Cradle to Career

Nov

2022

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

Woman’s Voice: This special program is brought to you by the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Guests provide information about upcoming events, resources available, and the many ways to help reduce substance use and promote a healthy Lenawee.

Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. And Tim and I are going to be talking about the results of the Drug Take-Back event that just happened a couple weeks ago, Tim.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Out at Hickman Hospital, we had a 10:00 to 2:00 event, and had a number of people dropping stuff off to get rid of their old medicines.

Kathy Williams: Yep. You know, it was interesting that, let’s see, we started this a year ago. We had a April, October last year. We had a April this year, and now the October 30th this year for drug take-backs. And it, the amount of donations at all of them has really been eye opening.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. It’s amazing to think that in one day, you can get over or close to 300 pounds of medication dropped off in just that short period of time.

Kathy Williams: So I think the word is finally getting out about safe disposal and getting these out of harm’s way basically because we are seeing more and more statistics that say that family members and, you know, possibly just acquaintances are misusing other people’s medications.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. I think that’s one of the biggest messages is that you know, kids are exposed or have the opportunity by going to somebody else’s medicine cabinet or drawer in a house someplace and obtaining these medicines that have been recognized as leading to people with addictions. So…

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: So that’s really been the message for the last few years and it seems to be working.

Kathy Williams: Yeah, I think so too. And I know, you know, it’s been a tough message to get out there. People were used to just throwing things away in the trash cans or flushing them down the toilets, you know, and things like that. And, you know, getting them to say it’s just a little out of your way, maybe to do some storage or drop them off quicker at the different locations, pharmacies and such. But the drug take back events really brought this all to the surface better.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned it’s been the last couple years and that you know, obviously after COVID we weren’t doing much until then, but after COVID we had our first one and we had 471 pounds worth of things returned at that time.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: And it’s, the number’s actually gone down a little bit each year since then, or each event since then. But I look at that as being a good thing. Just like you mentioned, the word is getting out there and people are taking stuff in throughout the year. As they recognize it, looks like they’re taking it to their local law enforcement agency or to the pharmacy and dropping things off. So it’s about messaging, but yeah, we like to have the big numbers of, you know, like this year we had 293 pounds worth of medications dropped off on that one day.

Kathy Williams: Yeah.

Tim Kelly: So it’s good in both regards, you know. We’re getting the message out and they’re taking it to the pharmacies, the hospital or to the local law enforcement, but there is that opportunity in April and October every year moving forward, we’ll be having one.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. It also, I think, is an opportunity to encourage people to learn more about drug abuse and the potential dangers that are involved in all of it.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. People need to understand that these are harmful medications. If you’re not prescribed them and you get access to them, they can interact with other meds people are on. So… and they become, when they are expired, they can become dangerous to somebody.

Kathy Williams: Right, right. Well, and because your medications change, maybe the new one you’re on, you shouldn’t be taking that old one you were on because the complications that can, you know, drug interaction complications. Tim Kelly: Yeah, and I know as you get older sometimes you can get confused about those things. So if you have a family member that’s a little bit older and maybe, you know, might have a series of medications…

Kathy Williams: Cognitive problems.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, if they’re not really clear on what they should be taking, it’s best just to get that stuff that’s old and counteractive to some other medication out of their house.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. Yep. Get it out of there. So, Tim, we talk about that they can go to DrugPreventionLenawee.com of course, and get additional information. A lot’s with the Lenawee Community Mental Health Authority, the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, of course, they’re, you know, big time involved in this.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. If you go to DrugFreeLenawee, that’s the website, just type in “Drug Free Lenawee”, you’ll find a list of all the places they can take certain medications, either it be pills or liquids, or even sharps, which is the needles that we seem to be getting a lot of those and that’s a good thing we get them out of there cuz they can be dangerous to have around. But yeah, if you go to those websites, they can pretty much tell you just about any place to take them to throughout the year.

Kathy Williams: There you go. Throughout the year. And if you do decide you want to find out more, definitely go to that website. There are some different things like Deterra bags that help with dissolving things, and I believe all the locations, a lot of the drop off locations are listed on there.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Kathy Williams: So, Tim, approximately 125 people, 293 pounds of goodies. So the lower participation, lots more product.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: So we are getting that message out there.

Tim Kelly: Yep. I need to take a second just to thank all the people that helped with this because…

Kathy Williams: Sure.

