August 12, 2025 • 16 mins
In today’s Keeping Ashland Healthy episode, David discussed Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, 2025. He reviews national, state, and local overdose data but focuses on Ashland resources, programs, and initiatives designed to eliminate overdoses in the county. Learn more about the Board’s efforts at www.ashlandmhrb.org or by calling us at 419.281.3139
(Record Date: August 7, 2025)
(Record Date: August 7, 2025)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome. You're listening to the Keeping Ashland Healthy Podcast, a
podcast production of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of
Ashland County, Ohio. Thanks for joining us, and welcome back
to another episode of the Keeping Ashland Healthy Podcast. This
is David Ross with the Mental Health and Recovery Board,
and on today's episode, I wanted to put a spotlight
on what's called Overdose Awareness Day, Overdose Awareness Day on
(00:29):
August thirty. First, Now, I wanted to talk a little
bit about nationally what's going on as well as the state,
and then maybe most importantly, what we're doing at Ashland
County to address the overdose issue, particularly overdose deaths in
the county that we've tried to focus really hard on
(00:51):
to bring down to zero, which is always our goal.
So let me start by saying it's a relatively new
initiative in the state of Ohio. The Governor a few
years ago designated August thirty versus the first overdose Awareness Day.
So it's taken a couple of years to ramp up
local efforts in all eighty eight counties to really, you know,
(01:14):
spotlight this issue, talk about the resources that are available
to communities to both educate and raise awareness, but also
to talk about some of the interventions that different communities
are involved with. So let me start by saying, nationally,
you know, the numbers. You know, in twenty twenty three,
(01:34):
which is the last complete year of overdose deaths that
we had reported, were still over one hundred thousand and
one hundred and five thousand. The provisional report though, that
we received back in December, so this will be December
of twenty twenty four. We were estimating at that time
based on the data, it was eighty thousand, four hundred,
(01:57):
so it is provisional data, but it's still seems to
indicate quite a decrease, a welcome decrease in the overdose deaths.
It takes a little while to make sure that that
eighty thousand number is the right number, but that was
the provisional data from twenty twenty four, but we're still
(02:19):
waiting for that to be confirmed. But if if that is,
then that would be a welcome decrease. But again, eighty
thousand folks is still far too many that are dying
due to overdoses, and just by reference, we lose about
fifty thousand people each year to suicide, So still much
more than even death due to suicide. Now, how does
(02:39):
that compare with Ohio. So, in Ohio in twenty twenty three,
again the last most complete data that we're confident in,
we lost over forty four one hundred folks overdose death
in Ohio. That provisional report for Ohio that would end
in twenty twenty four, again mirroring the national trend. We
(03:02):
see a slight reduction down to thirty six hundred, is
what the provisional report was saying in Ohio. And I
will say that same trend has been mirrored in Ashland,
and I feel more confident in the Ashland number since
I'm directly involved as part of what they call in
a suicide and Overdose Fatality Review Committee, which is headed
(03:24):
up by the Health Department and includes law enforcement agencies
like the Board and other agencies that are working with
folks in the community. So we had fourteen overdose desks
back in twenty twenty three and then seven and that
data in twenty twenty four. That's not provisional. I think
that's a good number. So we saw a fifty percent
(03:45):
reduction from twenty three to twenty four locally, So that
is very good news, But I did want to talk
a little bit about efforts to address overdose and again
some of these things. Hopefully audience you have seen these
around town, you've heard us on previous podcasts mention it,
(04:05):
or seeing some of our social media posts. But probably
the easiest thing that you can do is to have narcan,
to have no loxone, which is almost I'm dating myself,
but dristan some of the old nasal sprays that folks
used to use to clear their nasal passages. The version
(04:26):
of Narcan or no looxone that we make available to
community members is that form. It's not a needle, it's
not an injection. We wanted to take some of the
anxiety out of administering the Narcan or the looxone, So
it's the nasal spray. So essentially, you stick it in
the nose, you hit the plunger, and that's all you
(04:46):
need to do. Now you may need to admiss or
more than one a dose of that narcan. The other
thing that our medical professionals tell us is that you
need not be concerned that if you administer the narkan
and it wasn't overdose due to opioids, it's not going
to cause harm if it was another substance, So don't
(05:10):
worry about that. And I can tell you the Narcan
is being widely distributed, not only in our county but
throughout the country. I know just in Ohio itself there
was over two hundred and ninety seven thousand kits distributed
in twenty twenty three. We've got well over one hundred
(05:31):
thousand folks trained on how to use narcan, and we
are looking at well over twenty twenty five thousand at
this point overdoses that we know were reversed because of
the use of Narkan. So when you hear us talking
about narkan saving lives, it really does do that. Not
to get to sciency on you, but basically, the narkan
(05:56):
knocks off the opioids that are binding to the opioid
receptor sites which are causing the issues for the person
in terms of respiratory issues, breathing issues. It temporarily knocks
those off and the person is revived again. I will
warn you that when folks are revived are oftentimes experiencing withdrawal,
(06:21):
so they're not particularly happy at that moment. But regardless,
I think using the Narkhan. It truly does save lives.
