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Treatment Provider Welcomes Governor's Public Health Plan

photo of public health cabinet
ANDY CHOW
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU
The DeWine administration's public health cabinet meets on March 5, 2019.

In his State of the State speech, Governor Mike DeWine said he will have a team of cabinet members dedicated to dealing with public health including opioid abuse, mental health services and the health of families. That idea is getting good reviews right now.

DeWine’s Ohio START program would provide what are called wraparound services - meeting multiple physical, mental and behavioral health needs of patients and families affected by drug abuse.  Denise Robinson with the Columbus based treatment organization Alvis House is thrilled to hear it.

“That’s how you complete a person. That’s how you get a person well.  You can’t just do a part of a service. You’ve got to do the whole thing," Robinson said.

But Robinson said she knows the services will be expensive. DeWine started the program when he was serving as attorney general and the current A.G., Dave Yost, says his office will continue part of it. DeWine is expected to lay out specific funding plans in his budget next week.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.