Geauga gets new location for Project DAWN clinics

There is a new location for Project DAWN (Deaths Avoided With Naloxone) clinics in Geauga County.

The clinics will now be held at 5:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month at Ravenwood Mental Health Center, 12557 Ravenwood Drive in Chardon.

Clinics are available to anyone who is interested in learning how to recognize an overdose and administer naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication.

Those who attend the clinics receive a free naloxone kit.

The clinics are held through the Lake County General Health District, which holds clinics in Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties.

Last year, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams emphasized the importance of naloxone and advised more people to carry the medication.

“For patients currently taking high doses of opioids as prescribed for pain, individuals misusing prescription opioids, individuals using illicit opioids such as heroin or fentanyl, health care practitioners, family and friends of people who have an opioid use disorder, and

community members who come into contact with people at risk for opioid overdose, knowing how to use naloxone and keeping it within reach can save a life,” Adams said.

There were 94 total unintentional overdose deaths in Geauga County between 2012 and 2017 according to data from the Ohio Department of Health. Forty-nine of those overdose deaths occurred in 2016 and 2017 alone.

The Surgeon General’s office said research has shown that when naloxone and overdose education are available to community members, overdoses decrease in those communities.

“Therefore, increasing the availability and targeted distribution of naloxone is a critical component of our efforts to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths and, when combined with the availability of effective treatment, to ending the opioid epidemic,” the Surgeon General’s advisory states.

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE A tube of Naloxone Hydrochloride, also known as Narcan, is shown for scale next to a lipstick container.