Award winning journalists Iris St. Moran and Christy Casciano bring Syracuse, New York's biggest stories to light, covering everything from government decisions to crime. We have a lot of shootings in our community. We have, you know, car thefts. But this year, they faced a growing concern they couldn't simply report on. They felt driven to take action and make a difference.

We hear it on the scanner all night long, especially you working the night shift. So we hear what first responders are being called to. Right.

And it's heartbreaking. We were hearing from a lot of families too. From reporting to responding. Hear how these TV journalists are hoping to save lives amid our nation's deadly opioid epidemic. You're listening to Grieving Out Loud. I'm your host, Angela Kenecke. I recently had the opportunity to be part of a nationwide special on the opioid crisis sponsored by Walmart. During the taping, I had the privilege of meeting dozens of inspiring people working tirelessly to make our communities safer. Among them, two TV news anchors from Syracuse, New York, who started their own life saving mission after being asked to be part of a TV special at their station.

Well, Christy and Iris, can you tell me a little bit about where the interest came for you to do this special, More Than a Number, for News Channel 9? And then what you learned along the way. Our management came up with the idea because of what we were seeing in our community. And our news director approached Iris and I because they knew that we had an interest in this, so we both done stories on the opioid epidemic in our community, and asked us would we be willing to take a real deep dive into it and cover many different aspects, many different angles. And Iris, I don't want to speak for you, but I know you were all in.

Yes, and being, when I was reporting, covering overdoses, you know, in the newsroom we hear it on the scanner all night long, especially you working the night shift, so we hear what first responders are being called

to. Right, and it's heartbreaking. We were hearing from a lot of families too, and as Iris said, I work at night, and I'm right next to the scanner, and two, three, four times a night I would hear these overdose calls. Right. And I just couldn't help but think, all right, this is more than just a call. This is somebody who's desperate, somebody who needs help. And we have all of these resources now to fight up at night. Our evenings get busy. We have a lot of shootings in our community. We have, you know, car thefts, and now they also have to deal with people who are struggling. It's not a crime. It's not a crime. An addiction is not a crime. We so wanted to make sure our community understood that. These are people who are struggling, who need help. And every night you could hear there's another person who needs help. So we wanted to do what we could to make our community better. To help our viewers understand the importance. of caring. And that's why we both decided to do the best job we could. Yes. Do as much research as possible. Talk to as many people as we could and try and fit it into an hour format, which was difficult as we had a lot of, a lot of interviews, a lot of content. It Left over, but we managed to turn a lot of it into a podcast and we found some web space too on our local aspire.com to also put some of that extra content in. So we just wanted to do a really great comprehensive job and I, I think we were able to do that. Yeah. I'm really proud of what you're able to accomplish. Yeah, I was really impressed when I watched some of it. I always say instead of judgment, we need compassion. Instead of punishment, we need treatment. It's not a crime. People are suffering from substance use disorder. Unfortunately, it's often looked at as somebody else. It's the other person. But now we're at a tipping point with this crisis, with overdoses and fentanyl poisoning deaths that it's almost affected everybody in one way or the other, don't you think? It has affected everybody. You know, we talked to parents of kids who play sports. They're affected. We've talked to kids whose parents who are addicted. We've talked to, you know, the school community, our police community. We're seeing it affect so many people. It's heartbreaking. It just rips your heart out. when you hear the personal stories of the

struggles. During the special, the reporters got to ride along with police officers as they witnessed firsthand the dangerous and deadly realities of the opioid crisis. They also shared audio from an overdose response call, bringing the crisis to life in a powerful way. riveting, wasn't it? Yeah.

When we were at the training with Camillus Police, uh, Captain Nightingale, he shared with us the call and we had to obviously figure out if we could use it, but we found a way to do it with protecting the identity of the individual. But we thought it was important just for people to hear, you know, you can hear the person struggling to breathe. You could hear officers and minister. And I think it brought it home to how serious and how quickly You need to act. You see

it for yourself. And look how quickly it works. That young man was revived within minutes. And had that crew not been there He would have lost his life. So right away, you're okay. What can I do to learn how to do this? So it gets you motivated to want to learn because you see it for yourself of just how incredible this little tool is. It's so small, but it's so mighty. And then you want to, you want to learn. What can I do? How can I do that?

Those questions would soon be answered. While working on the special, the anchors were asked to go beyond reporting and learn how to respond. They took part in a training session on administering Naloxone, the life saving medication that can reverse opioid overdose.

