The Voices for Voices TV Show and Podcast Episode 64 with Guests, Officer Aaron Browne and Christina Woodside

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Welcome to the Voices for Voices podcast and TV show sponsored by Redwood Living. Thank you for joining us today. I am Justin Alan Hayes, Founder and Executive Director of Voices for Voices, host and humanitarian.

You can learn more about Voices for Voices on our Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube channel at Voices for Voices, and also on our website, voicesforvoices.org. Voices for Voices is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit charity organization, otherwise referred to as an NGO, a non-government organization, and we survive solely on donations. So if you're able to, please consider heading over to voicesforvoices.org to help us continue our mission and the goal and dream of mine to help three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. Or you can also send a donation to the mailing address of Voices for Voices. And that's at 2388 Beckett Circle, Stow, Ohio 44224.

Or you can also find us on the Cash App at Voices for Voices. Are you or somebody you know looking for a volunteer opportunity? If so, you can reach out to us today via email at president@voicesforvoices.org. Now, I founded Voices for Voices to provide a platform for folks to share their stories with others as we work to break the stigma around mental health, accessibility, and disabilities, helping people get the help they need and also helping them prepare and or transition into the workforce with the Voices for Voices Career Center where we connect talent with opportunity for both job seekers and employers alike from coast to coast and in every industry and job level.

And who can forget about merchandise? The Voices for Voices merchandise shop is up and running at voicesforvoices.org/shop where shipping is always free. And again, all donations are 100% tax deductible. Today's guests joining us in Studio are happy to be here as well as I am happy to have them.

And the way I want to really kick off this episode is individuals who have gone through addiction, potentially an overdose, trauma, sometimes feel alone. I know I have through my mental health recovery journey, wondering if I'm the only person that's going through a certain situation or a certain trauma experience. And today's guests are really going to bring that home here, especially to Akron, Ohio, and talk about ways that they are helping people show that they care and that there are resources available for them if they're going through a tough situation.

So joining us in studio today is Christina Woodside. She is a certified peer recovery supporter with the Summit County Public Health Department. And also we're pleased to have Aaron Brown, a police officer with the Akron Police Department. Thank you both for joining us today.

Christina Woodside:

Yeah, it's good to be here.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Thanks for having us.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

So let's jump right into it. Maybe, Christina, you can talk a little bit about what you do and the importance of what you do and maybe some of the feedback you get when you go on calls and reach out to individuals.

Christina Woodside:

Okay. Sure, I would love to do that. Again, my name is Christina Woodside. I work for Summit County Public Health. I am a certified peer recovery supporter. And one of my roles for working for the health department is being a part of Akron's Quick Response Team, which is a QRT, that's what we call it. But it is basically a post overdose response team for people who have overdosed in the past week.

And what we do is we try and reach out to them so they feel like their life is worth something. Just because they had an overdose, it doesn't mean that they're not cared about. Just to give you a little background on myself before I go into the big spiel here-

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Please.

Christina Woodside:

... I also am in recovery. I suffered for 25 years with a substance use disorder. I've been in recovery for over five years now, and my passion is to go out and help those people who are still in the dark. Hopefully I can be a little light that they can see. And I like to call myself a little seed planter because never underestimate the power of planting that one seed. Now, if it's through QRT and we can help them that way and trying to help them with resources that are available, then hey, if we can reach one person, I think then we're doing our job. Yeah?

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Yeah. Its-

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Aaron, you want to jump in?

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Yeah, I'm Aaron Browne, currently assigned to the Community Engagement Team with the Akron Police Department. I've been on the department for 21 years, got involved with the Quick Response Team, from the inception, I believe. 2017, 2016 maybe. God, getting old. Dating myself, sorry. So from the inception and have been doing it to where I'm regular, the only one that does it from the police department every Thursday, going out with Christina as well as a fireman who couldn't be here with us today. So glad I could be here to talk a little bit about what we do.

Christina Woodside:

Yeah.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah. And so you mentioned within a week of an overdose is your action plan of how you maybe get a list of individuals, and then you go based off of that. So what does that look like, a visit, maybe just at a high level of, do you call ahead? Do you show up? What do you bring? Just so maybe somebody has experienced a visit and didn't know what to expect, and maybe somebody, unfortunately, hopefully they're not, but if they do go through an overdose situation to know that they're cared about.

