The opioid epidemic has been a predominant issue in Cuyahoga, Summit, Trumbull and Mahoning counties and still affects other major areas in Northeast Ohio. When planners for the Poynter KSU Media Ethics Workshop finalized the opioid epidemic as this year’s theme, the thought of having a free Narcan training session was at the top of the wish list.
The 14th annual Poynter KSU Media Ethics Workshop addressed ethics issues involving the coverage of opioids at a daylong program on Thursday, Sept. 20. The workshop, titled Opioids: Ethics Emergency?, featured a keynote discussion with the three lead journalists from the Cincinnati Enquirer’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning project called Seven Days of Heroin. The workshop also included discussions on victim shaming, medical and non-medical responses and more.
Jan Leach, director of the Media Law Center for Ethics and Access and associate professor for Kent State University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, was interested in what else students, faculty and staff could take away from the event.
“Every year we do the ethics workshop, and every year the workshop has a different theme, but several years ago I was wondering what I could do for students that would be in addition to the workshop itself,” Ms. Leach says. “So this year, for the added value we were interested in hosting a Narcan training session.”
Mrs. Leach explained that Portage County already does Narcan training with Project DAWN, a community-based overdose education and naloxone distribution program. Bringing that project to campus in conjunction with the ethics workshop seemed an ideal additional element.
The Narcan training session – hosted on Sept. 26 – trained 19 participants about use of Narcan and being safe during the opioid overdose revival process.
“There were 19 people who attended it, so now 19 people know what to do,” Ms. Leach says. “If opioid abuse isn’t going away, then we should all have more awareness about how to respond to opioid using.”
This community-based initiative allowed all attendees who were Portage County residents to become Narcan certified and receive a Narcan kit. Those who attended who were not Portage County residents, were given a certificate of training to take to their local health department and receive a Narcan kit to use in his or her community.
For more information about the Poynter Media Ethics Workshop, visit http://mediaethics.jmc.kent.edu. For more information on Project DAWN, visit http://www.odh.ohio.gov/health/vipp/drug/ProjectDAWN.aspx.