Opioid Overdose Prevention

May

2023

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. Tim is the chairperson for the Prevention and Education part of Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. And Tim, we’ve got some big news to share tonight.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, we’d like all the people out there that participated in our annual Drug Take Back Day last Saturday to give themselves a big pat on the back. It was a record haul, so to speak.

Kathy Williams: It was a haul.

Tim Kelly: We… we, took in over 700 pounds of medications. More than we’ve done ever by far actually. I mean, we had one year, three years ago, we had 600 pounds and, and I think we were at 757 pounds for this year.

Kathy Williams: Yes. It’s crazy. You know, we appreciate everyone that came out on Saturday the 22nd. It was out at the ProMedica Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital. It’s a national event, though. We want to be sure that people understand that. That’s going to happen twice a year, April and October. And it’s run technically by the DEA, is that right?

Tim Kelly: Yeah, yeah. It is a national event, so if you… any place you could go in the country, there’s, every county has one of these events. One’s in April and the other’s in October every year. And yeah, they’re… I’m just so happy that we had so many people attend this one this year.

Kathy Williams: Well, and yeah, they thought about 417 people maybe actually came through. I know the line moved very quickly cause you know, the… to donate you don’t even have to get out of your car. And so, and they had, we ran out of goody bags. We got to make sure that doesn’t happen again.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: But everyone was, genuinely happy to be there and happy to be doing this.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. They, it was really a great job by the, the people from ProMedica and the, the University of Toledo pharmacy students.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: Who would let people just drive right up there and they’d take the stuff out of their car for them and, and sort it out and dispose of it all. So…

Kathy Williams: And knowing that it’s a secure way also, because they had representatives from the sheriff’s department were there. You know, because some of these are narcotics that are, that are being disposed of. But it’s, it’s all about disposing of things in a better way without going down your toilets or in your landfills or could possibly contaminate our water supplies.

Time Kelly: Yeah, we get, we you know, have learned as a society that we don’t want this stuff in our water. It does show up and it, it can be affecting you know, the quality of water and, and how people’s quality of life is. But you know, the other thing is that, you know, young kids and stuff can get access to things that are probably harmful to them. And some people could take medicine that’s expired and that’s dangerous as well. So there’s a lot of reasons to get this stuff disposed of.

Kathy Williams: Yeah, we talk about that a lot leading up to the events and I’m sure we’ll remind people in October as well that, you know, you shouldn’t save something for the next time I need it.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: Hopefully you have insurance that’ll have cover that next, that next time. But they lose potency. They… you don’t want to mix them up with other drugs that you might be on at the, at the same time. There’s too much that can happen with using more than one medication at a time. Interactions might affect how they work for you.

Tim Kelly: Right. And, and you just don’t know how it’s going to do it. So, I mean, you know, it is nice to think, “Oh, I’ll just save this till later for, for the next time I have a headache or whatever.” And you may be on a different set of medicines…

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: You know, between then and now and, and that could have a really adverse effect for you.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. So, you know, personally, I have a hard, I have a hard time imagining 509 pounds of tablets and capsules. I mean that “oral solids” they called it. But 509 pounds of little teeny pills. It’s just… blows your mind.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, that’s a lot of little teeny pills. Yeah. Yeah.

Kathy Williams: I know, I know. Liquids and that included… Well, let’s see. They had liquids, which, so cough, syrups, all that kind of stuff.

Tim Kelly: Yep. That type of stuff.

Kathy Williams: Medication, 228 pounds. Even topical, oh that was…

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: And including topicals. But then also inhalers, 19 pounds of inhalers. Wow

Tim Kelly: Wow. Yeah. You think of those little inhalers

Kathy Williams: Yeah.

Tim Kelly: And you got 19 pounds of them.

Kathy Williams: Well, and that was one of the things that we talked about ahead of time too, is that a lot of times inhalers and creams and topical ointments, you never get all of it out of there.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: You know, it’s like the toothpaste bottle. You just can’t get it all out. And so those are a good example of just – put it aside, put it in a safe place and bring it to us in October.