Christina Woodside:

Right, right.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Lieutenant of our narcotics division compiles a list of overdoses and we get that every Wednesday for the city of Akron. He filters it, so people that overdose in the city but may maybe live outside the city, they're referred to an outside agency QRT team, if that's available. If people have warrants, we do not visit them. Just puts us in an awkward position where if they have a warrant and I'm there, do I have to make an arrest? And it's not productive.

So the people that are eligible that ultimately make the list, we have that, and we plot a course throughout the city, and we go through the list, and we come and we knock on your door. We introduced ourselves, obviously, what we do. It was a little awkward at first. People were a little apprehensive like, "What's going on?" But over the years, people have heard about us and heard about what we do, so more doors are starting to open now, which is great, the more people we can talk to.

And I think another important part about it is we go out to their house and meet them where they're at to try and help them. It's not in a hospital setting, something that's cold. It's where they're at. So I think that can help ease the tension a little bit and get people to talk to us.

Christina Woodside:

Absolutely. I agree with that, meeting people exactly where they're at, and that's going in and knocking on their doors. We are, I would say, boots on the ground type of team-

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Sure, absolutely.

Christina Woodside:

... that just goes out there and let's people know that hey, their life is worth us trying to help them. 'Cause we provide resources and education about overdose awareness and Narcan, we pass out Narcan. It's free. We give out Fentanyl test strips because just in case, "Hey, you are using a substance, please check your substances before you use them." Because Fentanyl has been killing people. Let's just be honest, it's killing people out there. And it's the number one cause of the overdose deaths in our Akron City. So check your product before you do it if you're going to do it.

We also have partnered up with American Heart Association, and they give us CPR kits to pass out, which has a video educating them on exactly how to give CPR. You may not be certified, but let me tell you, the education is important because sometimes the Narcan doesn't work, and you're going to need to know how to help people if they're not breathing or they're overdosing and you don't have Narcan. Let's just say you don't have Narcan. That's a good educational tool to have on hand.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

And that's key when you call 911, and they're not breathing. The dispatcher will start to instruct, "Okay, you need to do CPR chest compressions until the paramedics arrive." So that goes hand in hand with an overdose. So the more people we can educate... And this just goes, and I tell people this all the time, you could be in a grocery store and somebody could have cardiac incident. CPR is an invaluable tool to have in case something should happen.

Christina Woodside:

Absolutely.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Anywhere.

Christina Woodside:

Yeah.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

So...

Christina Woodside:

Yeah.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Christina, having the lived experience of going through and still continuing to go through recovery, do you get maybe more receptive responses as you're sharing information that... I'll just use an example of being an instructor at school and talking about marketing. And so they talk about the different principles, the Ps, and the product, price, place, promotion, and go through that versus using that information in that lived experience of different experiences I've been through that a student may encounter somewhere down the road.

So having that lived experience going out into the community, what's the response that you get and you feel that they're able to relate a little bit more to you versus somebody coming with just a pamphlet and information like, "You need to do this, you need to do this."

Christina Woodside:

Exactly.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

You're like, "Look, I'm doing it."

Christina Woodside:

Right. Exactly. I hope the response is good. Sometimes I can't always tell right there at that moment.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Sure.

Christina Woodside:

But I believe just the relating with somebody, like, "Hey, I've been there; I know what you're going through" is a good... Some people are like, "Oh, thank God." I really hope that that reaches a lot of people, more than what I can see right there in the moment. But having that lived experience is just, "Hey, there's hope for you. I can do it. You can do it too," and let's give some hope to them. It's a hope thing, I believe. It's like a seed planting and a hope that they can also change their life if that's what they're willing to do. It's possible. We do recover.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

And I do want to share with the audience, I first met Christina, I think it was late 2022 at Summit County Public Health. They were having a free Narcan distribution at McDonald's on Dare Road and in Hudson/ Stow. I'm not sure, it's very close on the line there. But that was when I first met Christina and learned a little bit about herself and her story. And throughout the months with Maggie, as you'll see on another episode, who's been the real key behind the scenes, putting the right people together for this series of episodes. So they were out doing that free distribution. Was able to meet them, and here we are a few months, several months later, putting this together. And I think just having an interest, whatever that interest may be, might put you in a situation where you come across people maybe you wouldn't come across ordinarily or in the course of your life, but sometimes connections are very helpful.

And by taking the work that we're doing at Voices for Voices, the work that the Akron PD is doing, the Summit County and Public Health Department is doing, we all, at the end of the day, we care about people, and that's why we're here. We're all human beings. And I think that's really the key for anybody at home, on the subway, listening, whether they're in northeast Ohio, in Akron, whether they're somewhere else in United States, or we do have audience, viewers, listeners across the world that may be hearing this. And so these episodes are meant to be an inspiration to you to show what regular human beings are doing and helping others.

