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Indianapolis, Indiana // 1912 on Wallace

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My Experience

As this semester comes to an end there are many things to reflect on as a team.  We were able to accomplish some remarkable things such as establishing a partnership with the public school system for joco angels. There were many other projects that joco angels will be working on but I would like to think that we set the standard for future Campbell public health students.  It was really great to be able to help raise awareness about a public health issue such as substance abuse. We were able to network with many other organizations who had different approaches but the same goal. One of the proudest moments is when we got a chance to interact with the students and saw how much we were making a difference. Even though covid was an obstacle, we made it work and did the best that we could. I believe that middle school students learned a lot and it is my hope that future Campbell students can design more activities. I believe it is important to use the skills we learned in the classroom and use them out in the community.  I hope that we inspired young people to take a stand against substance abuse.

Interacting with the various organizations have been amazing in every way. We were grateful to help out with 12 stone recovery that doesn’t just dela with substance abuse, but they include mental health components that affect the overall health such as codependency. I’ve had so much fun meeting people in my community and explaining my goals for the future. It has been a great thing to also hear some of the stories and the struggles they have faced. Testimonies gave us an insight on the obstacles that they faced while battling addiction. I’ve learned that battling addiction also affects the family and community. They launched teen night which I had the opportunity to mentor to the teens along with some other groups members. I was extremely nervous, but they made me feel comfortable in the process and I used some faith-based techniques to drive my points home. This experience allowed me to learn so much from residents in the community that I could not have learned in the classroom.  I think it was very important that I was able to learn something as well as teach a few things. this was an opportunity that I’m glad I had through joco angels.

The connections I’ve made with some of the leaders have been so great. There are still a few events that I plan to volunteer my time for just because I’ve enjoyed it so much. I plan on helping the groups with opioid awareness events that will inform the community. I’ve offered to write articles on various topics for community outreach. Building a relationship with these leaders have meant so much to me. I’ve had a chance to interview a few of them and I’ve gotten incredible quotes that will stick with me forever. Working with this group has given me some good opportunities and I hope that I was able to help out in great ways. Working with this group was about helping the community.  I can’t wait to see what the group will accomplish in the next few years because I know they will make some great changes in the Johnston county area. I’m curious to see if other counties will adopt some principles of this group and establish sister groups in neighboring counties. I am so glad that I was able to work with this group because it even inspired me to do a literature review on the opioid topic.

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One of the article topics was access to healthcare. In summary I wrote “The opioid crisis has taken its toll on the United States in recent decades but there are unique barriers to quality health care in rural communities. According to a study conducted “In 2010, 47.6% of health centers provided on-site substance use disorder treatment, 12.3% provided buprenorphine treatment for opioids, and 38.8% were interested in expanding buprenorphine availability.” but the southern rural communities may have trouble getting the appropriate treatment for residents who deal with substance abuse. Some of the factors that have an impact on quality healthcare in rural settings are accessibility to quality healthcare, availability of providers who specialize in behavioral health, and acceptability in rural communities. Accessibility to adequate treatment has played a major part in the drug abuse issues that rural residents face. Treatment facilities are often far away in metropolitan areas in which residents must travel greater distances to seek help. Some residents may not have the transportation to get to detox facilities and others may rely on family members for transportation. In many cases, behavioral health issues may not be covered through health insurance. If access to quality care is not achieved, it will continue to divide the gap for residents to get the help that they need. The other component to quality care is availability. In many cases across the rural south, there are not enough medical professionals who specialize in substance abuse. Many providers choose to work in urban areas which leaves a supply and demand gap between patients who need special services and the providers to fulfill the demands. Providers who serve in rural communities are sometimes overworked and work in multiple locations just to meet the demand for special services. Certain medications such as suboxone and buprenorphine can be helpful tools to help treat drug addiction but, in many cases, the medications are not on the formulary of the insurance companies. If patients are unable to fill these medications, then the drug problem will get worse in rural areas such as Johnston and Harnett County. Drug therapies such as suboxone should be available for on-site treatment in clinics. The other important part of quality healthcare is acceptability. There is a stigma that surrounds mental health and substance abuse in rural counties. Some patients feel ashamed to reach out for help with battling drugs. Rural residents may fear that sensitive private information could be leaked out due to personal relations with other community members. Not all healthcare professionals are trained to deal with substance abuse and many cases are missed due to the lack of training in hospitals, doctors offices, and clinics. Even if there is training available to healthcare workers the program may not be designed specifically on rural community substance abuse. There are many ways that the threats to quality healthcare can be resolved so that the Johnston County community can see a decrease in drug use. Addressing the three parts of quality healthcare is the first step. Detox centers should be established in Johnston County with staff who is trained on techniques for dealing with substance abuse. One of the many goals of the JoCo Angels is to establish a detox center in Johnston County. This will provide a place for rural residents to get treatment. Public transportation should be available to get residents to the detox centers if they do not have reliable transportation. Medical professionals should be encouraged to work in rural communities where they can establish trusting relationships with the residents. Social stigma can be broken by having candid discussions on drug addiction and the resources available. JoCo member Kelly Blas stated, “To me, learning about addiction and being educated is the first step of really helping families.” The future of the opioid crisis can be resolved in rural areas if these root causes are addressed properly.” This will be submitted to the Benson newspaper within the next week. 