Tim Kelly: Yep, yep. Yeah. Say “hang onto those and bring them in in October”. The other, the other number that every time is shocking to me is the, the amount of sharps, the number of syringes and stuff that’s brought back to us.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: And, although it wasn’t more this time, it was 9 38 gallon containers

Kathy Williams: Yeah.

Tim Kelly: Of sharps.

Kathy Williams: Hard to hardly, to even visualize.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, it is.

Kathy Williams: So, we’ll have to see if we can get a picture next year of the final hurrah…

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: When it, you know, they’ve got it already packed in a car or something to help that really sink in. So, you know, if you want to find more out, more about the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, you can go to Drug Prevention Lenawee online. And, you know, learn lots of ways to help keep drugs off our streets and keep them out of the hands of people that shouldn’t have them.

Tim Kelly: Yep. And look for us again in October for the next one.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. Thanks, Tim.

Tim Kelly: Yep. 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.

Jan

2023

WLEN Interview with LCMHA / Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition Coordinator Madeline DeMarco

Show the Transcript

Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me tonight is Madeline DeMarco. And Madeline is the Community Outreach and Prevention Coordinator at Lenawee Community Mental Health Authority.

Madeline DeMarco: Alright!

Kathy Williams: Yay. We got it. We got it. So, Madeline, you know, you’re so involved in the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, LSAPC, and so, you know, we want to talk a little bit tonight about signs of overdose. You know, it’s unfortunately prevalent in our community that we’re seeing more people struggling with drugs and with overdose situations, and yet a lot of us might not know what to even look for. If somebody’s struggling, we might not know. So give us, give us some ideas of some things that we can look for.

Madeline DeMarco: We always like to use the acronym “BLUE” when we’re talking about signs of overdose that we’re looking for in our friends and neighbors and family members. And so BLUE stands for… the first letter “B” is for breathing, and so we’re looking for irregular or shallow breathing. Someone might not be breathing at all, or you might hear snoring or gurgling sounds coming from them.

Madeline DeMarco: The next letter “L” stands for lips, and we’re looking at the color of our lips and fingernails. So if someone is light-skinned, they might have a blue or purpleish tint. If they’re darker skinned, it might look a little bit gray on their fingernails or lips. And then “U” stands for unresponsive. And so that means if you give someone a sternal rub or you shake them or shout their name and they’re not responding, that’s that unresponsive piece.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Madeline DeMarco: And then the last. E stands for eyes and we’re looking for small pinpoint pupils. And all of these things add up to be what could be signs of an opioid overdose.

Kathy Williams: And that’s scary when you come across that. I, I would imagine, you know, cause you, like you said, you really don’t know what could be going on. Is it drugs? Is that a heart problem? Are they having a, a seizure? Are they, you know, going into some kind of diabetic problem? And so, you know, the first thing to do is probably call 911.

Madeline DeMarco: Absolutely. The first thing you always want to do anytime you come across the situation when someone might be unconscious or not breathing, is call 911. Get professional help there as soon as you can. The next thing that you can do is we recommend that everybody have access to Narcan. Narcan or Naloxone, you might hear it known as, is an amazing life-saving medication because it can reverse an opioid overdose. So, if someone is overdosed and they’re unconscious, you administer Narcan. It often comes in like a nasal spray or an injectable, like an EpiPen. And it’s literally like waking the dead. Where it will revive that person and get them conscious, get them breathing again, so that they can be more stable until help arrives. The other great thing about Narcan is that there are really no negative side effects. So if someone is just unconscious for another reason or not experiencing an opioid overdose, it’s not going to hurt them, it’s not going to harm them. So it’s safe to use in any situation.

Kathy Williams: That was going be the question I was going to ask is, you know what, if you give it to someone that’s not going through that? They are also making Narcan more available. Now I know, I believe all the law enforcement cars carry it. Of course you have different drop-in centers that have it, and, and it’s available to get at different kinds of events or informational things. Where can a person find out more information about maybe getting some Narcan?

Madeline DeMarco: We have a list of places you can get Narcan on the Prevention Coalition website.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Madeline DeMarco: That’s DrugPreventionLenawee.com. But it’s really available, like you said, in a lot of different places in our community. So groups like Community Mental Health or Pathways Recovery Engagement Center will do free Narcan trainings. So, they’ll teach you how to use Narcan for free and you’ll get your own kit that you can keep.

