By Kelly Doran
Sun staff

The Clermont Recovery Center may exceed its fund allocation of $1.75 million for the first time this year by about $150-200,000 because of the rise in clients.

The center has seen 1,600 clients already this year, 900 of which were due to heroin addiction, said Clermont County Commissioner Dave Uible.

In the jail, 75-85 percent of inmates are there because of drug related reasons, Uible said. There are about 350 inmates in the jail at any time.

The budgets for organizations like the Recovery Center, the jail, the coroner’s office and the sheriff’s office are going to be higher because of heroin, but the commissioners are looking at ways to help eliminate the heroin problem, Uible said.

One way is with the Community Alternative Sentencing Center, where non-violent addicts can be sentenced to instead of jail. Uible hopes this will lower recidivism rates. In addition, keeping an inmate in CASC costs about $20 less a day than jail, Uible said.

Another way the county saves money is with grants, like the one the sheriff’s office got for naloxone, a drug used on people who have potentially overdosed to keep them from dying.

The sheriff’s office received a grant from Interact for Health, an organization that provides grant funding to behavioral health organizations, said Lee Ann Watson, assistant director of Clermont County Mental Health and Recovery Board.

Now the sheriff’s office, the first law enforcement agency in southwest Ohio to use naloxone, also known as Narcan, is averaging a save a week, Watson said.

Naloxone could become widely available as an over-the-counter drug, but Watson feels that does not necessarily mean a person will use any more heroin than that person already would.

County organizations are being overwhelmed with the rising drug rates, Watson said.

“There’s so many people that are addicted to heroin right now that it’s flooding all the systems,” Watson said.

However, funding is an issue. Watson feels people need to advocate at the state level for more funding so that county organizations can meet the needs of the people coming to them.

Watson, who is also the co-chair of the Clermont County Opiate Task Force, said they are trying to spread the money as much as they can but there’s only so much available.

The commissioners have done what they have to in keeping up with funding the coroner’s office, said Dr. Brian Treon, Clermont County Coroner. Each autopsy costs $1,400.

The Clermont County statistics for drug overdose deaths are reflecting statewide numbers, Treon said.

In 2003, there were seven deaths where heroin was detected, in 2005 there were 21 and in 2014 there were 36, Treon said. In 2005, heroin was detected in 9.5 percent of cases and in 2014 it was detected in 52.9 percent.

“It’s become the drug of choice,” Treon said.

While heroin overdose deaths have been rising, accidental deaths not related to overdoses and accidental deaths not related to heroin have remained about the same, Treon said. The rise in accidental deaths in the county mirrors the rise in heroin related deaths.

“The heroin related deaths are out of proportion to the growth of the county,” Treon said.

The biggest health concern surrounding heroin is overdose death, said Julianne Nesbit, health commissioner.

However, Nesbit has seen the effects of heroin in other areas, too, largely in the rates of Hepatitis C. The rates of Hepatitis C rose 140 percent form 2009 to 2012, Nesbit said, and she suspects this is due in part to drug use.

The rise in Hepatitis C will be costly for the entire community over time. People can live with the disease for a long time, but it can lead to liver failure and liver cancer, Nesbit said.

The cost of treatment for someone with Hepatitis C is anywhere from $64-100,000, not including a liver transplant. Eventually this will impact health care costs for the entire community, Nesbit said.

In the Tri-State area the number of babies born addicted to opiates has risen from 11 per 1,000 births in 2009 to 36 per 1,000 births in 2012, Nesbit said. There are no birthing hospitals in Clermont County.

From 2008 to 2012, Clermont County has the fourth highest rate of residents diagnosed with opiate abuse, dependence or poisoning at the time of discharge from the emergency room, Nesbit said.

“It’s kind of rampant throughout the community,” Nesbit said.

What she tries to emphasize is that addiction is a disease and it does need to be treated as such. However, she said the method of treatment is entirely dependent on the individual being treated.

Cindy Gramke, executive director and CEO of Clermont Senior Services, has seen a remarkable rise in referrals this year of seniors suspected to be abused, neglected, finicially exploited and more.

Clermont Senior Services is the exclusive contract agency with Job and Family Services to conduct investigations for adult protective services in cases, Gramke said.

In 2008, CSS did 124 investigations, in 2013 CSS did 264 investigations and in 2014 CSS did 258 investigations, Gramke said, which is an over 100 percent increase. She is seeing a lot more financial exploitation cases than in the past and there are also likely more seniors being finically exploited that CSS is not informed of.

“We’re just seeing it more and more,” Gramke said.

Seniors are being finicially exploited and depleted of their assets by their adult children or grandchildren so they can get money for drugs. Some seniors are even sent into bankruptcy and foreclosure, Gramke said.

However, the seniors rarely press charges, even when the case is reported, because they don’t want to do that to their family. Many seniors have been told that the family member will die without drugs, but the reality is that their family member is more likely to die if they continue to get money for drugs, Gramke said.

“They live in an absolute state of fear all the time,” Gramke said.

The older adult population is growing in the county and Gramke is working very hard to raise awareness so more cases are reported, she said.

While seniors are facing financial exploitation as a result of increased heroin usage, they also face abuse and neglect, Gramke said. Sometimes seniors will be abused if they don’t have money or they will be neglected because their caregiver is a drug user.

“It is something that, you know, affects everyone not just the users…it’s just a complete drain on the community,” Gramke said.

While many rates in the county have increased, unemployment rates have gone down as reports of drug usage have gone up, said Ted Groman, assistant director of Job and Family Services. There is not a connection between the two.

Groman mainly hears two complaints from employers about rising drug rates. One is that an employer will find a promising candidate that won’t pass the drug screening.

In addition, employers don’t like the expense but realize it’s a necessity, Groman said.

The biggest struggle for someone with a history of drug use seeking a job is that those people typically have a history with the legal system, which makes it more difficult to get hired, Groman said.