CINCINNATI — Not all heroes wear capes. In Price Hill, they’re rolling up in black T-shirts like the one that Sarah Coyne wears as part of a unique pilot program to help cut overdose deaths among individuals most likely to overdose.
On the surface, you wouldn’t know that Coyne and Andrew Bernhard were anything more than just good friends. However, Coyne is also an outreach worker, helping Bernhard seek treatment for drug addiction.
Bernhard has tried quitting for years, but this time feels different.
“My undergrad was at NKU in theater, became an actor,” he told WCPO, as he packed a bag for his detox. “I struggled with drinking because of my stage fright.”
He left the theater but traded alcohol for drugs and began to use IV pain medication.
“I've been on stage at the Kennedy Center,” he said. “I’ve won awards. I thought I’d be on Broadway.”
Bernhard said his addiction has taken everything from him. In the last 20 years, he’s visited more than 40 in-patient treatment centers.
“I can't run from it. It follows me and takes me back every time,” he said “If I can't tackle this, I'm not going to be around much longer. It'll kill me.”
The pilot program involves a coalition of police officers and addiction response workers. The group swaps updates on drug users at the highest risk to overdose. Teams of peer navigators and law enforcement officers then check on those individuals weekly to wrap resources around them.
“The longer you build those relationships, the more they trust you,” Coyne said.
Coyne knows each of her clients by name, and often knows their families too.
“I know a lot of them when they started using, why they used, how many times they've tried treatment,” Coyne said.
The pilot program’s first wave included 14 people, who collectively made up almost 25% of overdose calls in Cincinnati Police District 3, according to Hamilton County. By the end of that wave, the county said overdoses among that group were cut in half.
Since the first wave, the number of participants in the program has more than doubled. Among the participants in the most recent completed wave, the county says the coalition cut overdoses by 98%, as of this spring.
For Coyne, the work is personal. She struggled with addiction for several years.
“Long enough to ruin my life multiple times,” she said. “Alcohol was the primary but I used a lot of everything.”
Then, she got pregnant, which changed everything.
“All I've ever wanted to do is be a mom,” she said. “I told my mom, ‘I can't mess this up.’”
Now, Coyne is helping others, like Bernhard, find their reason to quit.
“As long as you have drugs, you're always gonna have people that deal with addiction,” she said.
“I think life just looks a lot brighter,” Bernhard said. “On the other side, a lot brighter. And on this side, it's just darkness.”
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