AKRON, Ohio - As the opiate crisis continues to unfold in Summit County and across the U.S., Akron Children's Hospital has launched a program aimed at preventing children and teens from ever becoming addicted.

Children's new Addiction Services Program will roll out in phases, in a region with one of the highest overdose rates in the country.

According to the Summit County executive's office, the county counted more deaths from drug overdoses in 2015 and 2016 than overdose deaths in the decade of 2000 to 2009.

"Solving this problem will not be easy and will require a multidisciplinary effort," said Akron Children's President Grace Wakulchik in a news release. "As a leader in pediatric care, we felt the need to be more strategic in our services - with the ultimate goal of preventing today's children and teens from becoming the next generation of adults struggling with lifelong addiction."

Children's addiction program is supported through a $250,000 donation from FedEx Custom Critical, to help Children's have an impact on the epidemic, said FedEx Custom Critical President and CEO Virginia Addicott. The opiate crisis affects families, she said, and that bleeds over into the workforce and the economy.

"Every single social service is impacted by this," Addicott said. "Many, many businesses really need to get involved because this is such a critical thing for our community."

A $300,000 donation also came from Brian Malone and Lea Heidman, who lost their 21-year-old daughter, Alyssa. Alyssa had been prescribed opiates after several surgeries, and, despite medical care, she succumbed to addiction and died in 2015. The gift is from the family's personal funds and Fighting for Alyssa, a foundation created in their daughter's memory.

In 2017, Summit County emergency rooms treated 354 overdose patients under 25 years old.

Yet many people don't realize the impact the epidemic is having on children, through their own addiction or through contact with addicted caregivers or family members, said Dr. Sarah Friebert.

Friebert, who helped create the new program, is founder and medical director of Akron Children's Haslinger Pediatric Palliative Care Center.

What's more, the long-term effects of neonatal addiction are still unclear, she said.

"It's not as simple as just 'say no to drugs,'" Friebert said. "These kids are in a soup that's got all these ingredients that affects them on so many levels."

And though high school kids don't usually use heroin, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana can have consequences. Experimentation at a young age has been correlated with drug and alcohol abuse and dependence when kids are older, Children's Hospital reports.

Dr. Sarah Friebert helped create Children's Addiction Services Program, and is founder and medical director of Children's Haslinger Pediatric Palliative Care Center.

Phase 1 of Children's Addiction Services Program, which has been in the works for two years, will take a multidisciplinary approach to prevention, starting with education, screening, care coordination, referral and community outreach.

An important component of Phase 1 is identifying community organizations with programs in place to understand what's available and find out where there are gaps, Friebert said.

"We want to be aware of the resources so we can connect people with what will be helpful for them," she said.

As information is gathered and processed, and partnerships established, Children's program will serve as a central resource for the community, for both treatment and prevention.

"There's something to be said for the environment kids are growing up in," Friebert said. "There are ways we can offer them opportunities to connect with other people, with mentors. To show them stimulation other than chemicals."

Connecting children with others is important because of the prevalence of social media, Friebert said.

"We're living in this wasteland of communication now," she said. "We're so connected on social media yet we have all these kids who are isolated. The more connected we are the more disconnected we are in life."

Although opiates are prevalent in today's news, Children's program will work to build its network to serve children and young people with any kind of addiction, Friebert said.

As more funding becomes available and the program grows, medically assisted treatment and outpatient care will also be added as part of Phase 2 of the program.

"Ultimately, once Summit County figures out how to do this, we can become a model and move from the worst in the country to the best," she said.

For more information about Children's Addiction Services Program, call 330-543-3343.

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