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One of the components of our practicum I’ve tried to introduce was a writing component. Although this was not a requirement, I wanted to do something for our practicum leaders to inform the community of the various topics of opioid use.  This was a great way to keep the public informed as well as bring positive exposure to the JoCo Angels group. We were in a meeting one day and I thought about writing for the newspaper. Writing informative pieces for the newspaper was always something I wanted to do but I didn’t have the opportunity. Our group was the first student group to work with JoCo angels, so I wanted to set the standard. Each week I researched a specific topic that related to the work that the JoCo angels were doing.  I found supporting information and wrote about the specific issues of substance abuse in rural communities.  Some of the topics included peer pressure, red ribbon week, access to quality healthcare, the lack of medical facilities, and special events hosted by the JoCo angels. I researched public health statistics to support the need for mitigations on each topic. I sent out written surveys to the members of JoCo angels to pull themes through qualitative analysis. There were some fascinating quotes that highlighted some health topics that we have discussed in class. One of the greatest topics that I have written about was on red ribbon week. The students are aware that the winning classes will be featured in a newspaper article, and this increased their engagement in the exercises that week. The students also gave some quotes to be used in the articles and we used a few in our group presentation. One of the challenges of writing newspaper articles is that I had to be mindful of my audience. I didn’t want to use too much scientific terminology, but I wanted the writings to still be effective to the public. After gathering enough support, I wrote articles and allowed some groups members to review them for revision. I revised the articles and sent them to our practicum leaders for approval before submitting them. I’ve completed about 8 articles so far and I predict that there will be 10 completed articles so that the JoCo angels can submit articles each month to bring awareness. It is my hope to get our articles published in the Campbell School newspaper and online resources. I also hope that the writing component will be a part of the groups in the near future. I hope that the students realize just how important it is to bring something meaningful to the groups that we are working with.  I hope that one day I can write a professional article on various health topics. I’ve learned so much in the process and through practice, I know that I will get better.  I wanted to be able to show my classmates a different way to help the practicum groups. I think all of the student groups can use this component to keep their communities engaged in what we are learning. The class has prepared me for this type of writing because I can use the tools I’ve learned and ply them in a way that I can present information to the public.  Before taking this class, I only used scientific writing to display information. One of the ways I made sure that my articles were clear is that I used family/friends without scientific backgrounds to make sure that the reading was clear and easy to understand.  If there were sections that they didn’t understand, I knew that I had to go back and format them in a way that would be clear. Overall this has been a great experience and I cannot wait to see what the future has in store.

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This week was red ribbon week which raised awareness about drug use for the youth. In preparation for this week, the Campbell students were allowed to design our event for two middle schools in Johnston County. We decided to make three short scenario videos that displayed common situations in which teens are subject two. Clips of movies and tv shows were used to analyze several themes in the content. A student presented some facts about the video afterward and offered some problem-solving skills for the students. The videos were sent out to the schools and shown to every classroom during this week. This opened up a chance for the teachers and students to discuss the issues and how each character handled the situation.

Another activity we did was create a poster board contest for each homeroom to participate in. As a group, we made a few example posters to show the school and allowed them to make a creative poster for red ribbon week.  Each class designed a poster for us to judge on Friday. Our first stop was at Benson Middle school, and we walked around to each classroom to judge their posters. We were able to interact with faculty, staff, and students about the importance of each lesson during red ribbon week. Some of the posters were hand-drawn with artistic themes and others included collages of photos to convey a message. Quotes such as “Be smart and don’t start.” Were displayed throughout posters of each grade level. Some included statistics about the number of deaths caused by drug addiction amongst teens.  During this event, the JoCo angels provided medication disposal kits for faculty to dispose of any controlled substances. We handed out red ribbons to students which was a symbol of their pledge to raise awareness of drugs. Once we concluded our time at Benson middle, we headed towards Mcgee's middle school to participate in the Red Ribbon Event. We met some of the administrative staff and talked to them about our program and the work with JoCo angels. Mrs. Sheppard provided us with words of encouragement that stuck without us throughout our time at the school. We then met with the Avid students who accompanied us on the tour of their school. All the posters were collected in the cafeteria. After judging the posters and we walked around and met up with several classrooms to discuss their thoughts on drug awareness and the videos they saw. A few students were shy at first, but they eventually opened up to us with honesty. We asked the students questions about the harms of drug abuse, issues of drug abuse, and resources to seek help. We were able to also pass our ribbons and pamphlets to each classroom with information about drug use. We wanted to leave them with something to remember this week.  After meeting with the middle schools, we were able to reflect on great moments and how the next groups of students could improve our events.  I asked Mrs. Sheppard for some written thoughts from the students on drug awareness so that they could be published in the new paper. The students provided us with some astounding thoughts that gave us insight into the issues they face as young adolescence.  After the winning teams were announced we were able to take their photos of the posters to submit to the newspaper. Quotes from the students were used for qualitative analysis on what we should focus on in the upcoming future. The JoCo angels said that they enjoyed the events and that they were impressed that we got access to Benson Middle. Even though we did not get a chance to visit every single student, every student was able to see the content that we presented to them, we hope that every middle and elementary school in Johnston and Harnett counties can participate in Red Ribbon Week.  These discussions must be established in the classroom where they can use educational tools to learn resolutions to these issues. Maybe one day every school in North Carolina can teach the importance of raising awareness against drug use.

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