Youth & Family Health Network, a Boone County organization with a mission to reduce and prevent substance abuse, partnered with the Boone County Health Dept. to host an Opioid Overdose Awareness Event Sept. 12 in the Annex Building at the Boone County Fairgrounds in Lebanon.
The event was free, open to the public and featured a presentation on the effects of opioids and the rise in drug overdoses.
“In Indiana, drug overdoses have increased five-fold since 1999,” said Claire Haughton, health educator at Boone County Health Dept.
The event aimed to help residents better understand the causes of opioid overdoses and how they can be prevented.
“If we can’t keep someone alive, they can’t recover,” said Michelle Standeford, founder of Youth & Family Health Network.
Haughton taught attendees about the effect of opioids and how to administer Narcan (naloxone), an antidote to opioid overdose. The Boone County Health Dept. provided free naloxone distribution along with Narcan administration training. Narcan can save the life of a person who is overdosing on opiate narcotics but does not have an affect on persons who are not taking opiates.
Attendees were invited to bring in unused or outdated medications for safe disposal through a drug takeback program sponsored by the office of Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, and decorate a luminary for loved ones lost to addiction.
For more, visit www.yfhnpartners.org.
