Naloxone nasal spray like the one pictured above can be obtained at the Adams County Health Department for free as part of Project DAWN. (Photo courtesy of Lexi Sullender)
By Ryan Applegate
People’s Defender
Project DAWN, Ohio’s statewide opioid overdose education and naloxone distribution program, has taken root in Adams County with the aim of making overdose reversal medication widely available to anyone who may need it. The initiative, which provides free naloxone, better known by the brand name Narcan, has been operating locally for about three years through the Adams County Health Department in West Union.
Lexi Sullender, Emergency Response Coordinator and Special Projects Coordinator at the Adams County Health Department, explained that the program’s mission is simple but powerful: to equip community members with the ability to save lives during an opioid overdose. “It provides free naloxone to the community,” she said. “They are able to come pick it up in person at the health department. They’re also able to do an anonymous online order through the Ohio Department of Health, and we also provide free Narcan training on how to administer it, how to put people in the recovery position. It’s a lot of great information through Project DAWN.”
Sullender noted that Project DAWN began as a semi-local effort before becoming a statewide program. The initiative was named after a young woman named Dawn who died of an overdose in Portsmouth. Her mother, determined to prevent other families from experiencing such a loss, worked to make naloxone more accessible in the community. From those beginnings, the project grew into an Ohio Department of Health program with sites across the state, including Adams County.
Naloxone is a medication designed to rapidly reverse the effects of opioids. It can restore normal breathing to a person whose breathing has slowed or stopped because of an overdose. Sullender emphasized its safety and ease of use. “The good thing about Narcan is it’s not dangerous,” she said. “No matter what age, no matter what medications they’re on, if you administer it and it does nothing, the person’s going to be fine. So, it’s a very safe medication.” She added that having Narcan on hand is a valuable precaution for anyone living in or traveling through the county, where opioid misuse remains a pressing issue. “The drug epidemic around here is not the greatest,” she said. “So, we do try to push Project DAWN on people just so they have it, just in case. And if they’re comfortable, they may be able to save somebody’s life carrying it with them.”
While Project DAWN is not new in Ohio, the Adams County program has only been active in recent years. Sullender said the local health department has had the program in place for the last three years. Information about the program, she added, is easy to find through the Ohio Department of Health’s dedicated Project DAWN website, which provides resources, training materials, and a directory of local distribution sites.
Despite its benefits, Project DAWN has faced challenges in gaining widespread acceptance in the community. Sullender acknowledged that the health department has not always been proactive in promoting it. Part of the difficulty stems from lingering stigma around overdose reversal medications. “There’s a negative stigma against emergency overdose medication in the community,” she said. “People don’t think that if people overdose, they should be revived and what not. So now we’re trying to push it harder and harder in the county.”
When asked what she would say to someone who questions why a person who overdosed should be revived, Sullender stressed empathy and understanding. “You never know what people are going through behind closed doors,” she said. “You don’t know what their home lives are like or what led them to be in that situation to feel like they could or needed to or wanted to use those drugs. And I just feel like we should be able to give people even an inkling of empathy and consider ourselves lucky that we don’t understand why they’re doing drugs.” She added that addiction is often rooted in deeper struggles. “Some people I’ve talked to have felt like they had no other choice to make money than to get involved in selling drugs, or they grew up around it, or they lost their job or their car broke down and they went down this spiral in this rabbit hole and they just found themselves in a really bad place at the wrong time.”
Sullender’s perspective highlights the human complexities behind substance use and the importance of viewing addiction through a compassionate lens. Project DAWN, she said, is one way communities can offer a lifeline rather than judgment. “It’s a lot deeper than, you know, ‘oh, they’re just a druggie,’” she said. “Heaven forbid, anything could have happened in their lives, and you never know what somebody went through that led them to that position.”
For residents of Adams County, access to naloxone is straightforward. The health department at 560 Rice Drive in West Union distributes Narcan kits free of charge during business hours, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Anyone who picks up the medication receives same-day training that takes only a few minutes. “They can get as much Narcan as they want,” Sullender said. “And we will provide that training free of charge for anybody who comes and picks it up. It’s like a five-minute talk and they’re good to go.”
Project DAWN’s presence in Adams County reflects Ohio’s broader effort to address the opioid crisis at the community level by empowering residents with tools and knowledge to intervene in an emergency. While stigma and misunderstanding remain barriers, advocates like Sullender hope that expanding awareness and access will help shift attitudes and save lives.
