Debunked Podcast S1- Episode 12 Myth, “Only People Who Use Opioids Are At Risk Of Overdose”

S1 episode 12 / May 24, 2021

Tim Light, host of the acclaimed Debunked Podcast through USU and broadcast through UPR and NPR, discusses this myth with Mindy Vincent, LCSW, MPH, Founder and Executive Director of Utah Harm Reduction Coalition and DEBUNKED Editorial Board member, Brian Rogers, PhD, previous Executive Director of One Voice Recovery and Patrick Rezac, Founder and Executive Director of One Voice Recovery and DEBUNKED Podcast Editorial Board Member.

KRCL / RadioACTive: May 13, 2019

Musician Morgan Snow and One Voice Recovery’s Patrick Rezac. The two are partnering on an event to raise awareness and money to help fight the opioid epidemic in our community.

• May 18: Triggers & Slips cover Alice in Chains, 7:00 p.m. at The State Room, 638 S. State St., SLC. Salt Lake City’s own Triggers & Slipspay homage to the music and songs of Alice In Chains while raising awareness and money to help fight the opioid epidemic in our community. Show starts at 8:00 p.m.

  • A portion of the ticket sales will help support the local non-profit organization One Voice Recovery. Also, a representative from Utah Naloxone will be giving out information pamphlets, and free Naloxone (Narcan) kits at the show.

How Utah Naloxone is Helping Save Lives in Utah

April 15, 2019

All of these life-saving doses were administered by non-medical members of our community who obtained rescue kits from Utah Naloxone or one of its Overdose Outreach Provider partners just for this purpose. The recent reports bringing us to this milestone came from our partners at One Voice Recovery (OVR) who work across the state of Utah to educate on substance use disorder, work to decrease stigma, as well as to reduce infectious disease transmission and overdose deaths. These direct community partners are a major contributor to saving lives across Utah.

S51episode 8 part 1 - A Dose of Hope / A Dose of Greed

S51 episode 8 / November 18, 2017

“In 1971, almost half a century ago, emergency rooms started reversing opioid overdoses using a medicine called naloxone. It's generic today, and industry insiders told us it can cost as little as a nickel a dose to produce.

In April, in response to the national opioid crisis, the U.S. surgeon general came out with an advisory calling on more Americans to carry naloxone: elderly patients on painkillers, bartenders and librarians, mothers with addicted children and children with addicted mothers. But making naloxone accessible - getting it to those who need it - is complicated.”

Press release from Utah Office of the Attorney General

April 16, 2019

All of these life-saving doses were administered by non-medical members of our community who obtained rescue kits from Utah Naloxone or one of its Overdose Outreach Provider partners just for this purpose. The recent reports bringing us to this milestone came from our partners at One Voice Recovery (OVR) who work across the state of Utah to educate on substance use disorder, work to decrease stigma, as well as to reduce infectious disease transmission and overdose deaths. These direct community partners are a major contributor to saving lives across Utah.

Harm reduction and opioid overdoses

November 8, 2018 - In the Hive —Today on the show: What does harm reduction mean for at-risk communities? Angela Stander Ito, opioid overdose prevention coordinator at the Utah Department of Health, shares a few reasons overdose deaths are down among Utahns; Patrick Rezac, founder and executive director of One Voice Recovery, explains how education about drug use and self harm reduces the spread of infections and connects people to a path to recovery; and Volunteers of America Youth Resource Center Program Manager Carlos Garcia discusses substance use among Utah’s homeless teens. 

Dead for 6 Minutes After Overdosing, Price Woman Finds Her Purpose

“It hurt so bad,” she said while pointing to the side of her face. “It shattered this cheek bone, broke my nose, and decimated the cartilage in my ear. And I knew exactly where I could go to get heroin.”

Photos: Neighbors, volunteers clean up west-side area

May 23, 2017

Volunteers clean up trash and drug items in the area of 600 West and South Temple in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, May 23, 2017.

