Monday, December 15, 2014
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Why raise money for an incinerator?
A foundational model that you learn when you begin working in the Prevention field is the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF). It is simultaneously simple and complicated--PhDs have published explanations, and I have to admit that it took more than one training for me to think "I get it."
In its simplest form, this model translates like this:
Now that I have learned it and operated from it for nearly a year, I can't unlearn it. Try as I might, I can't get it out of my head. Seriously, it is like something out of Poe.
The first part, Assessment, is the answer to the question in the title of this post. Why raise money for an incinerator? Well, our community needs one. Right here in Tyler, we have a problem with prescription drug abuse, and no one is coming to town to do anything about it. It's up to us. Knowing this is true, based on actual needs in my community, I can't get past how serious a threat unused prescription drugs can be, and I can't walk away and not try to offer a solution.
I want everyone in East Texas to know that prescription drug abuse and misuse is deadly--it is no safer than street drugs. I want every person to know that someone--police or the sheriff's office--will take up turned-in drugs at least a couple of well-publicized times each year and destroy them, free of charge. I want it to be as common and easy to get rid of old drugs as it is, today, to recycle cardboard and plastic.
I don't want to read another story of a person whose life has been shortened because of an accident with leftover pills, or from taking someone else's medications, especially not children. Listen, I have taken someone else's painkillers and been thankful for them, but it can so easily go the other way. I didn't know how commonly it goes bad, or I would have called my own doctor and gone to the trouble of getting my own, correct, prescription.
To my friends who counter that "we" don't have a problem--some "they" does--I say that some of us don't really understand what "WE" means. Also, I hope and pray that someone they love isn't victimized by prescription drug abuse; Be it a child accidentally ingesting pills, an accidental overdose, a pain-killer robbery, or some other drug-related crime, we are susceptible unless we find a way to address the problem.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Tyler Incinerator Project, please follow this link: http://www.gofundme.com/tylerincinerator
In its simplest form, this model translates like this:
- Before you decide to go do anything in a community, you first find ways to gauge the needs there.
- After you know the true needs (usually backed up with statistics), you have to build Capacity. Capacity is both who you can get involved in the effort and resources you need to achieve your goals.
- Once you have inventoried both people and materials, you can develop specific plans for the action you are going to take.
- Implementation is simply applying the plan to real life.
- Evaluation includes judging how successful the action was at addressing the community's needs, and improvements.
Now that I have learned it and operated from it for nearly a year, I can't unlearn it. Try as I might, I can't get it out of my head. Seriously, it is like something out of Poe.
The first part, Assessment, is the answer to the question in the title of this post. Why raise money for an incinerator? Well, our community needs one. Right here in Tyler, we have a problem with prescription drug abuse, and no one is coming to town to do anything about it. It's up to us. Knowing this is true, based on actual needs in my community, I can't get past how serious a threat unused prescription drugs can be, and I can't walk away and not try to offer a solution.
I want everyone in East Texas to know that prescription drug abuse and misuse is deadly--it is no safer than street drugs. I want every person to know that someone--police or the sheriff's office--will take up turned-in drugs at least a couple of well-publicized times each year and destroy them, free of charge. I want it to be as common and easy to get rid of old drugs as it is, today, to recycle cardboard and plastic.
I don't want to read another story of a person whose life has been shortened because of an accident with leftover pills, or from taking someone else's medications, especially not children. Listen, I have taken someone else's painkillers and been thankful for them, but it can so easily go the other way. I didn't know how commonly it goes bad, or I would have called my own doctor and gone to the trouble of getting my own, correct, prescription.
To my friends who counter that "we" don't have a problem--some "they" does--I say that some of us don't really understand what "WE" means. Also, I hope and pray that someone they love isn't victimized by prescription drug abuse; Be it a child accidentally ingesting pills, an accidental overdose, a pain-killer robbery, or some other drug-related crime, we are susceptible unless we find a way to address the problem.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Tyler Incinerator Project, please follow this link: http://www.gofundme.com/tylerincinerator
December ETSAC Meeting
East Texas Substance Abuse Coalitions' Decembermeeting is set for Tuesday, December 16. We will meet back at the Cotton Patch Cafe (click HERE for map link) from 11:30 until 1:00.
On the agenda for this month:
I want to again update you all about the progress on the Incinerator fundraiser, and collaborate with you on the Implementation Plan that I am developing for this year (this time for real).
Coalition members and guests are welcome to share with the group as well. In fact, if anyone has a need you'd like me to mention, or if you want something added to the agenda, please email me and we will make it happen.
Also, it is Christmastime, so...
On the agenda for this month:
I want to again update you all about the progress on the Incinerator fundraiser, and collaborate with you on the Implementation Plan that I am developing for this year (this time for real).
Coalition members and guests are welcome to share with the group as well. In fact, if anyone has a need you'd like me to mention, or if you want something added to the agenda, please email me and we will make it happen.
Also, it is Christmastime, so...
See you in two weeks!
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
November meeting set
East Texas Substance Abuse Coalitions' November meeting is set for Tuesday, November 18. We will meet back at the Cotton Patch Cafe (click HERE for map link) from 11:30 until 1:00.
On the agenda for this month:
I want to update you all about the progress on the Incinerator fundraiser, and collaborate with you on the Implementation Plan that I am developing for this year.
Coalition members and guests are welcome to share with the group as well. In fact, if anyone has a need you'd like me to mention, or if you want something added to the agenda, please email me and we will make it happen!
On the agenda for this month:
I want to update you all about the progress on the Incinerator fundraiser, and collaborate with you on the Implementation Plan that I am developing for this year.
Coalition members and guests are welcome to share with the group as well. In fact, if anyone has a need you'd like me to mention, or if you want something added to the agenda, please email me and we will make it happen!
See you next Tuesday!
Friday, November 7, 2014
The Drugs in Our Cabinets
Jacob Hamilton Garrett had been missing for a month when his body was found last March slumped against a tree in a wooded area behind an auto shop, where an employee was installing a fence.
Jacob was 14 years old. A 7th grader at Whitehouse Junior High.
“Jacob was a teenager who was trying to experiment with pills,” said his sister, Robin Hukill Potter, in a Facebook post. “Jacob took a couple meds that you cannot mix. He didn’t know that you couldn’t mix those meds.”
Teenagers are killing themselves with the medicine we leave in our cabinets.
“Deaths from drug overdose have been rising steadily over the past two decades and have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States,” according to the Center for Disease Control website. “Every day in the United States, 114 people die as a result of drug overdose, and another 6,748 are treated in emergency departments for the misuse or abuse of drugs. Nearly 9 out of 10 poisoning deaths are caused by drugs.”
"It's a very serious issue, it is on the rise," said David Davis, Pharmacist, at Good's Medicine Chest in Tyler in a KETK article. "Your teens believe that prescription drug abuse is safer than abusing illegal or street drugs, which is wrong, they're both dangerous drugs … Teens feel like it's not illegal to abuse prescription drugs, when in fact it is illegal to abuse a prescription drug or take a prescription drug that's intended for someone else."
So one of the goals of the East Texas Substance Abuse coalition is to raise money to purchase an incinerator for the Smith County Sheriff's Department, so area residents can safely dispose of their unused prescription drugs (flushing your pills down the toilet contaminates the water supply). Click here to learn more and to donate.
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