So in addition to the Narkan and that is distributed,
you can go to Akada apple Seed, the health department,
you wait to Samaritan, you can even come to the board.
We are going to have a presence out at our affairs,
(06:44):
both the Ashton County Fair as well as well as
the lob Mill Street Fair. We will be distributing what
we call Narcan keychain, so you've got a key chain
with a holder that the Narkan goes into so it
can be conveniently carried if you will, because you just
don't know when you might encounter a situation where the
(07:04):
Narkans could save a life. So look for us at
both the fairs because we'll be distributing those things. And
as we get closer to those dates, I'm sure I'll
do another podcast as well as some social media on
that specifically, but we will be distributing it at the fair.
But you can already go to a Cada Appleseed Health department,
(07:25):
the hospital you ate smarton and ask them for some
Narcan and get that. In addition though to the Narkhan,
there's sometimes around town in public institutions like libraries and
other places things that are called the locks boxes, and
that's just a fancy term for it's like a box
on the wall that is not locked. You can unlock
(07:47):
it or open it, and inside is the narkan with
the plunger all ready to go for you in case
you need that. So you may be at a building,
just like you look for fire exting bushers or exit signs,
you might want to be aware when you're in some
of these buildings. Just look around. It's pretty easy to
spot these in the locks boxes. Just to be aware
(08:10):
that if the organization or the building you're in is
equipped with those, and if not, maybe ask somebody if
they'd ever considered equipping their common space, their public space
within the locks box. Something else that we've been doing
in Nastional County for several years that is really proven
to be useful is something called the Quick Response Team qRT. Now,
(08:35):
this is made up of a staff member at a KAIDA.
She's a peer, and she goes out with law enforcement
to visit folks that have recently overdosed but have been saved,
have been brought back. These are folks that usually have
made their way somehow to the er euit smarton typically
(08:59):
and their information is passed on the law enforcement, which
also coordinates with Laurie at a KADA. They go out
to visit the person, ideally within a few days after
they've been brought back from their overdose, and talk to
them about that recent experience, but again talking to them
in such a way that they're trying to make sure
(09:21):
that they're engaged in treatment and if not, to try
to persuade and engage them to start services because obviously
they just experienced a very significant event. Without some kind
of intervention, they likely would have would have passed away.
So the thinking around quick Responsing teams is to see
(09:43):
that near death experience of overdose as an opportunity to
engage the person and not just leave them without any
kind of outreach. So that has proven to be successful.
We go out, talk to the folks, give them information,
talk to the loved ones that might be there and
family that might be there, and just thank our law
(10:04):
enforcement working with Akida and Laurie to do those. In
addition to our Quick Wispons team, we have two drug
drop boxes. I know you've seen some of our social
posts where we highlight the drug drop off days that
occur twice per year. There's a big emphasis on getting
(10:25):
rid of unneeded or extra old medications that might be
lying around and cabinets are on countertops in medicine cabinets.
Those drug drop boxes are available anytime the facilities are open.