We don't have medical backgrounds, so I have to be honest with you, when they pitched this to us, I was nervous. I thought, Oh my gosh, could I actually spray someone and ask them, what does that entail? And what are the signs and what if the person who I think is overdosing isn't overdosing and it's another medical condition? And then I give him this, this nasal spray and I do more harm than good. All these things run in your mind and you don't have confidence at that point because you haven't been trained yet. Okay. And it was really simple. It was simple. And I think that was important because we could speak to the fact when we shared the story with our viewers, we did it. If we can do it, you can do it. And we kind of took away some of the myths. We took away the nervousness. Yeah, because both of us, you know, You know, wanted to learn, didn't know anything about it, and this training took away all that fear, that anxiety that we had before we got to really get trained and understand the scope of the training so we could speak to the fact, this is how you do it. This is why it works. This is why you need to learn. Yeah. When I sent this home with, with kids. And as reporters, we're always taught not to become part of the story, right? To be removed from the story, to have that distance for objectivity. Obviously, when my daughter died from fentanyl poisoning, that became the story when I chose to share it. And I did that to try to help other people, to try to warn other people, to try to prevent it from happening to other parents. But learning something like this, why was it important as reporters that the two of you actually learn it? Right. We both want to say we're just so sorry for loss. Yeah. Our hearts go out to you. Um, by learning this, you are being given the power to save a life. How powerful is that? And we're part of the community. We could easily come across someone who's overdosed on a story because we're set throughout our community. And we wanted to show others the importance and the simplicity of it. It's something this small that you can have in your purse, you can have it in your car. It's something that every office should have, every restaurant should have, every sports rink should have. You know, school, libraries, this should be everywhere. Because you never know when you're going to come across somebody who's struggling. and needs that life saving click little sprint and it's simple. So we thought since we're part of this community, why not do it and show everyone this is something that is so powerful and it's so small and it's something that needs to be everywhere in our community. And we now have a Naloxone kit here at our station, which we didn't have prior to doing this series. So I think it was pretty effective. What a great way. to get more people. You know what? I don't like to call these naloxone kits. I call rescue kits. Yeah, right. And we need to get more people in our community rescue ready and we need to be rescue ready to if we were going to convince people of the importance of this. What misconceptions did you maybe have going into this training that were dispelled? I was afraid of not recognizing the signs of someone overdosing, first of all, and they teach you that in the training session. So that was number one. And then I thought, okay, let's say I'm confident that this person has overdosed and I have to administer this spray. What if I sprayed somebody who didn't need it? Am I going to hurt this person? And then they teach you that this will not harm anyone. It's not going to hurt anybody. who may not need it. And that was comforting. That was very reassuring.

I think for me that it may take more than one. They said that it could take several sprays. So we're given two, but you might be in a situation where, you know, one spray may not do it. And I feel like. Not being prepared for that and maybe possibly being in that situation where that one spray is not making an impact. Obviously, you know, we're told to call 9 1 1 and have that on the way, but I think just being prepared to know that it could take a lot of Naloxone, right?

That's important to note that 9 1 1 should still be called.

That is, and call 9 1 1 so emergency responders can appropriately take care of the patient and make sure that they have the help that they need because they stress that, you know, getting emergency care is important just to make sure the person is actually okay.

Right. And you also want to make sure that person who obviously is struggling with an addiction gets the help that they need. So if you. Go ahead and administer the Naloxone, um, and you say, okay, great job. Let's go on our way. No, they need to get into a treatment center. They may need some other kind of medical help that you're not aware of. So be sure to call 9 1 1 as well. This isn't the end of the step to saving their lives. There's more to it.

I know in some instances, people were afraid of getting in trouble with police, but in New York, it's the state law that you are protected if you, you lease. do that part of 9 1 1.

Right. The good Samaritan laws that are out there in states that really protect anyone who's with that person that overdoses from getting into trouble, the fear of getting into trouble, always call 9 1 1. Right. It's uplifting when you hear the triumphs. So that was also our objective. We also wanted to be positive and give people hope. That you don't have to give up. There's help out there. We wanted to make sure that we provided avenues for help. And one of those is getting trained in how to use Narcan. How is your community doing with getting Naloxone out there? We know that nationally, overdose deaths rates are down by about 10%. But that's not true everywhere, and they say the reason for the decreases is because of Naloxone getting out to more and more people. So, how's your community doing with that? Well, I know there are a lot of Naloxone training sessions that are being held and more widespread, so there's more availability of it. They're making it much easier for people to get trained. in your own community. You don't have to travel far anymore to find a training session. Also, there's videos that are available too, if you

want to watch and learn that way. If you'd like to learn how to administer Naloxone, we've posted a link to a video in the show notes of this podcast. While you're there, we'd appreciate it if you'd take a moment to rate and review this episode, along with sharing it with friends and family. Every bit of support furthers our mission to end the overdose crisis. Connect those struggling with substance use disorder to treatment and prevent others from experimenting with illicit drugs in the first place. Together, we can make a difference.

And even in spots in our community where the overdose rate is high in sections of the city, they've also made naloxone kits available street ready availability. So you can just walk up to this, you know, box and there'll be naloxone kits there in pockets of the community where the overdose rates are high. And like you said, hopefully someday there'll be everywhere, including by every AED, every defibrillator. I think that in every building that it would just be a safety tool that we have and it's readily available. Right. Wouldn't that be something, Angela? I mean, if you picture that there's an AED and right next to it, naloxone kit everywhere. It should be as acceptable as learning CPR, as learning how to use an AED machine, which we know saves lives, right? So, why not this? We need to take that next step.

