How a Cincinnati mom became a 'light in this dark place' for people with addiction

It’s early Tuesday morning and Sarah Coyne, 34, approaches an apartment door in Millvale. She has a sheriff’s deputy next to her.

Inside lives a mom and her three children. All four use fentanyl. Coyne has driven to their home every other week for over two years. She has given the family over 100 cans of Narcan – the opioid overdose antidote.

Coyne knocks on the door and calls out “Kayla? It’s Sarah.”

After a moment, the door opens.

The Hamilton County Quick Response Team pairs trained peer navigators – people who themselves have experienced substance use conditions in the past or are behavioral health specialists – with law enforcement officers to reach out and help those with substance use disorders in the county. Many clients are referred to the team after being treated for an overdose.

The team provides harm reduction items such as the lifesaving opioid overdose reversal drugs , hygiene kits, fentanyl test strips and treatment resource lists.

Coyne has been a peer navigator for the team since 2018. She has been partnered with Rod Housley, a retired deputy from Hamilton County Sheriff Department, for about six months.

Each day Coyne goes out and offers help to those dealing with substance use disorders. When she is assigned a new client, she shows up at their door every week until they let her in.

Door-to-door, again and again, Coyne reaches out to those in need

“I’m coming back,” Coyne tells them through closed doors. “I’m going to call you again. You’re going to get a text. You’re going to get a message on Facebook. You don’t have to answer. I’m here whenever you’re ready.”

She never asks people to go to addiction treatment right away. Instead, she focuses on addressing other needs and fears that prevent people from entering treatment.

This is about building trust and meeting people where they are, without judgment.

“I’m here to help. What do you need help with?” she asks everyone.

Some days people need to go to the food pantry. Other times they need a ride to appointments. Many need naloxone. Often, she just listens. Coyne has nearly 50 clients right now.

She gives each client a handwritten card with her name and the words “you matter” on it. She has her own “you matter” sticky note in her wallet that her brother gave her before she entered treatment. Coyne is almost 10 years sober.

Building trust through conversation

Nineteen-year-old Kayla Miller opens the door and lets them in. Inside the dim rectangular room, Housley hands Narcan and hygiene kits to her.

“Oh, thank you,” Kayla tells him and takes them upstairs.

Amber Shears, 37, Kayla’s mother, sits on the couch ahead, wearing a hospital gown from her visit the night before. Coyne sits down on the worn brown couch next to Shears.

They discuss not only their situation, but also God, conspiracy theories and holistic recovery tactics like music and poetry. Coyne promises to bring Shears a plant next time she comes over.

“It’s a comfortable feeling to be looked at as normal,” Shears said. “Even in my head I know I got a lot going on, but I’m not being judged by them, so I feel regular.”

Coyne first knocked at their door because one of Shears' sons kept overdosing. It took her a long time to be let into their home.

“She said she’s not only here just for him, but she’s here for all of us,” Miller said. “And we built a strong bond after that.”

Coyne shares her story: From life-threatening substance use to mom in recovery

Coyne had always been an anxious person. At 18 years old she headed off to Ohio University, nervous to make friends and fit in. The summer before class started, she participated in her first case race and did very well.

That night they did shots. It was Coyne’s first time having liquor.

“It was like this light switch flipped on and I was like oh my God, I can relax and be fun if I drink this,” she said.

Coyne continued to drink, trying to fit in at her party school. One night when she was drunk someone asked her if she wanted to do cocaine.

“Sure, why not,” she said.

By junior year Coyne was drunk for the entirety of each weekend. She had tried acid, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms and meth. She started drinking on Mondays to fight her weekend hangovers and discovered it made her more social and likely to raise her hand in class. She worked at a bar, so she drank there too.

“It turned into an everyday thing,” Coyne said. “And in my brain, I was so young, and it was what everybody did in college, it wasn’t an issue.”

Coyne left college and moved home before senior year. She got a DUI and went to jail. Her coworkers at the bar were surprised it was her first DUI. “Welcome to the club,” they told her. So, she thought it was normal.

Her family knew she had a problem with alcohol, but nothing else. She used in private. Cocaine to stay up, alcohol to deal with withdrawal, pills to bring her down.

One night on her way home from work Coyne crashed her car in someone’s yard. She was so under the influence that she told them it was her house and threatened to beat them up. A cop gave Sarah two options that night: go to jail or be taken to her parents’ house and be put into treatment.

The next morning Coyne woke up in her parents’ basement and knew she had done something bad.

Coyne entered treatment. Once she was in outpatient, she was already thinking of ways she could use once it was over. Then, Coyne passed out at work one day and hit her head, leading her to find out she was pregnant.

At the hospital that day Coyne’s mom reminded her she had a choice. She wasn’t sure how Coyne would be able to do it.

But for Coyne, there was no choice. She had always wanted to be a mom, and she knew she had to get her life together or her baby would be taken from her.

Coyne’s son, Kaydin, was born in 2015. He came early, on the day that marked nine months of sobriety.

“He saved my life,” she said.

Coyne graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and substance abuse counseling the next year.

Hamilton County sees drop in fatal overdoses, Quick Response Team shares credit

Hamilton County had an 8% decrease in fatal overdoses from 2023 to 2024, according to the Hamilton County Public Health report .

Work being done by the Quick Response Team and other organizations appears to have contributed to this decrease, but there is more to be done, according to Dominique Hutson, supervisor and field coordinator for the Quick Response Team.

“One thing I notice with our team is we are never satisfied, in a good way,” Hutson said. “We like to outdo ourselves a lot. While it is decreasing and that’s an amazing thing, we have new drugs coming in.”

Coyne believes that the conversation around mental health is helping change the way people view substance abuse. The two go hand in hand, she says. With a new wave of awareness, she thinks people are starting to become less judgmental.

“People are realizing that they know somebody who has been effected by it,” Coyne said. “It’s not just some lower socioeconomic class of people who gets it. It can hit anybody.”

Coyne says that Hamilton County is resource rich. There are people in the government that advocate for the work being done to prevent fatal overdoses, and now more people are reaching out for help.

Client goes from refusing help to sobriety with Coyne's support

Next, Coyne and Housley head toward Norwood to meet their next client, Olivia Williamson, 20.

Williamson's foster parents got her addicted to methamphetamine at age 14.

“When I first met Sarah, I was homeless on the streets," Williamson said. "I was using. She approached me and asked me if I needed help, and I kept denying it.”

Last year when Williamson got pregnant, she decided to accept Coyne's help. She said she was ready to get her life back, for herself and her daughter. Her boyfriend died from an overdose not long after.

Since accepting help from Coyne and the Quick Response Team, Williamson has moved into a home and gotten a job. She is a mom to her 3-month-old daughter. She is almost one year sober.

“Sarah is amazing,” Williamson said. “She’s like this light in this dark place and she just guides you out.”

Living her dream, Coyne cherishes her son, her Quick Response Team work

Today, Coyne believes she is living out her life’s purpose being a peer navigator and a mom. She loves music and spends as much time outside hiking and gardening as she can. Her son just turned nine – they go to King’s Island on his birthday every summer. This year he is finally tall enough to ride every roller coaster.

“I get to care for people for a living,” Coyne said. “I’m good at that. I can show up and be consistent and care for you. I can’t believe it’s my job.”

No matter how many times she is called a “persistent b----," no matter how many doors are closed in her face, and no matter how many funerals she attends – Coyne keeps showing up.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How a Cincinnati mom became a 'light in this dark place' for people with addiction