One is that the Ashland Sheriff's building and actually was
(10:49):
recently moved to the Coroner's office lobby and that was
significant our new sheriff explaining he wanted folks to have
twenty four seven access to that drop box. They basically
look like a large mailbox that you take those unneeded
extra medications and you just dump them in there. And
there's another drop box down in Lineville at the police station.
(11:13):
That one is accessible, I believe, just during their normal
working hours, but those are available throughout the year. We
spotlight the drug drop boxes on those two days of
the year, but just keep in mind they're available throughout
the year. Just get rid of the unnecessary medications. This
helps reduce overdoses at overdose deaths. Another incredibly important thing
(11:36):
that we do locally in the board funds school based
prevention and education. So this is education for our young
people that is tailored to the specific ages of the
young people. We're teaching them again about trusting adults, about
talking openly if they're concerned about a classmate or a friend.
(12:00):
It's about creating a kind of communication and skills around
resiliency that will help them be more and more likely
to stay clean and sober, regardless of the substance. But
we also address opioids and that is going on in
all the Ashland County schools and I just if folks
(12:20):
don't know that it's a it's a big part of
what the Board is doing in terms of funding prevention
education in our schools so that again, all over time
we reduce the number of folks that are even using
substances and then might be suspect or at risk of
an overdose. Last, but not least on this is our
(12:41):
community based prevention education awareness efforts, and quite frankly, this
podcast is an example of what we're trying to do
to spread the word that you know, it's an issue,
but there's resources and help available. Not only do we
talk about these things on the podcast, but we certainly
have many posts on social media on our website, but
(13:05):
we also, like I said, we're at the fairs. Most
of our training events will have NARCAN available and information
available about the quick response team as well as the
drug drop boxes and prevention. So lots of good things
going on locally. I think all those things, combined as
well as others that I'm not even aware of, have
(13:25):
really helped us reduce our numbers and cut them in
half back in twenty twenty four, and I hope that
number continues to fall. Like I say, our goal is
always zero when it comes to any of these deaths.
One word to caution, if you will, that there's more
and more research coming out about potential brain injury to
(13:49):
somebody who does have an overdose. Again, so the person
overdoses is brought back by nar CAN, there really is
a high risk of what they call, you know, brain injury,
hypoxia and anoxic brain injury. Those are the technical terms
for that, and essentially what happens is anytime there is
(14:12):
a lack of oxygen or reduction or elimination of oxygen
to the brain, if it's restricted in some way, which
is kind of the definition of hypoxia, there there is
a real possibility that the person can suffer brain injury
because of that, and as they look at an emergency
room data. You know, we've seen that many revised overdose
(14:35):
patients experience confusion, seizures, altered mental status for hours or days,
and some even go on to develop long term disabilities. Again,
this is national data I'm talking about, So there's there's
more and more research on this because we've had so
many overdose to desks, but we've had even more overdoses
where the person is brought back. So I say that
(14:58):
just to maybe reinforce why we're the board is so
interested in the prevention efforts such that the person either
never overdoses even once, but if they do, that's part
of the education piece to understand that just because we
have narcan and we can bring you back hopefully from
an overdose, doesn't mean that overdose doesn't have consequences. So
(15:23):
I think we need to be a little bit more
clear on that in the community to let folks know
that yes, Narcan is wonderful and it does say vies,
but overdoses have consequences and we want to avoid the
overdose altogether. So August thirty first, put it on your calendar.
(15:44):
You'll see plenty of events and other I think education
and awareness on different media sources that August thirty versus
Overdose Awareness Day. We are going to extend it beyond today.
You're going to see us, like I say, at the
fairs in September, in October down in Lnville. But we're
going to continue to draw attention to this outside of
(16:06):
that one day. But I think it's important to have
a day. Come to our website, you'll see it on
our social media where we will bring to light more
of this information that I shared with you today. Uh
And until next time, please join me in keeping Ashland healthy.
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Keeping
Ashland Healthy podcast. The podcast is a production of the
(16:28):
Mental Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County, Ohio. You
can reach the board by calling four one nine two
eight one three one three nine. Please remember that the
board funds a local twenty four to seven crisis line
through Applese Community Mental Health Center. It can be reached
by calling four one nine two eight nine six one
one one. That's four one nine two eight nine six
(16:48):
to one one one. Until next time, please join us
in keeping Ashland Healthy.