At Emily's Hope, we've installed several free naloxone distribution boxes throughout South Dakota, including Sioux Falls, Vermilion, Pierre, and Rapid City, and other communities across the state. Each box contains not only life saving opioid overdose reversal medication, but also clear instructions and a link to resources for substance use disorder treatment and prevention. We recognize that naloxone is often just the first step in saving a life and fostering change in our communities. Following the training session, do you

feel confident now that you could Come across somebody who appears to have overdosed that you could administer Narcan.

I do feel confident. I haven't, thankfully, had to use the training or the kits that were given, but if I were to come across a person who has overdosed, I feel like I can. And I'm grateful that I did the training to kind of, like Christie say, take the fear out of it.

There was a lot of fear, a lot of nervousness, not knowing the warning signs. What do you look for, for a person who's overdosed? And if somebody had overdosed in front of me, Chances are, prior to the training, I would have picked up the phone and called 911 and waited for the emergency crews to get there. But now, I'm confident that I would jump right in and do my best to try and save that person while on the phone with 911. Right, because even if it were a heart attack or a stroke or something else, just administering Narcan in case, I'm It's an overdose, could save their life and it certainly won't hurt them if it's not an overdose. That was my biggest concern too, was this type of administration of this spray gonna hurt somebody who had a heart attack or might have had a seizure or something that wasn't related to an overdose. I was real nervous about that, but they do a great job in the training and teaching you what to look for. The shallow breathing, that's a huge sign and if you do administer it. You're okay. Don't worry about it. You're not going to hurt that person. And that was

very comforting. Very reassuring. In addition to slow, irregular, or stopped breathing, other signs of an opioid overdose include being unresponsive, blue or purple fingernails and lips, and pinpoint pupils. The person may also have a slow heartbeat, low blood pressure, and pale, clammy skin. Is there enough training out there? Is it easy to get trained? Learn more at www. cdc.

gov. au It is easy to get trained. It only took us 30 minutes. A lot of people might think, I can't take a whole night off, I can't spend, you know, I'm busy with my kids, I got to get dinner on the table, I've got, I've got to get my kid to that hockey game. I'm not going to have time to get trained. My life is so busy. They make it easy for you. 30 minutes. You watch a video, they teach you all the signs of an overdose. They answer your questions. You watch And then it's hands on. You actually get to use the spray, which I think was a huge confidence builder for me anyway, is being able to get the feel, how you hold it, what happens when you spray it, how much of a push you get. You actually get to do it. And I think by doing it, you'll gain confidence. awareness, and you're going to want to be able to spread the word, and all of a sudden you feel, you know, energized and so confident that you want to try and get others on the page with you and try and spread what you learned and teach others. How to do it, to join you in the

trainings. And here locally, there are a number of agencies that offer this training. So, you know, I hope by watching this story, people were encouraged to sign up. And as someone who personally suffers from allergies and I take a nasal spray, it was very similar to that. So now I feel, you know, it's just like that spray. So. Right.

Yeah. It's just as easy as that. There's no difference. And we should mention that even if someone doesn't know where the training is, doesn't think they have access to training in their area, they can get the Naloxone. It's over the counter now. It's often being given out for free in different places. And if you don't have access to training, you can watch the video. You can take a QR code. You can go to the website, the manufacturer's website, and watch a video. And just by watching the video, you are essentially, or reading the instructions, you are essentially trained. Yeah, it's really accessible. And when you do go to the training, what's nice, too, is they gave us expired Naloxone kits so that we could do it as much as we want and practice. And that practice, I don't know about you, but it gave me the confidence, right? Absolutely. And thank you for doing the training and the special and all the work that you did on it because it's important. The more awareness that we have, the more people know, the more lives will be saved. I agree. That's what it's all about. That's our motivation. Thank you. It's been a pleasure meeting you. So nice to meet you too.

And thank you for taking the time to learn about how you can help make a difference in our nation's opioid epidemic. Tune in again next week for an insightful and inspiring episode about a high school dedicated not just to academics, but to supporting teens battling substance use disorder. We'll hear from a school official and a couple of former students who share their powerful stories.

I started drinking at three years old. My father gave me my first sip of alcohol. From there I would just run around the house and steal beers and drink them. I thought it was normal because My parents were very young when they had me, so my mom would go to work and my dad would throw parties. So I was exposed to a lot of things, such as like violence and like sex and things like that at a young age.

That's next week on Grieving Out Loud. Again, if you or a loved one are struggling with substance use disorder, please get help immediately. With deadly amounts of fentanyl flooding the illicit drug supply, there's no time to wait. You can find helpful resources at on our website, Emily's hope dot charity. We've put a link for you in the show notes of this podcast. Thanks again for listening until next time, wishing you faith, hope, and courage. This podcast is produced by Casey Wannenberg King and Kaylee Fitz.