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WARREN -- The Trumbull County Mental Health and Recovery Board and the Alliance for Substance Abuse Prevention started a new door hanger campaign to raise awareness of the opioid epidemic gripping Trumbull County.
Fourteen groups of ASAP volunteers on June 28 went house-to-house in Niles and Warren, leaving behind door hangers with information on drug use and how to get help.
The groups targeted neighborhoods that have a high number of drug overdoses -- Porter, Scott and Washington streets NE and others in the neighborhood in Warren, where 112 fatal and non-fatal overdoses have been reported between January and May, and Niles, where 73 reported overdoses have happened during the same period of time.
"We've had so many overdoses in our community, we felt we had to do something to prevent overdose deaths," said Lauren Thorp, director of recovery and youth programs for the mental health and recovery board.
Numbers from the Trumbull County Coroner's Office show so far this year in Trumbull County there have been 40 accidental drug overdose deaths. Eighteen more deaths likely to be the result of a drug overdose are pending final confirmation, numbers show.
Approximately 70 volunteers made up of parents and law enforcement, school and treatment center officials went out into the streets to spread awareness, Thorp said. This type of campaign was done before, and Thorp, along with the Ohio Attorney General's Office, thought it would be an effective way to spread awareness once again.
The door hangers were left on the door knobs of homes and contained information on how to identify an overdose, how to properly dispose of medication and how to obtain a Project Dawn kit, which contains medication to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
Thorp said roughly 5,000 hangers went out June 28. The groups received positive feedback from the community while distributing the hangers, some from people who have had their own experiences with addiction, she said.
"Several people stopped us to share their stories with us," said Thorp.
Thorp said there are no plans now to distribute more door hangers, but it is something they will consider if it means preventing future overdoses.
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