August 14, 2018
By: Dwayne Page
Over the coming weeks the DeKalb Prevention Coalition will be focused on a campaign from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called “Rx Awareness”, which is the CDC’s first prescription opioid overdose prevention campaign to raise awareness of prescription opioid abuse and overdose.
DeKalb County’s current mortality rate for drug overdose per 100,000 population is 29, ranking the county 11th worst among the 95 counties in Tennessee and higher than the state rate of 22.
Listen for the public awareness campaign radio ads daily on WJLE, click the web ad on the WJLE website homepage, or view the video below to learn more.
The Rx Awareness campaign is evidence-driven and tells the real stories of people whose lives were torn apart by opioid use and abuse.
The Rx Awareness campaign focuses on adults ages 25–54 who have taken opioids at least once for medical or nonmedical (recreational) use, and it highlights the importance of reducing prescription opioid misuse and abuse to prevent overdoses. The goals of the campaign are to:
• Increase awareness that opioids can be addictive and dangerous; and
• Increase the number of individuals who avoid using opioids nonmedically (recreationally) or who choose options other than opioids for safe and effective pain management.
The first story is about Ann Marie. She never expected she’d lose her son to prescription #opioid overdose.
Ann Marie’s son, Christopher, was a great student and a gifted baseball player, and he was very close to his mother and sister. When he was 20 years old, Christopher was in a minor car crash and was prescribed opioids for back pain following the crash. Christopher’s tolerance grew quickly, and he sought out doctors who would prescribe him more opioids. He increased his intake from one pill a day to 25 pills a day. Ann Marie described how these pills and his addiction completely changed her son: everything he had worked for no longer mattered to him, he had trouble sleeping, often did not come home at night, and became defensive and combative toward the people he loved. Ann Marie tried admitting him to various treatment facilities, but he was either rejected or kicked out for poor behavior. Without help, his addiction persisted and intensified. Within roughly two years of beginning to use prescription opioids, Christopher overdosed and died at just 22 years old.
Ann Marie has been passionate about sharing her loss in the hopes of saving others from this tragedy. She started Christopher’s Reason, a place where people suffering from opioid addiction can be directed to the treatment they need.