Paulding Rotary club president Travis Miller began the meeting with an update for all current events. Most notably, the 29th Annual Golf Tournament This October 11th is the most pressing on our calendar. Secretary Ford Thigpen gave an update with regards to sponsorship status and payments for the golf tournament. After the updates our guest from the Family Alliance of Paulding,Inc, Mrs. Larrinda Wolf was introduced by Travis Miller.
Mrs. Wolf, the program director for the Welcome Home Center for Supervised Family-time, a program of the Family Alliance began the meeting by bringing all the members up-to-date on the new, and/or more intense challenges that face families in Paulding County. For those of you who are not familiar, the Family Alliance of Paulding, Inc. works in cooperation with the court system in providing supervised visitation for families where addiction, domestic violence, mental health issues, and other behaviors put their children in danger. Additionally, the alliance provides resources such as education and training with regards to drug and alcohol abuse. The alliance also provides support to help families remain intact when risk of abusive or neglectful environments are identified.
As most people know, meth-amphetamines have had a terrible impact on families all over the United States. Georgia is no exception, one of the programs supported is the Meth Alliance of Paulding, which provides training about the hazards of Meth as well as assisting those already in the grip of this addiction to find treatment. In addition to the methamphetamine problem, our country is facing a new heroin epidemic. As many have seen in recent news stories, heroin overdoses are reaching epidemic proportions. The Family Alliance of Paulding is a member of the Metro Atlanta Heroin Task Force along with major drug enforcement task forces and the CDC with regard to this new heroin problem. The drug cartels have been lacing heroin with fentanyl, an ingredient in anesthesia. This makes the heroin much more dangerous. Also, Georgia has been a part of and effort to crack down on prescription drug abuse. This restricts all opiate-based painkillers from being prescribed through a normal physician. Anyone receiving these types of pain medication must go to a pain management clinic. This crackdown on prescription drug abuse is also believed to be fueling the rise in number of heroin users. Paulding County had one confirmed heroin overdose resulting in a fatality this year. While other counties like Fulton County had higher numbers of fatalities, this incident still indicates that this drug has reached our community. Paulding County ambulances and fire fighters are now carrying the anti-overdose drug for heroin. This drug, Naloxone, can stop overdose in progress but can have violent side effects.
In closing, Mrs. Wolf thanked the Paulding County Rotary club for their continued support and the opportunity to return again with an update for the members concerning the growing need our community has. Travis Miller presented Ms. Wolf with a check for $1000 as a donation from the Paulding County Rotary club.
The Family Alliance of Paulding, Inc. is a grassroots operation that has been operating in Paulding County for 11 years to provide help to families through advocacy, vital social services, education and prevention of drug abuse in our community. For more information please visit their website: http://familyallianceofpaulding.org