Addiction Discussion Dinner Prompts Community to Engage in Opioid Epidemic Battle

“a panel gathered to answer the community’s questions and discuss their plans to thwart the ongoing opioid epidemic. On this panel were representatives from the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments (SEUALG), C.A.R.E Coalition, Four Corners Behavioral Health, USU Extension, the HEART Initiative, Southeastern Utah Health Department, One Voice Recovery, CRAFT Family Support Group and an internal medicine and addiction physician, who was also a professor at the University of Utah.”

Op-ed: "We can beat the opioid epidemic"

"The Opioid Task Force assembled experts from diverse fields, including medicine, law, treatment, recovery, law enforcement and business. It includes physicians, pharmacists, legislators, local officials, educators, persons who have recovered from addiction and families affected by it."

‘We’re dying’: Feds hear from Utahns fighting on the frontline of the state’s rural opioids crisis

“We need more capacity in these rural areas,” he said — including more treatment and detox centers. Residents in Utah’s rural areas who seek treatment often wait for days, and that delay, Rezac said, can mean the difference between living and dying of an overdose.

Shunned By Some, Syringe Exchange Expands To Carbon County

"These days, the two men are allies in the opioid fight."

Building bridges to Utah drug users through Syringe Exchanges

"In a hidden area of trees and brush along the Jordan River, Rezac and Larson came upon a tent. Inside is a 58-year-old man named Odie who said he suffers from addiction to methamphetamine and alcohol. He’s been homeless for six months.It’s a tough life, he said of his current situation. He is thankful, however, that Rezac’s team looks in on him. The syringe exchange is critical, he said.

“It shows someone really cares.” 

Get those dirty needles off the street - Editorial

 "such efforts are clearly much better than standing by and watching users compound their health risks by exposing themselves to not only illicit drugs but also to unintended consequences that could include HIV/AIDS or hepatitis. And, until we come up with the money and the effort — emphasis on the word “money” — to provide far more treatment options, standing by is exactly what we are doing."

Utah’s hepatitis A outbreak among the homeless is one of three big flare-ups around the country

"The state usually sees three or four cases annually. Now, at least that many cases are reported each week."

Behind the Headlines: KBYU changes programming, syringe exchange builds bridges, police ask homeless for ID

A syringe exchange program in Salt Lake City aims to prevent the spread of disease among intravenous drug users, while saving money for the state health system. And people experiencing homelessness report being asked by police to show some form of ID,despite their legal right to not carry identification.

Volunteer Group Cleaning up Dangerous…

April 12, 2017

Syringe Watch has been out for a few weeks picking up needles from spots popular with drug users. They’ve also formed a hotline where people can call and report discarded needles.

Snags for overdose-reversing drug in Utah

“It just feels like a punitive, sort of targeted response” toward drug users, Rezac said. “There’s no other reason to take a lifesaving tool from somebody.”

Rezac and Plumb declined to call out specific agencies or groups. They said the issue is not confined to law enforcement, but also has cropped up at job environments and in housing and treatment.

Organizations Come Together For Disease Prevention Education

"Multiple organizations joined forces on Jan. 13 at the Southeastern Utah Health Department (SEUHD) to offer disease prevention education, free screenings and more. The event featured participation from the Southeastern Utah Health Department, Utah Naloxone, Four Corners Behavioral Health, One Voice Recovery and Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness"

He overcame drug addiction. Now he works to save the lives of other addicts on the street

“I think its absolutely devastating, ridiculous and absurd that people have to wait for a treatment bed,” says Rezac. “We have all these amazing private treatment centers in Utah, but only a small handful of options for people who are poor or uninsured.”

Billboard campaign works to prevent overdoses in Utah

“Sometimes that is a mom and sometimes that is a spouse and sometimes that’s even a child—anyone else who may be around someone at risk of overdose," said Utah Naloxone Medical Director Jennifer Plumb.

Utah's AIDS crisis, then and now: From one doctor in the 1980s to the U's new free clinic

"a historical documentary by Utah-based filmmakers Jenny Mackenzie and Jared Ruga, paints a heartrending portrait of sick patients with nowhere to turn, evicted from clinic waiting rooms by staffers who were afraid they could spread the disease or exiled by their families — some of whom refused to visit the hospital even as their children lay dying."

recovery Panel discussion video

https://www.facebook.com/AddictToAthlete/videos/359848227892583/