GREENE CO. - It's been five years since Velva Flaugher's son Doug, 36, could walk or eat on his own. In March, 2011, Doug overdosed on several drugs including heroin. Doug suffered severe brain damage and hasn't spoken for more than a year.
"He understands everything you say. He gives me a thumps up. That's how he communicates with me," Flaugher said.
Flaugher, a certified home healthcare worker, is now Doug's full-time caretaker.
"My day starts at 6am", she said. "I dry him, tube feed him and turn him every two hours."
She knew Doug was a drug addict,
"Dougie liked his pills. He liked popping pills," said Flaugher. "I was worried to death."
In September, 2015, Fairborn Municipal Court launched a new program to help opiate users. Municipal Court Magistrate Beth Root had observed similar programs in Ohio and pushed to implement one in Fairborn.
"I admit, it's because I saw so much heroin and it's an ugly drug," said Root.
The goal of the program is to give participants medical assisted treatment while they undergo counseling. Once a month each participant is given a shot of Vivitrol.
"Vivitrol suppresses the craving for heroin", Root said. "So you don't get high. In fact, you get pretty sick."
The program has room for 20 participants. Currently three men and one woman are receiving treatment.
"I finally decided enough is enough", said Mike Hackley.
Hackley, 36, is a participant in the program right now. He admitted his heroin use sent him to both jail and prison.
"It's a disease," he said. "It's not just a sickness. You have to treat it daily. There's no way around it."
Emily Graham, 35, is also an admitted heroin addict participating in the Fairborn program. The mother of three says without this help, heroin would have killed her.
"The whole process of getting high is like another job," Graham said. "It consumes every moment of your day."
Other communities are now considering implementing similar programs to combat heroin addiction. Judge Jim Long, of Kettering Municipal Court, said traditional methods to battle heroin addiction are not working.
"We're not solving the problem by sticking them in a jail for six months or a year," he said. "We're solving the problem by educating them on ways to get their lives back together."
Velva Flaugher wishes life was different for her son Doug.
"I'm aggravated with him, mad at him and love him at the same time", she said. Flaugher often shares Doug's story with others in effort to keep them taking his drug laced path.
"If I can just save one child," she said. "Just one other person man or woman. It's worth it."