Where Can People Turn When Loved Ones Need Help?

The addiction epidemic across Ohio isn’t just felt by individuals: when someone is struggling with substance use, people around them are affected as well. We’ve heard a lot of questions during our community conversations asking about resources for families and friends, like “Where can people turn when loved ones need help?” In this week’s blog, we take a look at support groups, peer coaching opportunities, and legislation people can use to help themselves and others find the resources they need.

Statewide Support Groups

There are many national and statewide support groups that offer local chapter meetings in Ohio:

• Addict’s Parents United: This advocacy group and support network helps members who have children currently struggling with addiction or have lost children to addiction. They focus on self-care, and also advocate for treatment and recovery instead of incarceration, which has been shown to be costly and ineffective.
• Al-Anon Family Groups: Although this group has traditionally focused on relatives and friends of people struggling with alcohol abuse, they now work with loved ones of people suffering from a drug use disorder. You can find meetings near you here.
• Celebrate Recovery: These support groups offer a faith-based approach to therapy, and operate in churches across Ohio. They provide support for individuals, families, and children, who don’t have to be members of the churches.
• Dual Recovery Anonymous: This support group works to serve people with dual-diagnoses as well as their family members, spouses, friends, and other loved ones. While they also use a twelve-step program like other anonymous groups, their focus is also on the distinct support and resources dual-diagnosis patients need to face addiction and mental health issues. Find meetings in Ohio here.
• Families of Addicts: With meetings across the state, their mission is to “educate, empower, and embrace” families and friends of individuals struggling with substance use through support and providing recovery resources.
• The G.A.P. Network: The network brings information, educational materials, advocacy opportunities, networking, and support to those who have lost loved ones to overdoses, while working with families to end addiction and prescription drug abuse in Ohio.
• Learn to Cope: While this group is currently based mostly in Massachusetts, they provide an online community where families can interact with others in similar situations to share stories and support.
• Nar-Anon Family Groups: These support groups offer a place for families to meet with others who have also experienced loved ones go through addiction. As they say “When you come into the family group, you are no longer alone, but among true friends who understand your problem as few others could.”
• Parents of Addicted Loved Ones: This group offers meetings across Ohio to give parents emotional and educational support. If you can’t attend a meeting, they also offer online resources and pathways to starting a local PAL chapter.
• Peer Recovery Support: Offered by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, peer supporters can receive online and in-person training to help others in recovery. To apply, applicants must have “a direct lived experience of a mental health and/or substance use disorder who are in recovery.”

Support Groups By County

A few counties across Ohio offer their own databases of local resources and support. If you know of resources your county offers, but don’t see it on this list, please let us know!

• Summit County: The Summit County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health board provides information about support and treatment resources, including local family support groups.
• Stark County: The Mental Health & Addiction Recovery board provides a list of support groups for individuals and families.
• Fairfield County: This Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health board also offers a list of family support groups in the area.  

If you’re looking for support groups in your area, your county’s ADAMH board website or phone number is likely a good place to start.

Casey’s Law

Casey’s Law was enacted in Ohio in 2012, and it allows parents, relatives, and/or friends of a person with a substance use disorder to petition the court for treatment on behalf of that person, who must be over the age of 18. It isn’t often used in Ohio, which some experts attribute to the cost of filing the petition, which requires the person filing to pay for half the cost of treatment up front. The Canton Repository provides a helpful Q&A about how the law works.

If you know of local support groups, resources, or legislation that could help families of people affected by the addiction crisis, let us know so we can update this list. Next week, we’ll take a look at the different demographic data we’ve collected so far. To follow our new research and research of our local media partners, sign up for our weekly news roundup.