CLEVELAND — For more than a decade, unintentional drug poisoning has been the leading cause of injury death in Ohio, surpassing motor vehicle crashes, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

What You Need To Know

  • Unintentional drug poisoning is the leading cause of injury death in Ohio

  • The need for treatment and recovery resources is also on the rise
  •  Jaremy Crouse abused drugs for 20 years

  • His life changed in 2019 when he came to The Alpha House in Lorain County

As the trend continues, the need for treatment and recovery resources is also on the rise.

One man overcame his addiction and is now dedicated to saving others at the same place that saved him.

 

The road to recovery is often long and rarely a straight path.

“I had enough. I knew I was going to die," Jaremy Crouse said.

He said he abused drugs for 20 years.

“I was using a lot of heroin. A lot of benzos. I started to have seizures. I ended up in MetroHealth hospital. And after about a week there, Thrive Peer Support came in and gave me some options. I was very reluctant to do anything," Crouse said. 

But he decided to take Thrive’s advice and take a leap of faith.

“It was definitely God that directed me here," he said.

Life forever changed in 2019 when he came to The Alpha House in Lorain County. 

“I walked in here with the clothes on my back," said Crouse. "Straight from the hospital into here and had nothing."

Right now, 24 men are going through the Sober Residential Living Program in Oberlin. It’s the same one Crouse went through almost two years ago.

“We take them on weekly store trips. They buy what they want for themselves. They come in here and cook and prepare all of their meals," he said during a tour of the kitchen.

The Alpha House is a faith-based addiction resources center that’s been offering treatment and empowerment services since 2017.

“Finding your higher power, building a relationship with God, it seems to be very, very helpful and I know that’s the one main thing that helped me in my sobriety," Crouse said.

Currently, there are four centers throughout northeast Ohio helping men and women overcome substance abuse.

“We don’t have a medical staff. We don’t have 24-hour a day supervision. We don’t have a detox unit. We don’t have on-site mental health. All of those are services that we refer out,” he explained. “Our directors, their family, all of our staff — we actually, all of us live on-site.”

Crouse is the first person to graduate from the program and join the staff full-time.

For the last year, he’s been the Regional Intake Coordinator at The Alpha House.

“My job is more administrative," he said.

Now, there’s an internship in place to help others work their way up.

“I love the job that I do and there’s others following behind me," Crouse said.

The program includes chores, like dishes and laundry to teaching personal responsibility and what it takes to run a household.

“They’ve neglected all of these things their entire lives. Some of them come from broken homes and they need to learn everything," he said.

The basement weight room is there to encourage health and wellness as a part of sobriety. 

“It’s also a coping skill. It's releasing endorphins, like they feel good about themselves," said Crouse.

The character building and personal development classes aim to teach things like patience through scripture. Although, Crouse wasn’t always a believer, he thought of himself as a lost cause.

“I was sure that addiction was going to kill me. There was nothing I could do. There was nothing that was going to help me no matter how hard I tried. I was always going to be an addict and it was going to eventually kill me and I was 100% wrong," said Crouse.

He went from broken and addicted to committing his life to healing and helping.

“If you’re not growing, you’re dying,” he said.