Welcome everybody to Midday magazine for this Friday September 13th, 2024.
I have your host James J. Mailoff here at 1030. We're in welcome in Tom Anderson.
We're going to talk with Tom about the Wisconsin State Fire and EMS Memorial.
They got some upcoming things with their final alarm and roll call ceremony coming up on the 28th.
Right now in studio, our good friend Jacob Wagner, public health strategist with our Wood County Health Department.
Jacob, good to see you. How you been? Good. Good to see you to James.
Thanks a lot for being here, man. We always appreciate the time.
Do want to send a gigantic shout out to our Wood County Health Department.
We appreciate all of you so very, very much and everything you guys do in our community.
And appreciate you being able to join us time to time like this, Jacob.
We know how busy you guys are. But we got a couple of important ones to touch on today with, you know, as far as pulling you away from your job.
We got a good reason to do it today. We got a couple of big things to talk about.
And a good place to start is this community survey that you got going on.
Yeah. So the 2024 Wood County Community Opinion survey on alcohol and other drugs is now available for individuals who live or work in Wood County.
So we'll be running the survey through the end of November.
By taking the survey, you will help us gain a better understanding of substance use in Wood County.
In addition to learning more about substance use in Wood County, this annual survey helps us understand public awareness of ongoing efforts and what is needed.
It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Once you complete the survey, you can enter to win a $25 quick trip gas card.
So that's the real seller of the survey.
Sure. Yeah.
I'm sure you're opinion with the health department. Right. Right.
But, man, $25 a quick trip, you feel like a little kid.
Yeah. That's free money right there. You can go around and just for answering a survey.
If you don't mind, Jacob, I do want to touch on something with you.
And it kind of is a broad subject with a lot of our guests that actually we have on.
And when it comes to public surveys, and these are things that are making the rounds as they do every year, and we're seeing more and more of these.
And the importance of filling these out, everything Jacob just said is not only important and necessary, but that is data that can really change lives here in this community.
I would say the majority of surveys, if not all of them have that kind of feeling, but there's something else that we don't often think about with these surveys.
And that data is also critical to getting funding, getting grants, getting state or government help.
It really does make a big difference when you fill these things out.
And not just locally, which is good enough reason to me, I would think most of our audience.
But to those that are kind of pushing back, or they just don't want to take the time to fill out a survey or what have you.
This adds to your tax dollars. It affects your tax dollars.
It affects the help that we get in this state, in this city. It really does add up.
Yeah, and I feel like a lot of what we do in public health, we're serving the communities we want to hear from the community.
And there's these circles that we constantly communicate with, but to hear from the actual community members, from individuals that maybe aren't a part of these committees, aren't a part of these meetings, of these coal elections.
To bring in their voice and their opinion on what they're seeing, on what's working, what's not working.
It really brings it into all the work that we do to be able to refer back to these surveys and say, these are responses that we're seeing.
These are the problems that we're seeing. How are we going to address these? How are we going to change these?
So it really is a chance, and I joke by saying, give your opinion to the health department.
But it really is your chance to speak your voice about maybe things that are working well, or aren't working well, or problems that you're seeing.
And it gives you a voice in all of these meetings that we have with community stakeholders and policymakers.
We'll come back to some of the details of the survey, the time, and some of those things. But if you don't mind, Jacob, I do want to take the opportunity to talk what impact is, and what that organization is doing here in town.
Yeah, so impact is a community coalition. It's a group of community partners, businesses, organization, community members coming together to address youth substance prevention is the main focus.
But we also work on reducing adult misuse and also fostering a recovery environment here in Wood County.
And so this is really huge for the work that we do. We really work on addressing alcohol, THC, prescription drugs is the main focus of the coalition.
I can't tell you how much we refer to these surveys. So I think this is about the sixth annual one. We really revamped it over the last few years to really focus on some of the stuff that the coalition is doing.
I can't tell you how many meetings answers from this come up. So if you, and fill in those kind of qualitative, like written responses. So it's one thing to click the numbers. We've got those pie charts and everything. But when someone actually says, I saw this, I'm hearing this or something that's successful. It comes up all the time in these meetings. So you probably think it's another survey, doing it for the gift card. No one's looking at it. I promise you there's lots of people looking at this throughout the year.
Yeah, it's, it's okay to have a carrot at the end of the stick. And if that gift card makes you do this, that's fantastic. But do take the time to really fill this survey out. And that work that impact is doing that is our future. That is an investment in our future.
That is thinking about our future and impacting our future and doing it incredibly smart and insightful where you're not just looking at these numbers or looking at these answers and then moving on.
