By John Struzick

The time has come for us, the citizens of Rowan County, to rise to the occasion and do our part to support the Rowan County United Way in its current fundraising campaign to increase awareness and treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse in Rowan County.

Based on a needs assessment conducted by the University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill in fall 2018, mental health and substance abuse issues far and away dominated the minds of our citizens as most critical to health and well-being of our community. To address these concerns, the Rowan County United Way chose these focus areas as well as basic needs and healthy lifestyle behaviors for funding consideration this year and for the foreseeable future as part of its community impact model.

This focus could not be more timely.  Mental health issues, including suicide, have reached epidemic proportions in our county.

Through September, Rowan County Emergency Services has responded to more than 1,200 emergency calls involving drug overdoses and suicides. Suicides alone accounted for more than 180 of these calls and, sadly, many succeeded in their attempt and are no longer with us.

As if that were not bad enough, according to Rowan County Department of Social Services, substance abuse is even reaching into the womb of drug abusing mothers.  We’ve had 146 substance-affected infants born in Rowan County in the first nine months of this year.

Now, I don’t know about you, but numbers of this magnitude scare the hell out of me. By the end of this year more than 1% of the total population of Rowan County will experience the heartbreak of an emergency call with a potentially fatal outcome. Families are being ripped apart by the loss of a parent, sibling or child. Lives are being ruined by irreparable physical and mental damage caused by drugs and alcohol. Severe depression all too often ends in tragic and untimely deaths. To make matters worse, Rowan County does not have anywhere near the resources needed to fight this epidemic. There are not enough treatment facilities, not enough treatment professionals, not enough educational opportunities, simply not enough of anything we need to stem this tide of destruction in our community.

The Rowan County United Way is trying to change this situation in a big way. Our local United Way is the primary, non-governmental, funding source for mental health and substance issues in the county. The vast majority of funds raised in this year’s campaign will go to well-defined and much-needed programs in these two focus areas, with the remainder going to take care of basic needs and healthy lifestyle behaviors. All programs will be implemented locally by outstanding local nonprofit organizations.

As caring and concerned citizens, professionals, and businesses of Rowan County it is our duty and responsibility to make this funding happen. Our families, friends and neighbors are counting on us to be there for them.  Please donate to Rowan County United Way. The time is now to rise up, Rowan.

John Struzick lives in Salisbury and serves on the Rowan County United Way Board of Directors.