TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - A unique take on ridding our neighborhoods of heroin started on Monday night.
Racing for Recovery and DART are partnering up to give families the knowledge on how to deal with an addict.
So much focus is on the addicts themselves in this epidemic, but there are families with questions about their loved one's addiction.
Tamme Smith, Lucas County DART forensic counselor says, this new program is unheard of, and is a unique way to combat the problem.
Twenty family members sat down at the Racing for Recovery facility to learn about the epidemic and get their questions answered.
"We always say with every addict comes a family and a lot of times the services are for the addict, but the family has a lot of needs too," said Amanda Reef, with Lucas County DART.
These needs include things like understanding what exactly their loved one is going through, while also dealing with the loss they might feel.
"Hopes and dreams that maybe that person was going to be a doctor, or a teacher, or work wherever, be a good mom, be a good dad, and the drug has just taken hold of that person so much," said Tamme Smith with DART.
Smith says their inability to accomplish the things their family imagined for them, causes the family to grieve, even when the person is still physically there.
And she hopes, this program can provide a way for them to understand how they're feeling.
"We're going to teach them not only how to help and learn more things, but also not to enable a loved one's choice to use drugs," said Todd Crandall, the founder of Racing for Recovery.
These family members might not even realize they're enabling their addict. Things like giving them money, a car, hoping to help, when they are just giving the addict another way to get their hands on drugs.
Monday night was the first of 4 meetings that will happen the next four weeks from 5:00-6:30 p.m. for these families.
New groups will start every four weeks.
Families can contact Racing for Recovery to sign up at 419-376-0015.