Tim Kelly: You know, those pharmacy students that come up here from the University of Toledo, they work all day long sorting those meds and making sure they’re disposed of correctly. Our sheriff’s office, who has two deputies there, so they participate in it. We have a number of people like Hospice that puts together the goodie bags that we gave out. Let’s see, McDonald’s, it gives us things for those goodie bags and, you know, the Health Department and some of our local partners around the Veterans Administration. Matt Raad did a great job in providing us things and participating in this work. So we just want to say thanks to them for everything they’ve done.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. It just comes back to that it takes a village.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. It has been really rewarding to see how many people help out to get this done.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. Exactly. Well, thanks for all you do, Tim. We really appreciate you as well.

Tim Kelly: Oh, thank you.

Woman’s Voice: The Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Thank you for listening. New messages air on the second and fourth Monday each month at 6:15 PM. You can listen to this program as a podcast under the “on air audio” tab on WLEN.com and get more information at DrugPreventionLenawee.com.

Oct

2022

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

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Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. Tim wears many hats. He is the director of Cradle to Career Partnership. He is also the Social and Emotional Learning Coordinator at LSID, and for tonight we’re going be talking about hat number three. He is the chair of the LSAPC subcommittee, which is Prevention and Education. Tim, thanks for taking time out of your day.

Tim Kelly: It’s great to be here.

Kathy Williams: So, we’re going to talk about the Prevention and Education subcommittee for the LSAPC. So one of the goals is to help educate our community, basically.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. That is the goal, really, isn’t it?

Kathy Williams: Yeah.

Tim Kelly: From school age all the way up to the elderly, we all can learn more about preventing substance abuse and things we can do to dispose of our medications.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: That’s really what some of our focus is about.

Kathy Williams: By educating all the different age demographics and people of different walks of life, we’re helping them learn more about different kinds of substance abuse, but also about the different partnerships that we have within the community for necessary help.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. We have, you know, a very diverse group that’s addressing substance abuse. We have people who are in recovery bring a great deal of information and help in addressing it. We have obviously CMH, Parkside, the hospital, ProMedica, also provides support there, as does the ISD and just a number of community partners that, frankly, whenever you just say, “we need a hand with this,” and they step right up and want to address the issue with us.

Kathy Williams: Someone is always there to help no matter, you know, what kind of situation you’re in. So, we want to talk tonight too about the upcoming Drug Take-Back event that’s happening at the end of the month, and we can’t get the word out too early really about that…

Tim Kelly: No.

Kathy Williams: Because we want people to take time to go through their cupboards and drawers and everything and put together their donations.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. We’re, yeah. We need people to get rid of their medications that they’re no longer using, that are expired. You know, it’s a great opportunity on October 29th, between 10:00 and 2:00 PM to come out to ProMedica hospital right around the backside there and drop stuff off. There’ll be signs directing you and picking up something in the way of a little goody bag that will say “thank you” just a little bit for making our community just a little bit safer.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. Used to be back in the day that you’d flush things down the toilet or just throw them in the regular trash. And, you know, they really are trying to be a little bit more environmentally concerned by disposing of things properly. And so twice a year this event happens.

Tim Kelly: Yep, yep. I’ve been involved the last two years, so this is going on my third year, so to speak. And, it’s been a very good turnout. We’ve typically had over 300 people involved and it really is an opportunity to get rid of things, including sharps, I should have mentioned that. Sharps are something that people seem to have a hard time getting rid of, and obviously we don’t want those things in the trash. We don’t want things flushed down toilets because they can… Maybe you’re aware they can check the chemicals in our wastewater treatment and they know what’s out there in our, into our water systems.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: So, we really need to keep that stuff out of the old ways we used to get rid of it.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. And this is a national event. It’s put on by the Drug Enforcement Administration. And so everything that’s done on Saturday, October 29th atthe Drug Take-Back event, there are precautions being made. The Sheriff’s Department is there present and it’s pretty tight as far as how everything happens that day.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, yeah. There’s a lot of rules and regulations as it requires law enforcement to handle the substances that are disposed of and they, you know, along with some pharmacists from the hospital that help sort them, so that we can kind of tell what’s been disposed of. But yeah, they have a very strict requirements about where things can be disposed of. They have to end at two o’clock. It’s very, very strict.

Kathy Williams: It’s hard and fast. Yes, it is.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. So they, you know, not only on that day, I should mention that they have their red boxes at a number of law enforcement agencies around the county that if you can’t make it on the 29th, you can take them there. And we really need people to take them whenever they can to law enforcement.

