FORT WRIGHT, Ky. -- Carol Sue Wagner said her son was 37 years old when he overdosed on heroin.
Since then, Wagner helps to educate the community about the stigma surrounding heroin addiction.
Wagner and nearly 50 other volunteers from the city and the Northern Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy went door to door in Fort Wright Sunday to help promote understanding and spread awareness about the Northern Kentucky Addiction Helpline.
In 2015, there were more than 1,100 heroin overdose visits at St. Elizabeth hospitals in Northern Kentucky and more than 200 overdose-related deaths, according to data from the Northern Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy.
Wagner thinks promoting the resources can help save a lot of lives.
“I think that we can make people understand, and I think that we can empower the addict, and I think that's something we have to do,” Wagner said.
Ed Butler, Fort Wright city administrator, said the group’s goal was to hang a flyer on every door, which is about 2,800 homes.
"Heroin scourge has hit this community and has hit communities all across this country,” Butler said. “It's a serious problem, and I think that anything we call can do as a community to help fight it we should do."
Butler believes spreading education and awareness is a huge step in finding solutions to the problem.
"This is not some back alley drug,” Butler said. “It affects people of all walks of life... if today even helps save just one person, it was an effective day for us."
The Northern Kentucky Addiction Helpline is 859-415-9280, and you can click here for more resources.