You're dissecting these not just the numbers, but these quality answers you're getting and being like, Oh, this is okay. So we can mark that down. There's an example.
Oh, there's the same example again. Oh, look at that example again. And actually knowing where we need to focus our attention as far as our bigger needs in our community. This helps us narrow that down. Every community, big, small, it doesn't matter has multiple things going on in it.
How do you know where to put your focus? These things help you. These answers help you. That's a really good point to make up to bring up, I think we have so many materials and we have so much that we do at the health department with the impact coalition.
And if we're not reaching it, if it's not getting to the people that we're trying to get it to, then in our eyes, it's a failure. So we want to make sure that people are seeing it. If they're not seeing it, how can we make sure they see it? How can we make sure it's accessible?
I should probably tell people how to take the survey. Yeah, we are definitely going to get to that. I do want to touch on one last thing before we do, though, Jacob, because we're talking about the importance of these surveys and a lot of these things.
I'd be remiss if during an election year, I didn't touch on this part of it, too, with all the talk of what is true, what is fake and these kind of things. Here is a chance for you to actually be there is no middleman. It is you, it is the survey, it is the data. There you go.
You have, I mean, is straight up your facts, your information, getting right to the people that need it and being a part of that process.
Anybody can sit on the sidelines. We need you in the game. We need you to be doing these things and filling out these surveys. And the more we do that stuff, not only all the data and all the things that Jacob and I have talked about, but also knowing that you are impacting truth.
You are impacting facts, getting out there and being a part of that as well. You don't get the chance to do this all the time. These surveys really do matter and add up.
And yes, we should tell people how they could actually fill out the survey, Jacob. Please tell us.
It's 100% anonymous and the way we get the gift card to you is after the survey is you'll be sent a separate link and then you can put in information to have that gift card sent to you.
It's a smart way to do that. Yeah, it's really cool because we want people to give honest opinions. We want people to feel like there's going to be any last back from that.
But yeah, so you go to www.healthypeoplewoodcounty.org. If you just Google Healthy People Wood County, that website is going to pop up right for you.
So it's www.healthypeoplewoodcounty.org. Again, just Google Healthy People Wood County. Okay, good. James found it. Not a liar.
So if you click on that, then the survey should just be there right on the front page for you. So you click on that and just right down there, it'll give you a QR code to scan for the survey.
Or it'll give you a link as well to click if you don't like QR codes, which you know a lot of people don't.
Michael's going to handle the rest of the show. I'm going to fill out the survey. Because we got about 10, 15 minutes left, Michael. And that's about what it takes to fill this out.
Yeah. And yeah, again, it's anonymous. And it really don't think that what you say doesn't matter. We take this information. We put it into a report and we share this within our committees.
This falls on the ears of a lot of different departments within Wood County. So your voice will be heard.
And it really doesn't take a lot of time to fill this out. Even with answering, you know, not just filling out the dot, you know, not marking dots or filling holes or anything like that.
But also answering the survey with some of your room, your own feedback and everything. I think it doesn't take a long time. It's a quick process. And not only do you get that cool $25 gift card from a quick trip.
And a shout out to quick trip for doing that by the way. That's a really cool thing about them. They've always seemed to do really smart investments in communities and in support really important things like this survey.
There's all of that. And again, the good feeling you have of helping the health department and helping our city, our community, get healthier, get better, get smarter.
Yeah. Is there anything else on this on the survey that you wanted to touch on Jacob?
I think that's about it. I mean, again, just Google Healthy People Wood County, take 10 to 15 minutes to fill it out. And we really appreciate everyone's input on it.
Impact, before we wrap up and move on, I did want to talk about impacts meetings that you guys have going on as well. If people want to be a part of these.
Yeah. So impact is a community coalition. It is open to the public to join these meetings. I did want to give some information on some upcoming meetings.
So the next full team meeting is on November 12th from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. And our THC committee is actually meeting on Monday, September 16th from 11 to 12.
If you're interested in attending any of these meetings, if you're interested in learning more about impacts, you can reach out to me at 715-421-8907.
Or you can email me at jacob.wagneratwoodcountywi.gov.
Jacob Wagner joining us right now, public health strategist with the Wood County Health Department. Jacob had a couple of other things we wanted to touch on.
If we had the time, where do you want to start with that?
Sure. I figured we'd talk about that take back event coming up in October. Let's do it. Maybe I'll come back again before then.
That would be good. That would be great. We'd love to have you on again. But as far as giving people a chance to mark these on their calendars and prepare and get ready for it, this is another one of those important events that you guys host.
You guys are a big part of the help our communities and help keep our health communities healthier and safer.
Yeah. So October 26th, there is a it's a national drug take back event in Wood County. We'll be hosting different prescription drop off locations.
