Applauding efforts to teach opiate dangers

BOUQUETS>> To the Ohio State University Lake County Extension on receiving a grant to help educate children about the dangers of prescription opioid misuse.

The grant from Cardinal Health’s Opioid Action Program will allow a mixture of adults and teens who run afterschool programs to be trained in the Health and Opiate-Abuse Prevention Education curriculum. They will then run programs that will educate between 500 and 1,000 Lake County children.

Extension educator Sandra Allison said members of the YMCA, Salvation Army, Willoughby-Eastlake School teachers, 4-H youth and possibly Lake Metroparks will learn the HOPE curriculum.

Over the next year, the organizations will talk with students and parents in interactive prevention education sessions.

Separately, in collaboration with the Lake County General Health District, the Ohio University Extension is running “Project OPIATE” where Mentor and Willoughby-Eastlake High School students talk to their younger peers about opiate misuse. Last year was the first year of the program and Allison said they plan on continuing the program.

“Research and evidence shows peer-to-peer leadership education is more impactful, especially for youth with high risk,” Allison said.

We applaud all who are actively working in our community to battle the opiate scourge, and we hope this program makes an impact on our youth.

BOUQUETS» To Derek “Duke” Murphy and those involved in raising funds for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

It’s a personal issue for Murphy whose best friend, Patrick Ziegler, died by suicide in 2013.

“After something like that happens, you want to find a way to make something good come out of it,” he said.

Beginning in 2014, Murphy found that outlet as a participant in the annual Out of Darkness Walk coordinated by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

As captain of Team PZ, named in honor of Ziegler, Murphy will participate in the Out of Darkness Walk in Cleveland on Oct. 18.

But before that he’ll be joined by a host of family members in staging a fundraiser for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

The fundraiser is scheduled for noon on Aug. 18 in the Breakers Cafeteria at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland. The goal is to raise $10,000.

Suicide has claimed too many of our friends and neighbors. Efforts like Murphy’s can only help to shine a light on services available to those in need.

BRICKBATS» To those who’ve managed to misplace more than $1 million worth of medical equipment over the last three years in Ohio.

Inventory records show Veterans Affairs medical facilities across Ohio have lost track of more than $1.1 million worth of medical equipment over three years, the Associated Press reported.

WBNS-TV reports VA medical centers in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton and Chillicothe all lost equipment between 2014 and 2017.

Among the missing items were iPads, a $28,000 bedside monitor and a $12,000 stretcher.

The VA in Ohio spent nearly $24 million on tracking technology. And yet ... This must stop. Such carelessness takes away from the high quality care and service our veterans deserve.