The Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress updated the community on a significant pivot for the organization, from nearly three years of working to create a collaborative addiction prevention and recovery system, to putting the system into operation in Columbus and Bartholomew County.
More than 200 people gathered Monday evening at The Commons to hear the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress give its progress report to the community.
ASAP officials, as well as and Bartholomew County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin and Dr. Kevin Terrell, addiction medicine physician and medical director of Columbus Regional Health’s Treatment and Support Center (TASC), spoke at the event about ASAP’s progress, the scope of substance abuse in the community now and the challenges ahead.
Jeff Jones, a retired Cummins executive who has led ASAP as a volunteer executive director since its inception and now is returning to retirement, said the community has made enormous strides to create the system to help those seeking addiction recovery, though more work needs to be done. ASAP was established in 2017 as a community-wide response to address substance abuse, including the opioid crisis, in Bartholomew County.
“I’m pleased to report that the community is on the right track,” Jones said during the event. “I’m also reporting that our experience during this time has validated what we believed at the very beginning — that this is a long, difficult journey with lots of obstacles and unknowns to face for many years to come.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Republic. In addition to the story and more photos, copies of the ASAP Community Progress Report will be distributed in Wednesday’s print edition of The Republic.
