Displaying items by tag: treatment

Just days after attending a rally focusing on the heroin epidemic in Akron, a local woman found herself more than a thousand miles away getting treatment for her addiction.

Tonia Wright's 21-year-old daughter Kylie found herself in need of help -- struggling with addition shortly after the birth of her child in 2013.

"She liked the high of the pain pills and the opiates and it eventually led to heroin," said Tonia. "We had no idea."

It wasn't until Tonia recieved a phone from her daughter in April of 2015 that she realized her daughter was in trouble. Kylie was found sweating and vomiting and later admitted to her mother that she was suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Tonia has been by her daughter's side looking for help and dealing with the often long wait periods to get into an inpatient treatment center in the area.

"They would put her in a five-day detox but after the five-day detox, they would put her back on the streets on a waiting list for rehab. We'll guess what? She started using again."

But it was guidance and advice from those at a heroin rally at Lock 3 in mid-August that led Kylie to find immediate help.

"She called me at 10:15 Monday morning. At 5:30 Monday evening, Kylie was on a plane," said Tonia. "That all came from the rally."

Kylie found out her health insurance would allow her to seek help at a treatment center in Florida. She was accepted and immediately told to head out on the next flight to begin her recovery treatment. That was less than a week after attending the rally.

Wright is now sharing her experience to help others and to spread the message on other resources that are available in Summit County and beyond. She helped to launch the "Akron Epidemic News" Facebook page to update the community on resources and news across the area.

"There are so many treatment plans that I was completely unaware of that nobody ever brought to my table and it's there. You just have to find it."

As our week-long series on the heroin epidemic comes to an end, it's just the beginning for those who have high hopes to make a difference in the community.

Take for example Travis and Shelly Bornstein who lost their son two years ago. They want to open a treatment center on the same vacant lot in Akron where their son, Tyler, died from a heroin overdose.

"The person [Tyler] was with took him to a vacant lot at the corner of Arlington and Alfred and left him there to die," said Travis. "That was on Sept. 28 of 2014. Ever since then, our family has been trying to work to try to bring positive change to the heroin/opiate epidemic."

Shelly Bornstein and her sister, Laura Broyles, officially launched the non-profit program, Breaking Barriers - Hope is Alive, to raise awareness and money to build a new treatment center in the city.

"It's not going to be an easy solve," said Travis. "We cannot get into the blame game. We all have to come together as a community to work together to solve this."

Travis, the current president of Teamsters Local 24 in Akron, attended the union's international convention in Las Vegas in June with hopes of raising awareness about the new non-profit organization. It didn't take long for the donation pledges to roll in -- totaling around $1.4 million.

While it may seem like a lot of money, Travis say much more is needed to build a fully operational facility in the city.

"We can probably build a building, but we can't operate, fund and staff a state-of-the-art facility like we would like to have with $1.4 million."

Breaking Barriers continues to hold fundraisers and has launched an online crowdfunding page to raise money to carry out the goal of building a new treatment center in Akron, but Travis says it's also about building partnerships with city leaders and community members.

"A big part of our hope. A big part of our mission is to offer hope. We need to offer hope to our community."