Kathy Willims: Okay.

Madeline DeMarco: There are also community events. Like Pathways has folks that go to First Fridays here in downtown Adrian, where you can get trained and get Narcan, and also second Fridays, which are held at the Adrian District Library during the wintertime on the second Friday of the month, where you can get trained. You can also access Narcan for free online. There’s a website called NextDistro. “Distro” like “distribution”. And you can go on and watch a quick video and put in your address and it’ll actually mail Narcan right to your door. So there’s a lot of free ways to get it in our community.

Kathy Williams: Yeah, that’s, you know, I mean, it’s one of those things where you hope you never need it, but might as well have it. Is there expiration dates on those or…?

Madeline DeMarco: Narcan is good for about two years.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Madeline DeMarco: And then we recommend that people replace it, store it in a cool place, that sort of thing. But that’s really quite a while, and I recommend that everybody has access to it. I know I like to give it to all of my friends, family members because you never know, even if someone has a surgery, you know, where they might be on some pain medication or something, it’s, it can be easy to, to accidentally overdose on something. And so it’s like having, you know, a defibrillator or a Band-Aid or something like that around, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Kathy Williams: Well that’s great. Well, I sure learned a lot and I know, I’m sure our listeners do too. We really appreciate your helping to educate us a little bit better on signs of overdose and on the Narcan system. Thanks, Madeline.

Madeline DeMarco: Thank you.

Sep

2022

WLEN Interview with Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Community Engagement Coordinator Matt Raad

Show the Transcript

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 Matt Raad. He is the community engagement and partnership coordinator out of the Ann Arbor VA. Matt, welcome to the program.

Matt Raad: Thank you, Kathy. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Kathy Williams: So, tell our listeners a little bit about what your job entails. How connected are you with Lenawee County and our surrounding area here?

Matt Raad: Yeah, so, as a community partnership and engagement coordinator out of the Ann Arbor, VA, we cover about 15 to 19 counties, depending on the day.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Matt Raad: But we are part of the suicide prevention team.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Matt Raad: And we’re part of what’s called the Community-Based Intervention for Suicide Prevention. So we’re part of the suicide prevention program that works very closely in the communities that we work in or that we cover. And in Lenawee County, we’ve developed the Lenawee Counties Veterans Coalition. Lenawee County Veterans Coalition. And the whole, the whole goal of this is to try to take an upstream approach to suicide prevention. So, the idea behind this is that if we can help to enrich the lives of the veterans on the local level, where they live with local solutions, the idea is hopefully we can hopefully prevent a suicide from happening if we can get someone connected to things that could help.

Kathy Williams: So, so many times we hear that, that veterans have a hard time reaching out to begin with. How are you making that effort? How are you, are you going where they’re more likely to be? How are you making that relationship happen?

Matt Raad: Yeah, that’s one of the, one of the biggest challenges I think. You know that really anyone working with veterans has, is how to encourage somebody to reach out. And that is one of the biggest things that we are trying to accomplish is of course doing that. And on the flip side is also equipping the community to be there and to know sort of how to also reach out and provide support if they notice some things that may be going on with someone, whether it be a friend or family member or someone at the store. You know, the idea is not only just for, you know, our group to know what to do, how to approach somebody, but we also want to help to do whatever we can in the community through different types of education, awareness, reducing stigma. But to answer your question, you know, we’re working with a lot of the local veteran service organizations. We’re really trying to get veterans involved in this group.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Matt Raad: And the idea behind that is pretty obvious, you know, we want veterans to be helping other veterans out, but anybody can be a part of this coalition.

Kathy Williams: How would they find out about the coalition if they wanted to get involved?

Matt Raad: Yeah, they can reach directly out to myself, or, Austin See who is the leader of the group. My email I could provide…

Kathy Williams: Okay, go ahead.

