Prevention board educates seniors, students about medication safety

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Juniata County residents looking for solutions to the opioid crises should start with their medicine cabinets, local officials said.

The problem often stems from the misuse of prescription drugs, said Michelle Beaver, the county’s chief probation officer.

Medications prescribed by doctors for pain often include opiates that affect brain function. Patients taking more or higher dosages than prescribed can end up greatly impaired.

“We had people get DUIs and they often argue they were just taking their prescriptions,” said District Attorney Cory Snook. If the prescriptions impair driving, it’s illegal to have them in one’s system when behind the wheel.

Beaver said she has seen the impact of all illegal drugs in the county including crack cocaine and methamphetamines. But pills are a problem all their own.

“We live in a society where if you want to feel better, you take a pill,” Beaver said.   This reliance can lead to addiction for some individuals.

In many cases, drug abusers are getting the opioid prescriptions from family members’ medicine cabinets. The elderly are especially targeted.

The Juniata County Probation Department, Tri-County Drug and Alcohol and county Prevention Board are working to educate senior citizens on how to keep their prescriptions out of the hands of users.

Beaver visits senior centers to explain how they can collect their leftover, unused prescriptions through the Prescription Drug Take Back Program.  Seniors bring their medications to the centers where members of probation and parole take them for disposal.

The seniors are also given tips how to keep current prescriptions hidden from visitors in their home.

“Many seniors grew up in an era where you would never dream of stealing from your grandparents,” Snook said, so many older persons have not even thought about how to store their medications.

Melissa Fausey, community coordinator for the Juniata County Prevention Board, said a recent prescription drug take-back from all three county senior citizens resulted in 14 pounds of medications that were destroyed.

Beaver also reminds the seniors how they, too, can be impaired by the prescriptions.

“I often ask them when I go in (to the senior center), ‘How many of you here are on prescription drugs?’ And people raise their hands. Then I ask, ‘How many of you drove here?’”

Fausey said parents also need to be aware of what’s in their medicine cabinets and need to keep prescription medications out of reach of all children of all ages.

Unused medication is like “low hanging fruit,” Fausey said.

The Prevention Board works with youth to help prevent destructive behavior. Students in grades six, eight, 10 and 12 in the county are given a survey every year regarding factors that impact teens.

“We don’t see teens using opioids at a high rate here. It was less than two percent in 2017,” Fausey said.

Fausey said students who do admit to taking drugs for a high get them from their own medicine cabinet at home.

In 2015 the survey revealed 46 percent of teens in Juniata County were using medications stored in their home. That number was down in 2017, to 21 percent, Fausey said.

She’s hopeful the decline is due to educating all ages about the misuse of prescriptions.