CLEVELAND — Cory Eastgate said he has remained clean from heroin since July 31, 2015. Since then, Eastgate has made it his mission to help others maintain sobriety.
Eastgate is opening a group home that ensures safety for addicts as they wait for an opening at a treatment facility.
“It’s the perfect place to start,” said Eastgate. “This is the first step, transitional phase.”
Eastgate said the facility, which is run through his organization, Community Outreach Recovery, will open in the next month.
“We lose a lot of people in that gap,” said Eastgate.
Eastgate said the gap is the grave — people who got lost between an emergency room visit for overdose and rehabilitation.
“When someone gets sick enough to go to the hospital, they’re desperate for help,” said Shannon Stanley.
Stanley works with Eastgate, though COR. The group home is an extension of Eastgate’s outreach. He partnered with the University of Akron through a study that pointed to the recovery rift, the space users fall into upon relapse, when they’re fresh out of the hospital, and waiting to enter treatment.