Kathy Williams: So Tim, again, we want to remind people that it is Saturday, October 29th. It is at the ProMedica Hickman Hospital. You just follow the signs that say COVID testing, basically to take them around the back and they can get more information about the event and you know, garner some information in general at DrugPreventionLenawee.com. So thanks so much, Tim.

Tim Kelly: Right, thanks Kathy.

Sep

2022

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

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Woman’s Voice: The Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition is a diverse group of dedicated community members united around the goal of reducing substance use in Lenawee County. LSAPC members work collaboratively to engage and educate the community in order to promote a healthy Lenawee.

Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams. And with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. Tim works at the Lenawee Intermediate School District, LISD. He is also the chair of the Prevention and Education committee for the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Tim, lots of acronyms there.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. Sorry about that. That’s, we know who we are.

Kathy Williams: We know who we are. There we go. So we want to talk a little bit tonight about a, is it a statistical evaluation that they do for kids? The back to school MiPHY?

Tim Kelly: Yeah. The MiPHY

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: Is a survey that’s done each year with students. It’s voluntary. It’s done with seventh, ninth and 11th graders.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Tim Kelly: And it kind of focuses all over the place of attitudes about things like substance use, how they feel about their community, their family, school, sexual behaviors, violence, and just general health too. So it’s a very broad- based set of questions. There’s many questions by the way. But this past year we had 700 plus middle schoolers take it.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Tim Kelly: And over 1200 ninth and 11th graders took it.

Kathy Williams: Now, is this just in Lenawee County? Is this a whole state?

Tim Kelly: The numbers I’ll be talking about are just Lenawee County.

Kathy Williams: Okay. That’s good.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, but the, it is offered at any school throughout the state.

Kathy Williams: So because the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition is, you know, and our task is to find out what’s in the mind of our students and how are they being exposed so that we can gear our prevention and our education more direct to them basically, you know. So, what kind of information did they find out by the latest survey then?

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Well, let me, let me start with middle schoolers because I found that most interesting that a lot of things that maybe in the past might have been something that was significant for high schoolers has now seemed to move down to middle schoolers. So, it is encouraging though, because the attitudes that are reflected in all the statistics kind of show that kids are not thinking about using substances like they used to.

Kathy Williams: Okay. So maybe some of the education is working.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. They seem to be, I don’t want to say smarter about it, but they they’re wiser and they understand it. They know that, you know, what is good and bad. But you know, they understand that marijuana is now legal and they do view that a little bit different than what they did in the past surveys. But you know, the attitudes now are that, you know, we are going choose not to use, you know, our friends don’t use, my family may not be using, people I’m around may not be using, so I’m not going to use.

Kathy Williams: Okay. Well, that’s definitely a turn in the right direction. Especially with so much going on with overdoses.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: And maybe the future education should be pinpointed even to grade school kids.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: To help them make that determination before they even get to the middle school age. What did you find out then?

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Well. they, as I said, they view marijuana as differently as what they did in the past. Something that’s unique, but it’s kind of backwards to what we think, but there’s less parents talking to their kids about drugs.

Kathy Williams: Oh.

Tim Kelly: So their education may be coming from different sources.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Tim Kelly: They don’t really talk amongst their peers; cause there’s a question about “how many of you have you had a best friend that’s committed not to use drugs in the last year?” and that number’s gone down since the last survey was done. So you know, and that just means kids are educating themselves and they’re finding the resources. What I feel is probably the most thing, most important thing, and you even mentioned it with the younger kids, is we need to prevent this. You know, it’s one thing to say “we’re going to stop kids from using drugs” once they start using them, we can identify that. We want to prevent it.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: So what do you do? We recognize that, you know, the more parental involvement, the parents need to talk to their kids about using drugs. Even people in a neighborhood, an adult that they connect to, somebody they have a relationship with is telling them “you know, this isn’t good for you”.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: And those peers, if their peers are saying, “you know, we’re not going to do these things,” including vaping.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: Which is something that’s been big lately. That number even seems to be going down in Lenawee County, so.

Kathy Williams: Well, and do you feel like the choice, consequences is coming in at all? I mean, are we teaching our kids that all the choices you make have consequences and are you prepared to pay the consequence for bad decisions? And maybe we need to go back to the fried egg commercial where your brain on drugs or whatever.

Tim Kelly: Well, I think they’re, you know, again, they are learning that. You know, they’re learning that they don’t want to use drugs. Maybe they’re seeing it in the news. They see, obviously see on social media…

Kathy Williams: Oh, for sure.