Welcome. You're listening to the Keeping Ashland Healthy Podcast, a
podcast production of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of
Ashland County, Ohio. Thanks for joining us, and welcome back
to another episode of the Keeping Ashland Healthy Podcast. This
is David Ross with the Mental Health and Recovery Board,
and on today's episode, I wanted to put a spotlight
on what's called Overdose Awareness Day, Overdose Awareness Day on
(00:29):
August thirty. First, Now, I wanted to talk a little
bit about nationally what's going on as well as the state,
and then maybe most importantly, what we're doing at Ashland
County to address the overdose issue, particularly overdose deaths in
the county that we've tried to focus really hard on
(00:51):
to bring down to zero, which is always our goal.
So let me start by saying it's a relatively new
initiative in the state of Ohio. The Governor a few
years ago designated August thirty versus the first overdose Awareness Day.
So it's taken a couple of years to ramp up
local efforts in all eighty eight counties to really, you know,
(01:14):
spotlight this issue, talk about the resources that are available
to communities to both educate and raise awareness, but also
to talk about some of the interventions that different communities
are involved with. So let me start by saying, nationally,
you know, the numbers. You know, in twenty twenty three,
(01:34):
which is the last complete year of overdose deaths that
we had reported, were still over one hundred thousand and
one hundred and five thousand. The provisional report though, that
we received back in December, so this will be December
of twenty twenty four. We were estimating at that time
based on the data, it was eighty thousand, four hundred,
(01:57):
so it is provisional data, but it's still seems to
indicate quite a decrease, a welcome decrease in the overdose deaths.
It takes a little while to make sure that that
eighty thousand number is the right number, but that was
the provisional data from twenty twenty four, but we're still
(02:19):
waiting for that to be confirmed. But if if that is,
then that would be a welcome decrease. But again, eighty
thousand folks is still far too many that are dying
due to overdoses, and just by reference, we lose about
fifty thousand people each year to suicide, So still much
more than even death due to suicide. Now, how does
(02:39):
that compare with Ohio. So, in Ohio in twenty twenty three,
again the last most complete data that we're confident in,
we lost over forty four one hundred folks overdose death
in Ohio. That provisional report for Ohio that would end
in twenty twenty four, again mirroring the national trend. We
(03:02):
see a slight reduction down to thirty six hundred, is
what the provisional report was saying in Ohio. And I
will say that same trend has been mirrored in Ashland,
and I feel more confident in the Ashland number since
I'm directly involved as part of what they call in
a suicide and Overdose Fatality Review Committee, which is headed
(03:24):
up by the Health Department and includes law enforcement agencies
like the Board and other agencies that are working with
folks in the community. So we had fourteen overdose desks
back in twenty twenty three and then seven and that
data in twenty twenty four. That's not provisional. I think
that's a good number. So we saw a fifty percent
(03:45):
reduction from twenty three to twenty four locally, So that
is very good news, But I did want to talk
a little bit about efforts to address overdose and again
some of these things. Hopefully audience you have seen these
around town, you've heard us on previous podcasts mention it,
(04:05):
or seeing some of our social media posts. But probably
the easiest thing that you can do is to have narcan,
to have no loxone, which is almost I'm dating myself,
but dristan some of the old nasal sprays that folks
used to use to clear their nasal passages. The version
(04:26):
of Narcan or no looxone that we make available to
community members is that form. It's not a needle, it's
not an injection. We wanted to take some of the
anxiety out of administering the Narcan or the looxone, So
it's the nasal spray. So essentially, you stick it in
the nose, you hit the plunger, and that's all you
(04:46):
need to do. Now you may need to admiss or
more than one a dose of that narcan. The other
thing that our medical professionals tell us is that you
need not be concerned that if you administer the narkan
and it wasn't overdose due to opioids, it's not going
to cause harm if it was another substance, So don't
(05:10):
worry about that. And I can tell you the Narcan
is being widely distributed, not only in our county but
throughout the country. I know just in Ohio itself there
was over two hundred and ninety seven thousand kits distributed
in twenty twenty three. We've got well over one hundred
(05:31):
thousand folks trained on how to use narcan, and we
are looking at well over twenty twenty five thousand at
this point overdoses that we know were reversed because of
the use of Narkan. So when you hear us talking
about narkan saving lives, it really does do that. Not
to get to sciency on you, but basically, the narkan
(05:56):
knocks off the opioids that are binding to the opioid
receptor sites which are causing the issues for the person
in terms of respiratory issues, breathing issues. It temporarily knocks
those off and the person is revived again. I will
warn you that when folks are revived are oftentimes experiencing withdrawal,
(06:21):
so they're not particularly happy at that moment. But regardless,
I think using the Narkhan. It truly does save lives.