One in Marshall City Hall. That would be hosted from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. One at the Pitzville Police Department from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. One at the Port Edwards Fire Department from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
One at the town of Rome Police Department from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then Wisconsin Rapids pick and say from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Wisconsin Rapids, they team up with with Grand Rapids. That would be your location if you're in Grand Rapids as well.
Good to know. And again, this is coming up Saturday, October 26th. When it comes to the type of items that are accepted, what are those?
Jacob, can we indicate that they can go over some of those? Yep. Yep. So prescriptions controlled and non controlled. So they accept over the counter medications. They accept creams, but they must be in the original packaging.
They accept inhalers, non aerosol sprays liquids. Again, those must be in the original packaging. So don't bring them in like a ziplock bag or anything.
Ointments, patches, pet medications and vials. What they do not accept, and you can also reach out to me. I can help you where to dispose of these, but they do not accept aerosol cans.
Biohazardous materials such as body fluid or blood, household hazardous waste such as paint, paint pesticide, oil or gas. They do not accept illegal drugs.
They do not accept needles or sharps, except the marsh field location does accept needles and sharps. They do not accept mercury thermometers and they do not accept personal care products such as shampoo, lotion and sunscreen.
And I do have these helpful little magnets to tell you where to dispose of those and where those locations are. So again, if you want to reach out to me, phone me, email me. I'm sure I'll have plenty of materials for you.
When it comes to these items that are not accepted, Jacob, and you mentioned being able to reach out to you, it's also noteworthy to mention that this is an anonymous thing.
This is something that you can do and know that you are not. There's nobody recording that nobody's taking your information. We just want to get these items taken care of safely.
It's super anti-climactic. I don't like to refer anyone to anything that I wouldn't do myself. And so I remember we took some medications down just to see what it was like.
You know, just some people standing around a table outside of pick and save. They'll take your vial and dump it in one box, put the vial in another, what do they call their little prescription bottle.
And it's best, I mean, if you're worried about personal information getting out, you know, they do recommend marking your name off or peeling it off. I'm pretty, I'm almost positive, law enforcement will actually mark a name off if you don't.
But they'll put the bottle on one, they'll put the pills in the other, and then that's it. There's a table of resources there, so there's usually some handouts and freebies. But yeah, it's not intimidating at all. It's not going to take you more than five, 10 seconds.
I've talked with you. I've talked with Sheriff Becker about this, and I cannot stress enough that the police department, our Sheriff department, they are busy. They don't have time to be sitting here standing by a lock box or waiting for you to just wait for one person or anything like that.
Like they more, it's more important to them is not getting a quote unquote bust or something. The important thing to them is getting this stuff out of our houses, getting this stuff, taking care of responsibly and safely.
Jacob, why we're doing this is certainly I think noteworthy to the majority of the audience, they understand getting these out of homes so kids can't get across them. I think that's a topic that has been pretty well covered in society.
Hopefully the majority of people, if not everybody out there understands what we're talking about there, that is an important reason.
There are other reasons too though, but did you want to touch on that part of it?
Yeah, absolutely. If you have medication, specifically controlled medication, something that somebody could be seeking if maybe they do struggle with a substance use disorder, that's one reason to get rid of those.
Maybe if someone's seeking to experiment, but even, and I feel like this aspect is missed a lot, the accidental use, like somebody not knowing what it is, maybe a child not fully understanding it.
It's things like that, where if you're not, people need medication, people have medication. If you're using it, if you need it, safely secure it.
We offer lock boxes through the health department. Again, reach out to me. I can get you a lock box, you can keep it secured. If that's a concern of yours, if you have youth in the home, maybe somebody that, you know, there's a potential for an accidental use or a misuse.
But if you're not using those medications, if they're expired, if you don't need them anymore, it's a good opportunity to get rid of those and just prevent something like this from happening.
And again, if for some reason you are holding on to those, you do have a use form. It's great to put those in a lock box in a secure location.
We also offer some dyedotera packets, so that's a way to dispose of it at home. So maybe if you're not able to make it to this event, we can provide you with them.
As far as I can understand, it's like a charcoal-type packaging. You put the medication, you shake it, add some water. It destroys the chemical compound of it, throw it in the trash.
We also have mail-in bags, too, so you can put it in a little mail voucher thing and send it out.
And then, of course, permanent disposal sites throughout all of Wood County. So if you can't come to this event, law enforcement have disposal boxes, pharmacies have disposal boxes.
So there's a lot of locations to take these if you can't make it to the event.
The reasoning for getting rid of these in a responsible and smart way is certainly, I don't want to say first and foremost, but to me, in my opinion, first and foremost, keeping them out of the wrong hands.