Tim Kelly: A great deal. So, messaging’s working.

Kathy Williams: Okay. Was there any other big revelations that came out of the latest survey?

Tim Kelly: I’m trying to think. I would, kind of an aside to a couple of these things, I think the most difficult things that’s come out of both the surveys for the middle schoolers and the high schoolers, is that with middle schoolers, there’s a lot more online, I’ll call it online bullying, but is things like spreading rumors and making threats, that number has just doubled.

Kathy Williams: Skyrocketed.

Tim Kelly: In the last couple years. Maybe a product of them being at home more. But it is a drastic increase of that with middle schoolers. So parents need to, you know, pay attention to that. Within with high school, this is not surprising. There has been more mental health issues. You know, we have more than 25% of our kids reporting that they are depressed. And that’s not a number we want to have of our kids.

Kathy Williams: Right. Tim, if our listeners want to find out more about the survey and the results, is there a resource they can go to for that?

Tim Kelly: Drug Free Lenawee…

Tim Kelly: Is our website and pretty much you can link from there to just about any type of resource you’re looking for.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Tim Kelly: So, I would, I direct most people there because it, it is just a good starting point and something you can come back to locally whenever you need to.

Kathy Williams: Well, and I think, you know, if they’re leading a group or anything, if they’re interested in guest speakers to come in and talk there, there’s plenty of people out in the community that would be more than willing to come in and help: you know, go over some of these issues in a classroom setting.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. I, you know, we recently had the Day of HOPE and there was a number of speakers there. Again, you can ask through the LSAPC, you can find on our website through Drug Free Lenawee, you can find many people that would be willing to speak everything from someone in recovery to a doctor or somebody that would come in and talk about what those drugs can do to somebody.

Kathy Williams: Thanks so much, Tim. We appreciate the information and encourage our listeners to find out more.

Woman’s Voice: Thank you for listening. This information has been provided by the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. New messages air on the first and third Monday of each month at 6:15 p.m. You can listen to this program as a podcast under the audio tab on WLEN.com and listen and gather more information at DrugPreventionLenawee.com.

May

2022

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

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Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me on tonight’s show is Tim Kelly and Tim is the Social and Emotional Learning Coordinator at the LISD and also the chairperson of the Prevention and Education subcommittee for the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Tim, two days ago, we had the Drug Take-Back out at Hickman Hospital and we’re going to be reviewing the final figures and such later on this week, but we wanted to talk a little bit about what’s the coalition all about.

Tim Kelly: Okay, yeah. The coalition is a, just a group of community members looking to reduce the amount of substance use in the county. There’s nobody that’s on this that that’s their day job.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: We all have other duties. As you mentioned, you know, I work for the LISD. We have members from Community Mental Health, obviously. We have people in recovery. We have people that are in law enforcement. I mean, it just is all… there is no restriction against who can be a part of that. So, I guess that’s what I would say first is anyone who is interested can go to, you know, DrugFreeLenawee.com and look at joining our groups.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. So within the LSAPC, there’s a lot of different subgroups that kind of do pigeonhole more into what their day projects or their day employment is. Our particular group though, is the Prevention and Education group, and so that’s why we’ve been so involved in the Drug Take-Back.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. The Prevention and Education group is active and communicating. That’s really kind of where our…

Kathy Williams: Which is why Kathy’s in there.

Tim Kelly: Yes, it is. Thank you very much. But yeah, we have these other groups that, ones… there are six groups altogether. And again, you can find that list on our website, but, Work with Prescribers, Work with Physicians, help to support people in recovery. So there’s a lot of different diverse groups.

Kathy Williams: It is a very diverse group.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. It looks at all aspects of substance use. You know, it was started a number of years ago when we were looking at the opiate epidemic… epidemic. Sorry, I can’t say that word. And it’s just kind of grown into looking at all aspects of substance abuse.

Kathy Williams: Okay. And I think that we’ve had a really good focus on – where are the different people that are maybe suffering from these problems and are we addressing them where they’re at? Not expecting them all to come to us. It’s – how do we get that message to them?

Tim Kelly: Yeah. And you know, that’s a kind of a big change in the last number of years that you recognize that there are people that we’ve been expecting to come to us, and it’s not always easy for them obviously. And we’re recognizing, being more sensitive to that and recognizing, you know, that there are people that need housing supports. There are people that need childcare supports. Those types of things are where they’re at. You know, they need that type of stuff. And maybe in an older model, we might’ve said: “Oh, pick themselves up and just come to us for treatment,” but it’s more complicated than that.