So in addition to the Narkan and that is distributed,
you can go to Akada apple Seed, the health department,
you wait to Samaritan, you can even come to the board.
We are going to have a presence out at our affairs,
(06:44):
both the Ashton County Fair as well as well as
the lob Mill Street Fair. We will be distributing what
we call Narcan keychain, so you've got a key chain
with a holder that the Narkan goes into so it
can be conveniently carried if you will, because you just
don't know when you might encounter a situation where the
(07:04):
Narkans could save a life. So look for us at
both the fairs because we'll be distributing those things. And
as we get closer to those dates, I'm sure I'll
do another podcast as well as some social media on
that specifically, but we will be distributing it at the fair.
But you can already go to a Cada Appleseed Health department,
(07:25):
the hospital you ate smarton and ask them for some
Narcan and get that. In addition though to the Narkhan,
there's sometimes around town in public institutions like libraries and
other places things that are called the locks boxes, and
that's just a fancy term for it's like a box
on the wall that is not locked. You can unlock
(07:47):
it or open it, and inside is the narkan with
the plunger all ready to go for you in case
you need that. So you may be at a building,
just like you look for fire exting bushers or exit signs,
you might want to be aware when you're in some
of these buildings. Just look around. It's pretty easy to
spot these in the locks boxes. Just to be aware
(08:10):
that if the organization or the building you're in is
equipped with those, and if not, maybe ask somebody if
they'd ever considered equipping their common space, their public space
within the locks box. Something else that we've been doing
in Nastional County for several years that is really proven
to be useful is something called the Quick Response Team qRT. Now,
(08:35):
this is made up of a staff member at a KAIDA.
She's a peer, and she goes out with law enforcement
to visit folks that have recently overdosed but have been saved,
have been brought back. These are folks that usually have
made their way somehow to the er euit smarton typically
(08:59):
and their information is passed on the law enforcement, which
also coordinates with Laurie at a KADA. They go out
to visit the person, ideally within a few days after
they've been brought back from their overdose, and talk to
them about that recent experience, but again talking to them
in such a way that they're trying to make sure
(09:21):
that they're engaged in treatment and if not, to try
to persuade and engage them to start services because obviously
they just experienced a very significant event. Without some kind
of intervention, they likely would have would have passed away.
So the thinking around quick Responsing teams is to see
(09:43):
that near death experience of overdose as an opportunity to
engage the person and not just leave them without any
kind of outreach. So that has proven to be successful.
We go out, talk to the folks, give them information,
talk to the loved ones that might be there and
family that might be there, and just thank our law
(10:04):
enforcement working with Akida and Laurie to do those. In
addition to our Quick Wispons team, we have two drug
drop boxes. I know you've seen some of our social
posts where we highlight the drug drop off days that
occur twice per year. There's a big emphasis on getting
(10:25):
rid of unneeded or extra old medications that might be
lying around and cabinets are on countertops in medicine cabinets.
Those drug drop boxes are available anytime the facilities are open.
One is that the Ashland Sheriff's building and actually was
(10:49):
recently moved to the Coroner's office lobby and that was
significant our new sheriff explaining he wanted folks to have
twenty four seven access to that drop box. They basically
look like a large mailbox that you take those unneeded
extra medications and you just dump them in there. And
there's another drop box down in Lineville at the police station.