And with all the craziness going out in the world, there are people that really truly want to want to help others. So bringing things back here to our conversation, why partner with the police? Is that a natural fit? Just in general as a program, people might think, okay, the program, somebody from the health department is reaching out. How did the police? Was that an easy integration, just for somebody you might not know?

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Actually some history on it: QRT was formed in 2015 in Colerain Township, which is outside Cincinnati and Hamilton County. And their kind of the baseline for how it got started, and their approach was, "Okay, we're going to have a recovery addiction coach, a police officer, and a paramedic; kind of a united front community. "Let's go out." All of us, whether I'm the first one on scene of an overdose or the paramedic is, we're all involved somehow. So that's how it got started, and that's how it formed in Summit County. And yeah, I think so far it's been a great fit.

And part of that too is a lot of people going through addiction issues fear the police and say, "Okay, they're just here to arrest me." So a lot of that, I'm just there to say, "Hey, we're here to help and educate, whatever we can do to help. Don't be scared." There was programs, Good Samaritan Law. We can educate people on that, so where if somebody does overdose, there is a minor amount of drugs there, you don't have to worry about calling the police and getting arrested. That's fine; we'll put you in this program, no criminal charges, because ultimately the goal is to get help. You can't just keep arresting people and expecting sending them to jail is going to fix the problem. You have to get to the root of the problem, and that's kind of what we're here to do.

And-

Christina Woodside:

Absolutely.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

... Christina's got all the resources, so I'm just there to be a smiling face and say, "I'm here to help."

Christina Woodside:

And he is. He's very passionate about it, the job, as well as I am. And our Akron fire paramedic, he's awesome too. Sometimes they switch out because of shift changes and different, I guess, schedules that they have. But I think it's important to have Akron PD and the fire, because they're the ones that first respond on the scene. They have the information. They might know the person that we're going to check up on 'cause they went on scene. So I think it's important to get, 'cause they have the info. Yeah, they have the info, and it's good that we partnered up so people can say, "Hey, we're partnered together, and we're out there in the community to try and help people." 'Cause that's what we love to do, right?

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

And as you mentioned with the model in Colerain and bringing that up to Summit County with Akron PD, the work that you do, it's not statewide; it's not every city, every police department, is that correct?

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Correct. And I wish I had better numbers. I know there are certain cities that do do it. I believe Barberton has a program, Cuyahoga Falls may have a program. But then there are certain cities that don't have programs. And we'll see that. We'll see somebody that overdoses within the city of Akron has address, especially smaller town, sometimes outside of the county, and there is no QRT team that handles that. So oftentimes Christina will try to reach out, either sending something through the mail, or if we do have a phone number, we can reach them over the phone to try and talk to them and see if there's anything that she can do, any resources that she can provide. But I wish I did have, statewide, how many groups were actually doing this.

Christina Woodside:

Yeah. And I think it's also important too that we really try to build connections and relationships with people. We really do. Whether they're responsive of it, that's another story. But we really try and connect and have relationships with people. We empower people to take control of their own health and wellness, even if it's just by giving them a Narcan kit. And we provide resources and education, as Aaron has said-

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Education, yeah.

Christina Woodside:

... because there are programs out there. Even now, too bad Akron Fire isn't here because they have partnered up with Summa. Okay? And right now on... We've had it, what, in the last month?

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Probably in the last month.

Christina Woodside:

The last month we've had Suboxone on our QRT team, and Akron Fire Paramedic is basically in charge of that. But we have that readily available for somebody if they're right there, in the moment, are ready, and they want to do. And of course they meet the criteria because there's certain criteria you have to meet before we can put you on a Suboxone program and then have you follow up with Summa. But yeah, that's available too. We haven't had experience with it yet, but-

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

No. Still in the infancy stage-

Christina Woodside:

Right.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

... so-

Christina Woodside:

But it is available. And I think that's awesome. That's awesome that we're giving another opportunity, another choice for somebody who's looking to change their life. There's another way. There is another way if they're not happy with what they're doing.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

And I think that leads into maybe some figures that you may have of...

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Absolutely. Just some numbers that I pulled up prior to coming up here. This time last year to June... What is today? The 13th. There's been 43 deaths in the city. These are just city of Akron numbers, not countywide. That same time last year there were 66 deaths, so that's a decrease of 35%, which is outstanding. Obviously anytime the numbers can go down, that's great.