Kathy Williams: Right. A lot more complicated.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: Well, and I think we take a whole different view now on how people got to the situation that they’re in. That we are a lot more compassionate on, it’s not a necessarily a choice that person has made to become dependent on different substances and alcohol and, you know, so much goes into overall mental health.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. And, you know, as a recent event that they have termed it “substance use disorder,” it’s a change. And I know, you know, my former world was working within child welfare and you know, looking at people as though it’s some type of deficit was quite frequently the way we approached this. And it’s not the case. It’s, you know, it’s very easy to say, but people have a hard time understanding it is frequently just a medical condition.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: It’s something that people, like diabetes or any other type of health issue that they could have.

Kathy Williams: Right. And so, you know, we want to, of course encourage our listeners to become involved in, you know, if nothing else getting more information and educating themselves so that when they’re are exposed to a situation that they might have a better idea of local resources to help either themselves, or, you know, an acquaintance, a family member or whomever. There’s so much help out there and, a good resource is to go to the Drug Prevention Lenawee website.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good place to start. Community Mental Health is also a good place to start. But yeah, educating yourself is probably the biggest thing people can do right now because whether you believe it or not, there’s probably somebody you know, that has experienced some type of substance abuse issue.

Kathy Williams: Oh, for sure.

Tim Kelly: And you know, educate yourself about what they’re going through and what they need to do to get themselves the help they need.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. It all kind of centers around the way that we look at people, the way that we talk to them, and the fact that there is so much information on there, out there. So many people involved that are very compassionate about walking beside people and help them get through their situations.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. One of the, you know, again, a recent advent is that we now have peer recovery coaches.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: These are people that have actually experienced substance abuse.

Kathy Williams: Their own crisis, right.

Tim Kelly: Yes. They’ve all lived through it. And you know, those are the best people really to help someone else to know what they’re gonna go through and to help them through all the, actually the medical aspect of it, the social aspect of it, and all those other pieces, like I said: housing, childcare… that’s all a part of what this does to someone is damages all aspects of their lives and somebody who’s experienced it is probably the best equipped to help them through it.

Kathy Williams: Right. Exactly. Well, Tim, we’re going to talk to you again here in a couple of weeks and find out all the facts and figures from the Drug Take-Back that took place on April 30th and we’ll see what happens, but it’s just another way that we can help our community to not have things laying out there that shouldn’t be laying out there for, you know, possible misuse or incorrect disposal. I know there will be another one of those in October, but there’s also places they can drop off things at any time.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. Any, any law enforcement agency, you can take things back to there, everything from, you know, again, just like the Drug Take-Back Day: supplements, over the counter medications, prescribed medications, syringes… Those types of things can go back to law enforcement. Some of our pharmacies also provide some types of ability to dispose of things. So, contact your pharmacist. They can tell you if they do things like syringes and needles, or if they can offer you some type of bag, I guess. We call them Deterra bags, but there’s also other brands that do this in which you can dispose of your meds, make them inert by putting them in there and sort of like putting it…

Kathy Williams: Dissolves them.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. It just dissolves them, makes them inert. Yeah, they can contact their pharmacist and a lot of pharmacies now have that type of stuff available.

Kathy Williams: There you go. Well, thanks so much, Tim, for talking with me tonight and again, we encourage people to go to the Facebook page. We also have of course the website and if you’re interested in joining the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, we’d love to hear from you.

Tim Kelly: Yes we would, thank you.

Apr

2022

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

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Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams. And with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. Tim is the Social and Emotional Learning Coordinator at Lenawee Intermediate School District, LISD, but importantly tonight, he is the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition’s chairperson of Prevention and Education. Tim and I are going to be talking about the upcoming Drug Take-Back event. Tim Saturday, April 30th.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. 10:00 to 2:00 at ProMedica Hickman Hospital. Please, yeah, everybody come on out and dispose of those meds. It’s a real simple process. You just drive around back, follow the signs, and someone will direct you on in there. You can even say “hi” to Kathy as you go by. She’s always out there.

Kathy Williams: If you come during the broadcast.

Tim Kelly: During the broadcast, okay. Well, if you do give her some coffee, she’s… it’s kind of cold. She’s standing out there while.