In people that could not only misuse them, but people that don't know what they're taking or all the above, especially younger people.
But this also, and we don't get to talk about this a lot with our health department, our health department does an amazing job as far as taking care of our public health and worrying about that.
We're also talking about environmental health here, though, too.
And these things, when you dump them down the toilet or you just throw them wherever in a landfill or something like that, it bleeds into our planet and makes our planet sick just like a kind of human being.
And they do the best job possible at waterways treatment.
But it's just one of those things where you just have all these chemicals in the water that if someone throws it in the trash, makes a landfill, makes a way into the ground, makes a way into the water.
Eventually, some trace amount that could make its way into your home. And I'm sure it's the last thing you want.
So yeah, absolutely. And it's one of those things, too, where even with my own personal past, if somebody was going to get a prescription from grandma, let's say, if it's just in the coverage, you may not notice one or two of these things missing.
But if this is in a lock box, I have people telling me, aren't they still going to get into this lock box? It's true.
But then at least there would be evidence there that somebody broke into your lock box time for a conversation, time for next steps, rather than a pill going missing here or there that someone's kind of like, did it? I don't know.
It's a good step to have that conversation. And again, reach out to me. We've got lots of tips and tricks about having that conversation if that is a concern in your household.
And that's a very, very strong point that I know you've mentioned a little bit here, but I really want that to come home here that the people that are not able to make it to these drug collection sites on the 26th of October, again, they'll give those dates again as we get closer to it.
If you're not able to do those things, I can't think of any scenario where the health department can't help you. They will, they are working with you. They're not even just meeting you halfway. They're going above and beyond as far as, hey, we just want to get these things out of here.
And however, you're most comfortable in doing that, the health department will work with you on that.
Yeah, absolutely. Reach out to me, call me, email me. We'll find a way to meet you, meet you halfway, get you these resources, assist you with any of these concerns that you have or questions or direct you to the right people that can assist you.
Jacob, let's recap some of the things that we have touched on today. First, if you don't mind as long as we're talking about it, let's give those dates again to the Wood County Drug Collection dates.
Alright, here we go. Get your notepads out. So Saturday, October 26th, Marshfield City Hall will be hosting their prescription drop off from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Pitsville Police Department will be hosting theirs from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Port Edwards Fire Department 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. town of Rome Police Department 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
and Wisconsin Rabbits pick and say from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
And we encourage you also to fill out this survey, get this survey filled out everybody, the community opinion surveys survey on alcohol and other drugs. Jacob, how can they do that?
And how long in order to some of the details of that?
Yeah, so Google Healthy People Wood County, the exact address is www.healthypeoplewoodcounty.org.
But if you Google Healthy People Wood County, we should be the top site up there, click on that and then just right there at the top as a link and a QR code to enter that survey.
It takes about 10 to 15 minutes and share your opinion with the impact coalition with the Wood County Health Department.
And this survey, it's huge. I mean, this is something that we even, when reporting to partners and stuff, we look at the Community Health Assessment Survey.
And this opinion on substance and drugs and other alcohol, alcohol and other drugs.
We use this on reports. We use this when meeting with community partners with stakeholders, policymakers.
So your opinion does matter. Your voice will be heard.
Take 10, 15 minutes, fill this out and let us know what's working, what's not working.
I'm going to be filling it out a little bit later this afternoon. I'm looking forward to doing that and checking it out myself and encourage everybody to do that.
Get there HealthyPeopleWoodcounty.org. HealthyPeopleWoodcounty.org. And if you can't find it that way, just type in a new search bar, pops right up, surged it from me earlier.
As we, before we let you go, Jacob, impact and people, how people can find out more about being a part of impact. How can they do that?
So on actually the Healthy People website, so Healthy People Wood County, there'll be a substance use section. Impact will be on there. You can learn more that way.
But just feel free to email me, Jacob.Wagner at Woodcounty.org, Jacob.Wagner at Woodcounty.org.
Or shoot me a phone call at 715-421-8907. And we can talk more about impact. We can meet up.
We'd love to have community members there. We really want to address issues and bring you alongside the work.
Yeah. Find out more at woodcounty.org. Woodcounty.org. And be sure to follow them on social media. It's a great, follow great way to keep up the date and all the things that are going on over there and going on in our community.
And share these things on your social media pages. You just never know who might see them that could be benefited that wouldn't see it otherwise.
Jacob say hi to the team over there for him. We appreciate you guys so very much. We'll talk again real soon.
We appreciate you James. Thank you so much. We'll be back with more midday magazine here at 97-5 FM 13-20 AM WFHR locally grown radio.
