct a feasibility study on the home and put down earnest money. After backlash from Redkey residents, who noted a lack of amenities and resources as well as safety concerns in their town, commissioners rescinded the funding. In response, the task force pulled its offer on the house and is now looking elsewhere.

Local residents and task force members met Wednesday to continue dialogue about the project.

Plans

Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition would operate the facility for males, serving between 15 and 18 residents in a roughly 5,000-square-foot building. (The task force initially chose the Redkey home because of its price and square footage, although it visited six other locations throughout the county.) There would also be one employee working at the facility at all times.

New residents would have their rent supplemented by Recovery Works dollars through Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. Once employed, residents would begin paying rent.

Residents would be vetted before being accepted. Rules for the sober living facility are still in the works, although plans are for residents to follow a structured schedule. They’d also have links to services, such as health treatment, life skill training or spiritual guidance, as well as employers.

“It’s their recovery, and we meet them where they’re at to help them,” said Kimbra Reynolds, executive director at Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition.

Answering a question from Redkey resident Mark Leavell about how the facility will handle relapses or residents causing issues, Reynolds noted some places will evict residents immediately, some vote on the matter and others work with the individual to get them treatment.

After a new potential location has been selected, the task force will need to conduct a feasibility study on the property to find out if it is viable. There are currently no offers on the table or a projected completion date.

Jake Martz, a prevention leader at Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition pictured above, has been sober for 13 years from methamphetamine. Martz talked about the recovery process for residents in Jay County, saying it isn’t ideal currently. “We’ve got to do something,” he said. (The Commercial Review/Bailey Cline)

 

Presentations

A few representatives gave informational presentations Wednesday.

Several of Jay County’s statistics are significantly above the state average for drug use, noted Reynolds, such as for opioid-involved opioid deaths, non-fatal emergency department visits related to opioids and heroin and methamphetamine treatment rates.

In 2023, seven individuals — they had been recently released from Jay County Jail — died from overdoses. (One overdose death happened within 12 hours, and another occurred within two days.)

Currently there are 22 Jay County Jail inmates charged with drug-related crimes, continued Reynolds. Fourteen of those charged are men. A majority of them have multiple charges, scaling to as many as nine separate drug charges for a total of 50 charges among the men.

Individuals who have been through a recovery residence program have a 20% better chance of sobriety, she later noted.

“Recovery homes are safe places for individuals to come who want recovery,” said Reynolds.

Cassie Alexander, a licensed clinical social worker and addictions counselor with IU Health Jay, talked about the impact trauma can have on a child and how it can affect their adulthood.

“When trauma occurs earlier in life, the risk for substance use increases,” she explained. “The more trauma a person has, the more likely they’re to develop a substance use disorder or to struggle with substances.”

Approximately 63% of substance use cases can be attributed to adverse childhood experience, such as verbal, physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence, parental mental health or substance use issues, neglect of basic needs, parental incarceration  or divorce. Trauma leaves individuals 40% more likely to struggle with anger and 80% more likely to engage in inter-partner violence, she added.

“Sometimes, when we think about growing up in that kind of situation, we’re not really learning healthy coping skills,” said Alexander. “A lot of the individuals that I work with really struggle with just learning how to deal with life, right? It’s not even just the bad emotions, but it’s also the good ones.”

Jake Martz, a youth life coach and drug prevention leader with Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition, is a Marion resident in long-term recovery. Now 13 years sober from using methamphetamine, he likened addiction recovery in the Jay community to frogs in a dirty pond.

“You take the frog out, you clean him off, and then where do you put him?” asked Martz. “What happens when he gets back in the pond? He gets dirty again. Why would we expect that frog to be clean? It was our choice to put the frog back into a dirty pond. So a recovery home is just another way that we can work on making the pond clean.”

He noted concerns from Redkey residents, specifically those shared in a letter to the editor published in The Commercial Review on Jan. 16 about a lack of amenities in Redkey.

“We’ve all been touched, in one way or another, in this community by the effects of substance use,” continued Martz. “Because it exists here. But the solution doesn’t.”

Living in a community with less than ideal conditions for substance use is the reality many deal with, added Martz.

Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition meets monthly to discuss barriers for recovery, he explained. The main concern voiced at those meetings is a “lack of sober living environments” in Jay County.

Martz pointed to an example of a solution for a portion of the population that has existed in a residential area of Portland since 1978. The organization, he said, offers a safe place for at-risk individuals to practice coping strategies, detox from active substance use, learn social skills, discover how to make better choices and integrate back into society.

“For 26 years, the Youth Service Bureau has been in operation right in our backyard, and it’s successful,” he revealed, drawing a few exclamations from the crowd. “The model works, and it’s proven to be effective.”

That same model is used for adult sober living facilities, he added. The difference — the youth don’t have a choice in whether they live there.

But without a current place in Jay County for adults, Alexander noted later, once individuals turn 18, they no longer have that safe space.

That’s why a recovery residence has been proposed.

Reynolds pointed out residents are welcome to join the task force or attend monthly Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition meetings. (Currently, the task force meets at 4:30 p.m. Mondays at the coalition’s office in Portland as needed, and the coalition meets at noon the second Monday of the month at Jay County Campus of Arts Place.)

Rob Weaver of WPGW Radio said it’s likely wherever the recovery residence is placed, folks will be “all in an uproar,” and he asked how Jay County Drug Prevention Coalition plans to handle backlash.

Martz sympathized with those concerned about a new facility coming to the neighborhood, noting potential changes with property values and other aspects.

“I think the response is valid, I think we’re going to get it wherever we go,” he said.

He added conversation about the matter will be crucial moving forward.

“That’s really what needs to happen,” he said.