(11:13):
That one is accessible, I believe, just during their normal
working hours, but those are available throughout the year. We
spotlight the drug drop boxes on those two days of
the year, but just keep in mind they're available throughout
the year. Just get rid of the unnecessary medications. This
helps reduce overdoses at overdose deaths. Another incredibly important thing
(11:36):
that we do locally in the board funds school based
prevention and education. So this is education for our young
people that is tailored to the specific ages of the
young people. We're teaching them again about trusting adults, about
talking openly if they're concerned about a classmate or a friend.
(12:00):
It's about creating a kind of communication and skills around
resiliency that will help them be more and more likely
to stay clean and sober, regardless of the substance. But
we also address opioids and that is going on in
all the Ashland County schools and I just if folks
(12:20):
don't know that it's a it's a big part of
what the Board is doing in terms of funding prevention
education in our schools so that again, all over time
we reduce the number of folks that are even using
substances and then might be suspect or at risk of
an overdose. Last, but not least on this is our
(12:41):
community based prevention education awareness efforts, and quite frankly, this
podcast is an example of what we're trying to do
to spread the word that you know, it's an issue,
but there's resources and help available. Not only do we
talk about these things on the podcast, but we certainly
have many posts on social media on our website, but
(13:05):
we also, like I said, we're at the fairs. Most
of our training events will have NARCAN available and information
available about the quick response team as well as the
drug drop boxes and prevention. So lots of good things
going on locally. I think all those things, combined as
well as others that I'm not even aware of, have
(13:25):
really helped us reduce our numbers and cut them in
half back in twenty twenty four, and I hope that
number continues to fall. Like I say, our goal is
always zero when it comes to any of these deaths.
One word to caution, if you will, that there's more
and more research coming out about potential brain injury to
(13:49):
somebody who does have an overdose. Again, so the person
overdoses is brought back by nar CAN, there really is
a high risk of what they call, you know, brain injury,
hypoxia and anoxic brain injury. Those are the technical terms
for that, and essentially what happens is anytime there is
(14:12):
a lack of oxygen or reduction or elimination of oxygen
to the brain, if it's restricted in some way, which
is kind of the definition of hypoxia, there there is
a real possibility that the person can suffer brain injury
because of that, and as they look at an emergency
room data. You know, we've seen that many revised overdose
(14:35):
patients experience confusion, seizures, altered mental status for hours or days,
and some even go on to develop long term disabilities. Again,
this is national data I'm talking about, So there's there's
more and more research on this because we've had so
many overdose to desks, but we've had even more overdoses
where the person is brought back. So I say that
(14:58):
just to maybe reinforce why we're the board is so
interested in the prevention efforts such that the person either
never overdoses even once, but if they do, that's part
of the education piece to understand that just because we
have narcan and we can bring you back hopefully from
an overdose, doesn't mean that overdose doesn't have consequences. So
(15:23):
I think we need to be a little bit more
clear on that in the community to let folks know
that yes, Narcan is wonderful and it does say vies,
but overdoses have consequences and we want to avoid the
overdose altogether. So August thirty first, put it on your calendar.
(15:44):
You'll see plenty of events and other I think education
and awareness on different media sources that August thirty versus
Overdose Awareness Day. We are going to extend it beyond today.
You're going to see us, like I say, at the
fairs in September, in October down in Lnville. But we're
going to continue to draw attention to this outside of
(16:06):
that one day. But I think it's important to have
a day. Come to our website, you'll see it on
our social media where we will bring to light more
of this information that I shared with you today. Uh
And until next time, please join me in keeping Ashland healthy.
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Keeping
Ashland Healthy podcast. The podcast is a production of the
(16:28):
Mental Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County, Ohio. You
can reach the board by calling four one nine two
eight one three one three nine. Please remember that the
board funds a local twenty four to seven crisis line
through Applese Community Mental Health Center. It can be reached
by calling four one nine two eight nine six one
one one. That's four one nine two eight nine six
(16:48):
to one one one. Until next time, please join us
in keeping Ashland Healthy.
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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.