Matt Raad: matthew.raad@va.gov. Or my phone number (734) 968-9318. And I’m certainly, you know, always open to people coming, calling. Anyone’s welcome to come be a supporter, whether they’re veteran or not, family, friends. So this is a group that’s here to serve not only veterans in Lenawee County, but also any active military, guard reserves, anything along those lines. So there’s kind of this no wrong door philosophy we kind of have in here.

Kathy Williams: Oh, okay. Do they have a social media presence? That’s easy to pop in to yet?

Matt Raad: Soon to come.

Kathy Williams: Okay. Soon to come.

Matt Raad: Soon to come. So we’ve been around for just about five months or so.

Kathy Williams: Oh, okay.

Matt Raad: Just building the foundation of the group and yeah. So all of the, you know, typical like social media presence, yeah. We are…

Kathy Williams: Still building that.

Matt Raad: We’re building it and it’ll be there. It’ll come.

Kathy Williams: Okay. Okay. Well, Matt, a lot of, I know the program is sponsored by the Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and so there’s a lot of substance abuse, probably that goes on, we believe, you know, in all kinds of suicides. Are you finding that’s a fact with veterans as well?

Matt Raad: Sure. Yeah, definitely. You know, and working with the Lenawee County Substance Abuse Coalition, the Prevention Coalition in particular, you know, the work there is definitely focused around that. We know that veterans or anybody who has a substance use disorder is at a higher risk for suicide, especially opioid use disorder. And now we’re seeing opioid use disorder deaths, overdose deaths skyrocket right now, along with stimulant related overdose deaths as well for many different reasons. But yeah, so, that’s definitely something that we take really seriously and we want to be able to provide anybody with support that finds them self in that situation and looking for help or just to equip even families, cause it is not just a single person’s issue. It’s generally something that impacts the entire family.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Matt Raad: So working with the Prevention Coalition has been great. We, you know, it’s kind of, the work kind of goes hand in hand. You know, anybody who’s at risk of a potential overdose or anyone who has a substance use disorder is at a higher risk for suicide as well. So we know that if we can have an impact in one area, inadvertently overflows.

Kathy Williams: Overflows.

Matt Raad: It impacts the other. Yeah.

Kathy Williams: Well, and I think you’re doing a great job too with, by connecting to all the different organizations, cause you’re not really duplicating services, you’re just trying to link better to reach more people with a consistent message I guess.

Matt Raad: Yes, exactly. Yeah, definitely collaborative, not competitive.

Kathy Williams: Correct.

Matt Raad: We, we’re literally a group of people coming together with no other purpose other than to help serve and help veterans in the community here, so definitely not competing for anything. And in fact, we’ve really collaborated with a lot of the local agencies and social service agencies and community members too.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Matt Raad: So, it’s been great and Lenawee definitely knows how to connect and collaborate really well, which has been a blessing.

Kathy Williams: It’s a unique, a very unique group, you know, logistically and such, that just really has a huge hearts for helping people.

Matt Raad: It… that has been very apparent. Yeah. And, and it’s so refreshing. It is truly refreshing and it kind of goes into our philosophy that, you know, a lot of times when people think about suicide prevention, we think it’s something for a counselor to work out or a psychiatrist or something. But the truth is, you know, we can’t do it on our own, you know, it really does take a community and to have the resources there and people willing to assist and then truly that’s our philosophy. Suicide prevention is everyone’s business.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Matt Raad: And, you know, hopefully if we can provide some trainings and some education and some support and awareness in our communities and let people know that we’re here and we’re able to help in any way we can, I think that could go a long way.

Kathy Williams: I agree. I agree. Well, Matt, we want to thank you for stepping in and talking with us and wish you all the best in the future.

Matt Raad: Thank you, Kathy. Appreciate it.

Kathy Williams: You’re welcome.

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.

Feb

2022

WLEN Interview with LCMHA / Pathways Engagement Center Program Coordinator Christy Brugger

Show the Transcript

Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me on tonight’s program is Christy Brugger. And we are going to be talking about what to look for and what kind of action to take when there’s a possible opioid overdose happening. Christy, tell our listeners a little bit about you.

Christy Brugger: My name is Christy Brugger and I’m a member of the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. I also work for Lenawee Community Mental Health Authority as the Program Coordinator for Pathways Engagement Center.

