Social Work ‘Ohana Participates in Overdose Awareness Event

From left to right: David Shaku, MSW student; 
Heather Lusk, Executive Director of CHOW, MSW alumna;
Raquel Curtis, MSW student;
Leilani Maxera, Program Manager at CHOW, MSW student;
Nicole Beineman, Outreach Worker, BSW alumna;
Sean Quigley, Hepatitis C Care Coordinator at CHOW, MSW student

HPU Social Work faculty, students, and alumni participated with the Community Health Outreach Work to Prevent AIDS (CHOW) Project for their Overdose Awareness Day Teach-In and Memorial, which was held on August 31 at Harris United Methodist Church.

In honor of international Overdose Awareness Day, over 70 people came together at the CHOW-hosted event to learn how to prevent an opioid overdose and how to reverse an overdose with Naloxone. Thirty-five individuals were trained by CHOW staff on how to use Naloxone and were given overdose prevention kits to take home with them.

Attendees also heard personal stories from those affected by opioid addiction and overdose and were given a space to honor lives lost to it. September 12 marked the one-year anniversary of CHOW providing Naloxone to the community. In that time, 46 overdose reversals have been reported — that's 46 lives saved by their Naloxone program.

Assistant Professor of Social Work Michaela Rinkel, Ph.D., serves on the board of CHOW, and CHOW's Executive Director is Heather Lusk, an MSW graduate. CHOW also employs two MSW students, a BSW graduate, and three MSW students are interning with the organization.