Kathy Williams: Thank you, yes, it does get a little bit cold. So it’s a national event. We had a couple of them last year that were very successful and the Drug Take-Back itself is happening from 10 o’clock, till two o’clock on the 30th.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: If you’ve been to the Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital, you’ve seen the big, giant COVID signs where you go back for your COVID testing, and that is where the Drug Take-Back itself will be happening.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. You don’t even have to get out of your car. They drive you right through the tent that they have there. And there’ll be people there to take your medications or inhalers or liquids…

Kathy Williams: Sharps.

Tim Kelly: Or even syringes. Yeah, sharps. They, they can take all that stuff. The only suggestion I’d have is that if you have stuff in a bottle, you remove your name or identifying information from it, but they’ll take it right in the bottle. These are students at the Pharmacy College down at University of Toledo. They will bag it all up and ship it out of here.

Kathy Williams: I did like watching the procedure last year, too, because there were you know, quite a few people that maybe did not mark out their information. And so it’s, it was interesting to watch the students as they sorted everything for “This is a pill, this is a tablet, this is a liquid…” Even the salves and lotions and stuff. And they were very meticulous at making sure the information was marked out or taken out of the original container. And then I found out that all those containers then were incinerated. So if you don’t get it taken care of, they certainly will when you drop off your drugs.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. This being a national event, you know, it’s basically from the DEA and they make sure that everything is very secure. The Lenawee Sheriff’s office will have a couple of deputies out there to make sure. So yeah, you can be pretty confident that all your information is… can be disposed of correctly.

Kathy Williams: Yes. And you know what, the other thing that I kind of want to be sure people realize is that we’re having this in April. We’re also gonna have one in October. Personally, we had a friend who passed away and her husband didn’t know what to do with all her drugs. She had a rather large container in a… like a Tupperware thing.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: And Doug grabbed him and said “My wife will take care of that for you”. So, you know, that’s the kind of thing though, to keep in mind, you know, if you’re emptying out someone else’s house, help them get rid of these things in a good way.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: You can also go on a website, DrugPreventionLenawee.com, and tell us about other disposal sites that you can use throughout the year.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Most law enforcement offices have what’s known as the Red Barrel that people can dispose of stuff anytime during the year. And it is important to get it out of there, get it out of your house. You know, in Lenawee alone, 52% of the people that abused substances got them from a friend or a relative. And a lot of that was maybe taking from a medicine cabinet or finding something that a family member had had prescribed to them somewhere in the house and using it, so…

Kathy Williams: Right, right. And things that are expired. It just amazed me on last year’s Drug Take-Backs, how many people had expired medications. You don’t save it for the next ear infection because you need new stuff by then.

Tim Kelly: No. Right.

Kathy Williams: So, you know, eardrops, eyedrops, even pet medications can all be disposed of at the Drug Take-Backs. It’s… Make a quick sweep of your house, put it all in a big bag and bring it out to us on Saturday the 30th.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. That… We’d really appreciate it. And then if you can’t, you can take it to those other locations throughout the year.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. Now some… I believe on the, DrugPreventionLenawee.com website and Facebook, it also tells, you know, some of the restrictions that might be involved with some of those other locations throughout the year. Sharps may be one of the things that this is the best way to get rid of those.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. There are restrictions at places like Meijer that do return some things, but, sharps – a number of pharmacies will sell you a container for sharps.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: If you need one throughout the year.

Kathy Williams: Also people don’t necessarily think about over the counter medication. That also can be brought. It’s amazing how many expired vitamins we might even have or food supplements, you know, all kinds of things like that. So it, you know, our goal tonight is to kind of put that bug in people’s heads, take a look around, get rid of it. Be happy with the empty spaces in your cupboards maybe.

Tim Kelly: Fill them up with something new, but don’t, just don’t flush them down the toilets or throw them down the garbage disposal.

Kathy Williams: Please don’t.

Tim Kelly: Those types of things end up in the drinking water.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: They literally soak into the earth.

Kathy Williams: Long-term they… everything is affected.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: Tim, other ways that they can find out information about the Drug Take-Back?

Tim Kelly: You already mentioned it, but the primary way’s through DrugPreventionLenawee.com, or through links on WLEN – on their webpage. So, yeah, those are probably the two prominent ways, but again, throughout the year, contacting law enforcement is a real solid way to figure out where you can drop-off stuff.

Kathy Williams: Alrighty. Well, thanks Tim. We hope to see a lot of people drive by and drop off their drugs. Saturday, April 30th at the ProMedica Hickman Hospital from 10 o’clock to two o’clock. Thanks for being with me.

Tim Kelly: Thank you.