COVINGTON, Ky. — Once a week at the Life Learning Center, a team of experts sits down to talk about how to best serve those struggling with addiction.
The team is called CAREs, or Coordinating All Recovery Efforts. It's a collaborative effort across Boone, Kenton, Grant and Campbell counties to "intercept crises and provide a compassionate and non-criminalizing approach to recovery," according to a handout explaining the team's work.
"You've got the emergency rooms where they come in in the crisis, medically cleared and then we can get them into either a short-term detox or a long-term detox, and they can get into inpatient or outpatient rehab. So it'd be and then and then we have LLC Life Learning Center, which is afterwards," said St. Elizabeth Healthcare clinical nurse liason Sandra Otto.
I sat in on one of the CAREs meetings, hearing from all angles about the road to recovery.
Team members include St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Sun Behavioural Health, Transitions, Inc., Northkey Community Care, the Life Learning Center and local law enforcement, among others.
WATCH: How CAREs works to support people in recovery
The meeting was led by Amanda Peters, who serves as the executive director for the Northern Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy.
They began with introductions and a recap of the work done by each organization, and then moved on to recent drug trends in the region.
"We’re seeing a lot of meth use, even people that were previously using fentnayl have switched to meth," Quick Response Team Officer Mike Richman reported.
Then, members of the team worked on ways to streamline care and get the word out. Peters led the way by passing out handouts with information on CAREs response and services, as each member gave their input on what can be improved.
"Just an array of partners that we can rely on and lean on to help us when that happens, everything from mental health to substance use to health care,” Richman said as he explained how the team and collaboration work alongside law enforcement.
Richman told me he's seen growth with law enforcement's response to someone in a crisis that may involve substance abuse.
"In the past few years, law enforcement has basically just said, 'I'm taking people to the emergency room.' Now with this program and the information that's coming out law enforcement are realizing that this person may not need the emergency room, but they might need to go to Sun Behavioral," Richman said.
I was able to visit St. Elizabeth's emergency room in Covington alongside Sandra Otto and nurse manager Chad Spangler.
Nurses involved in the team may visit someone in the emergency room and ask if they'd like to join CAREs services.
"We have our little card, our nurse navigator card with our number on it, so they can call us if they have any questions. And we also have a pamphlet put together about the CAREs program," said Otto.
Spangler said a big piece of the solutions found in CAREs meeting were in a portion of the meeting I wasn't able to film.
"We get together and we discuss patients, specific patients and we ask — 'We haven't seen this particular patient at our facility, has he shown up at one of your other guys' facility, and what kind of treatment are they having?' So that way somebody doesn't get lost along the way," Spangler said.
"It's nice to be able to find out that they're still getting the help that they deserve," Otto said.
WCPO 9 has committed to helping find and put a spotlight on solutions to addiction and recovery efforts in the Tri-State. You can read more of our coverage here.