Whether that's through education, the availability of Narcan now, I'm sure is paramount to why those numbers are down, 'cause Narcan saves lives. But along with going out, our goal is to educate people. Oftentimes we encounter people that say, "Yeah, opioids not my drug of choice. I've never had it. I thought this was cocaine, I thought this was meth." And what we're finding is opioids are working their way into every narcotic on the street: marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine.

We talked to a young lady last week; marijuana was her choice. She rolled a joint, took a hit, and fell out. So it's popping up in everything. Pills are getting pressed: Vicodin, Xanax. And people unsuspectingly take that. And luckily, well, in some cases, Narcan has been readily available to revive them. But it's scary stuff. And that's why the health department has the test strips to try and help combat that.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

And I think something that's in my mind and has been until we started the process, myself, Maggie, and we're working this through, is these things are happening to everybody. While there are zip codes in the city, and that might be primarily 'cause the population is just more dense there, but I think sometimes people think, and maybe I had a thought of, oh, okay, it's only the people that do this. And what I'm learning, and in especially this conversation, things are happening to everyday people. It can be potentially a student, if they're experimenting at a party, all the way up to a professional businessperson. And can you speak to that? That it knows no bounds, really?

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Oh yeah, absolutely you're correct. There is not one zip code in the city of Akron that we have not been to. Not one zip code. We have been anywhere from $750,000 houses to $20,000 houses. We've seen elderly people, teenagers, college students, homeless people, people that have great jobs. It runs the gamut of everything. It's not biased to, oh, you're poor, or you're African American, or you're this. It truly affects all people. So yeah, thanks for bringing that up.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Sure.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

That's great. Appreciate that.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Yeah. So how can other departments learn more about the program, the QRT that you're doing, and if they're interested, how will the department go about finding an interest in the program and then having that go to execution of having it come together? And I know there's a lot of steps, but there might be another city, another department that's like, "Wow, I didn't know this was available." How could somebody go about that?

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Yeah, as far as the police department goes, they could contact the City of Akron Police Department, the community engagement office, to talk to me or anybody in the police department about QRT. I don't know if the health department got the ball rolling on it and then teamed up with us. I'm guessing that's what happened, is the health department, and we kind of collaborate.

Christina Woodside:

Right, right.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

I didn't know all the working parts when it got going. But yeah, if anybody, any departments out there, see this and have any questions, you can feel free to contact me. I can leave my contact information with you, and you want to post it. I'm available, not 24/7, but pretty close.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Want to touch on-

Christina Woodside:

Well-

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

... the pieces?

Christina Woodside:

Well, I believe my coordinator would know all the information on all that. And I can leave that information. I think Maggie already has it, but yeah, my coordinator would be the one to talk to about that.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

So any closing thoughts? Topics, areas that we didn't cover? Any highlights we want to want to leave? The takeaways for people watching, listening, checking the transcript out?

Christina Woodside:

Yeah, And I made sure that I put this in my notes to say this because I think it's important because there's not one perfect solution to what's going on in the world today, especially with the opioid crisis. But QRT teams and other teams and other agencies who do the same, it's going to make a difference in our community, even if it's just one person at a time. Yeah.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

And I would say to anybody that feels hopeless out there, there is help. There's people that want to help. Shoot, we had people from Summa Hospital riding with us, and they're like, "Please bring people in that we can help. We have these new departments set up to help people," and they are just looking for the bodies to help. So don't feel helpless. There are people out there that want to help. So never feel like you're going through this alone. There are people out there that want to help.

Christina Woodside:

Amen.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Aaron, Christina, thank you for joining us. It's been a pleasure to be able to get this information out to more people and let them know that the resources are available and people do care about them.

Christina Woodside:

Absolutely.

Akron Police Department Officer, Aaron Browne:

Thanks for having us. Appreciate it.

Christina Woodside:

Thanks for having me.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

Absolutely.

Christina Woodside:

Yeah, it's great. Thank you.

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes:

You're welcome. And thank you, our audience, our listeners, our viewers for joining this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. We hope that this information is helpful. Please pass it along, share with others, because the goal is to let every single person know that they are cared about and that their life matters, like Christina was saying. Until next time, I am Justin Alan Hayes, Founder and Executive Director at Voices for Voices. And until next time, please have a great day and be a voice for you or somebody in need.

Please donate to Voices for Voices, a 501c3 nonprofit charity today at: https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/donate


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