The incoming executive director of the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress (ASAP) says she is “very excited” to further the mission of the community-wide partnership to respond to the area’s substance abuse crisis.
On Monday, Sherri Jewett will take the reins of ASAP, becoming the third person to lead the organization. She will replace the outgoing executive director, Doug Leonard, who announced his retirement in March.
Leonard, however, will stay on through the end of this month to assist with the transition and in an advisory role on an ongoing basis.
Launched in 2017, ASAP is a community-wide response to address substance use disorder, including the opioid crisis, in Bartholomew County. ASAP was formed through a partnership between Columbus and Bartholomew County governments and Columbus Regional Health.
Jewett, a native of Arkansas and mother of six children, said she has lived in Columbus since 1998 after accepting a position as a program director at Horizon Health, which manages behavioral health and substance abuse services in community hospitals and had a contract at the time with Columbus Regional Hospital.
Later, she served as chief executive officer at several psychiatric and substance use hospitals in Indiana, including Hendricks Behavioral Hospital in Plainfield and Valle Vista Health System in Greenwood. She also has worked with community hospitals across the Midwest and East to develop psychiatric and substance use services.
Jewett has an undergraduate business degree from Southwest Baptist University near Springfield, Missouri and a master’s degree in hospital administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
The incoming executive director said she initially plans to take stock of ASAP’s ongoing efforts and is looking forward to getting to know the organization’s team and board members to identify and discuss opportunities for ASAP in the community.
“I’m really looking forward to pulling all this information together and working with the team and the ASAP board to just try to move the cause forward further,” Jewett told The Republic.
Jewett, who added that she really enjoys “the creative aspect of behavioral health services,” said she has seen “many different ways to approach opportunities” over her career and described ASAP’s prevention and recovery system as “an excellent model.”
ASAP’s prevention and recovery system was created to establish a systemic approach for a community-wide response to the substance use crisis includes several “critical elements,” including recovery housing, criminal justice system, out-patient treatment, prescribing practices, among others, with the ASAP Hub, a 2,000-square-foot recovery resource center located at 1531 13th St. in the middle, according to the organization’s website.
“It’s an excellent model,” Jewett said. “I’ve already talked a little bit with some of the board members about (it) and I’m looking forward to talking with (ASAP Director of Operations) Matthew (Neville) and his team about that system. What has progressed in the direction that the group wants it to? Where are the opportunities still there?”
The change in leadership comes as ASAP officials and others are looking at how they can continue to bolster the community-wide response to substance use disorder amid a worsening drug overdose crisis that experts believe has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Last year, there were 31 drug overdose deaths in Bartholomew County, up from 24 in 2019 and the highest since at least 2015, according to the Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office.
The COVID-19 pandemic upended ASAP’s operations last year, temporarily limiting access to several local outreach programs, in-person meetings and treatment. It also altered the operations and efforts of other organizations that serve as a lifeline for those in recovery.
Columbus Regional Health’s Treatment and Support Center, or TASC, is contending with what officials there believe are some of the dire consequences of the pandemic — a substantial rise in substance abuse and replacement.
Last month, the treatment center, at 2630 22nd St., reported a significant increase in the number of people seeking help with substance abuse disorders, including an “enormous number” of new clients, Dr. Kevin Terrell, the treatment center’s medical director, told The Republic.
Currently, one of the biggest gaps in the community-wide response to substance use disorder that has been highlighted by ASAP officials this year include an inpatient medically supervised detox facility in Bartholomew County.
Inpatient medically supervised detox programs are for individuals who are dangerously intoxicated and cannot immediately start a treatment program like TASC or others in the community, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Jewett, for her part, said she is looking forward to her new role leading ASAP.
“The groundwork and the framework for what we need to do has been put into place,” Jewett said. “So it’s really a matter of, ‘Where are we, and what can still be done?’”
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Sherri Jewett
Hometown: Lead Hill, Arkansas
Current residency: Columbus
Career: Chief executive officer at several psychiatric and substance use hospitals in Indiana, including Hendricks Behavioral Hospital in Plainfield and Valle Vista Health System in Greenwood
Education: Southwest Baptist University, University of Missouri-Columbia
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Visit www.asapbc.org or call 812-418-8705 to learn more about the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress (ASAP) and inquire about the services it provides.
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