CINCINNATI — In recent years, Kate Dawes' life has come full circle. The mother-of-three once struggled with persistent substance misuse for more than a decade, but now, she helps others experiencing the same through her work with DeCoach Recovery Center.
"They said I would never be (my kids') mother," she said. "(Now), I have custody of all of my children. I help thousands, literally, in my career, to find recovery."
Dawes first began misusing opioids around 2007 after a doctor's prescription. From that point on, until she got sober in 2020, she described a cycle of "bouncing in and out of treatment, in and out of jail, in and out of (emergency rooms), in and out of ambulances."
WATCH: Narcan revived her 36 times. That same help is in jeopardy for countless others.
Dawes credits much of her progress to a life-saving medicine called Naloxone, or Narcan, which reverses the effects of an opioid drug overdose. Throughout her struggles, she said she was administered Narcan 36 times.
"It's been a very intimate relationship," Dawes said. "I don't think people always realize that it's not just like the life that you're saving, it's the potential of that life moving forward."
What saved her life is now in jeopardy for others, given recent proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration, which is looking to axe a $56 million grant. The program distributes Narcan doses across the country and trains first responders on how to use it.
"First and foremost, we're going to see a huge spike in overdose deaths. There is some supply that we still have, but that will expire, or it will diminish very quickly," Dawes said. "Secondly, you're going to see a huge uptick on the services that are have to be rendered by first responders."
Newton Police Chief Tom Synan, part of the Hamilton County Addiction Response Coalition (HC ARC), has spent the last decade battling on the front lines of the opioid drug epidemic.
"Narcan, without a doubt, is the staple that has allowed us not only to save lives, but connect people to treatment," Synan said. "In the last decade, if we didn't have Narcan, 110,000 Ohioans would not be here right now."
Since the heroin crisis peak in 2017, the county has seen a 52% decrease in overdose deaths, from 570 to 270. And in the last year alone, from 2023 to 2024, deaths dropped 31%, thanks in part to Narcan.
Synan said it's unclear what the impact would be on Hamilton County if the cuts take hold, but there would be an impact.
"It breaks that link, and it creates another gap, and we got to figure out how to fill that gap," he said.
"Those positive efforts that took years to put in place would immediately be lost," Danei Edelen, executive director of NAMI Northern Kentucky, said. "That would be the reality."
As someone who has struggled with mental health battles herself, Edelen underscored the importance of resources.
"We need to have grassroots government, local reactions to these kinds of federal programs," she said. "It does come down to, you can literally save a life, and that's what we're all here for, is to help one another out, and that's what we want to be doing."
