Thank God only one is contagious –
May 3, 2020 – Helen Jones-Kelley, the executive director of Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services, said her agency is redoubling efforts to get in front of the spate of overdoses. That includes delivering naloxone kits to households with a history of drug abuse and reviewing ledgers to see whose kits are expired. She said her task force is penning personal notes for those who might be struggling, and informing people about telehealth treatment options for addiction. “We think we can get a handle on this before it gets to a point where there’s no turning back,” Jones-Kelley told The Daily Beast.
The county had anticipated some spikes in overdoses because of a tumultuous last year, Jones-Kelley said. In August, a gunman killed nine people outside a Dayton bar, and tornadoes walloped Dayton and surrounding areas in May.
“As those anniversary dates come around, you expect people to self-medicate to some extent,” she said. “This pandemic has escalated that behavior. It’s the anxiety. You have people beat down to the point where coping strategies are at the lowest ebb.”