Kathy Williams: So Christy, I know we keep statistical information on what’s going on in Lenawee County, as far as opioid overdoses. And you know, a lot of people might not even know what to look for. Sometimes this happens just out in public and takes people unaware. So, what kind of things are signs that there could be an opioid overdose happening?

Christy Brugger: So, signs would be blue or gray lips or fingers – if someone’s darker complected, their skin might look ashen; pinpoint pupils; deep snoring or gurgling noises; they could have slowed or no breathing at all; and have been going as being unresponsive to pain.

Kathy Williams: Okay. And I don’t understand the logic of people using opioids other than I know some people use it as a pain medication from a severe accident or whatever, but of course we want to be sure that we’re prepared should we run into someone that’s going through something like this. So, what kind of actions should we consider doing?

Christy Brugger: So, I think everyone should carry Narcan.

Kathy Williams: Wow.

Christy Brugger: That’s a very important piece because even if you do come upon somebody and think that they might be overdosing and you administer Narcan, it will not hurt them if that’s not the case for them.

Kathy Williams: Okay. That’s good to know. And there are places where you can get the Narcan at no additional cost too. I believe there was a handout not long ago.

Christy Brugger: Yes. So the day of HOPE…

Kathy Williams: Which will be coming up later this summer.

Christy Brugger: Yes. That was a big one. There were plenty of people from the community that day. I do know soon come there will be other events that I will be able to let you know about in the future where we will be training people to administer.

Kathy Williams: Okay. Oh, there you go. And cause it’s kind of similar to an Epipen, isn’t it? Only it’s nasal?

Christy Brugger: Yes. It’s yes, it’s actually quite simple.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Christy Brugger: Simple as that: one little spray in the nose and a couple of minutes later, a spray in the other nostril.

Kathy Williams: There you go. So I know there’s an acronym for action that you should take. Can you run us through that?

Christy Brugger: So the first one is arouse: it’s like the three S’s: you Shout their name, you want to Shake their shoulders, and it Sternal rub. So that’s when you realize if they’re unresponsive to pain or not. A sternal rub is simply taking your knuckles, putting it into somebody’s chest, rubbing vigorously up and down. That is painful. So most of the time people will arouse from that. The second is check for the signs of overdose, which we talked about, the, you know, the bluish lips and fingernails, the unresponsive pain, deep snoring… Third, you want to call 911.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Christy Brugger: And then fourth would be giving that Narcan, whether it be intermuscular or through the nose. You can next, you can start doing rescue breaths. You can give two breaths initially, and then maybe a breath every five seconds for about 30 seconds or even start CPR if you know how to do that, and then you want to repeat giving the Narcan again. So you would give the Narcan in one nostril and you’d give it a minute or two and you would give it in the other. And then you want to make sure that you put them in the safety, the recovery position, which is on their side.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Christy Brugger: And then it’s also really important to remember that Narcan only lasts for anywhere from 30 to 120 minutes, depending on how much the person has in their system. So if you find someone, it’s imperative that you call 911 because they can just, after 30 minutes they can go right back into overdosing again.

Kathy Williams: Even without administering more drugs, they could do that?

Christy Brugger: Yes.

Kathy Williams: So there you go. So you’re not done when you, when you’ve administered the Narcan, that’s just saved them temporarily.

Christy Brugger: Yes.

Kathy Williams: I did not realize that. Christy, you know, we talk a lot about how this particular epidemic has really grown nationwide. And so I know that there are support groups out there to help people that are having problems with opioid use or any kind of substance use. And of course they can always refer to the Lenawee Community Health, Mental Health for some help.

Christy Brugger: Yes.

Kathy Williams: And also for the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, they can get more information about overdose, opioid overdose and ways to take action on the DrugPreventionLenawee.com on that website.

Christy Brugger: Yes.

Kathy Williams: So lots of good information out there. Lots of ways that we can be more aware and help our, our neighbors and a family and friends to not have this be the end of their journey.

Christy Brugger: Absolutely.

Kathy Williams: Thanks so much, Christie. We appreciate you.

Christy Brugger: Thank you.