Brenda Tyrrell, Prevention Specialist, Community and Family Resources, June 8, 2026

Visiting today with Brenda Terrell, Community and Family Resources. Welcome back. Thank you. Here we are. Yeah, it's kind of dreary this morning. Well, you know what it happens. We're hoping things will clear up a little bit. For the kickoff carnival, you're gonna be one of the 40 plus. Yes. That will be participating in the kickoff carnival for the Ericsson Public Library summer reading. Yes. Yes. We are bringing our set of pigs lungs. We brought them to the STEM event at DMACC and it it is meant to show the effects of smoking on the lungs except we use the pig lungs. So they stink, but we use them anyway. Is this does it get attention? Especially by kids? Absolutely. Yeah. Like at the STEM event, we saw 140, close to 140 and sure probably 99% of them were kids. Yeah. And they would come back and come back and come back. So yeah, they love it. Pig lungs there. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I'm pretty sure that for any of the parents, anything else they come by, you've got other information you can pass along as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. So that's going on today. Yeah. We want to. Yeah. And I keep forgetting to tell people, but seven streets going to be blocked off over by the library. And again, pay attention to that plan accordingly. And hopefully Mother Nature cooperates and we're able to get get everything going. Yeah. Absolutely. Because they always get somewhere like a thousand people showing up or something. Yeah. Again, that's going to be going on this afternoon. That's going to be over here by the Ericsson Public Library four to seven. And you have to make the circuit anyway to find out where's CFR is going to be. Yes. I have a vague idea where it's going to be, but I don't have the map with me. So one of the streets there. Yeah. All right. Again, that's just one of the things you have going on. I know you've got a lot of others. Yeah, you keep working on it. I keep telling people, I said, one of the big things you do is a lot of training. Yes. A lot of training. So what are some of the big things? I know you've been going to the library for different events. Yeah. Again, getting information out to the public. Yeah, absolutely. So we are actually starting a four part series at the Ericsson Public Library. It's starting next week, January 16th. And we're going to go through substance use 101. The next training is June 30th and that will be stigma with substance use disorder. The following training will be in July and it is trauma informed care. And then the last training will also be in July and it's understanding addiction and recovery. All of these are taking place at the Ericsson Public Library, but anyone is invited to attend. Okay. And no charge. No charge. Do you refer they sign up or is there? No, people can just show up. I don't know if the library, I think the library does have a sign up sheet. So they might want to check the Ericsson Public Library website. So I think they just like to know how many folks are being there. Right. But so kind of staged in again, it's in order start on the 16th and then what every I'm looking at my calendar every couple of weeks. Yep. Every I think it's they're all on Tuesday. So it's like every other Tuesday, every other Tuesday. Yeah, we'll have an update or the next step in the process. Yeah. How important is it for people? I mean, this is I know one of the big things we've talked about in the past. You like to do this. Yeah. This is a lot of training information because prevention specialist, you can only do so much. The idea is educate the public. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So I mean, people will often have, you know, maybe misconceptions about various topics. So training and getting in on these trainings will help, you know, things like what, how does stigma influence how we view substance use disorder? That's what SUD stands for. And that is like a lot of people in my field have said that's half the battle. If we can get that stigma and people to recognize how it influences how people get help, then maybe that's like half the battle. We can get them in the door to where they need to go. But we need that stigma to be decreased. So learning about that is also very important. Of course, substance use. There are a lot of things out there that people don't know about substance use. And it is, this is a very well researched topic. It's through I was state PCC, no sore state opioid response. So it's highly researched. And so it's, you know, this is just basic information. trauma informed care is this kind of near and dear to my heart because we have we have a sometimes we have communities that don't understand that we can't recognize just by sight who's experienced trauma. So learning how to treat everybody as if they need trauma informed care is very important as well for everyone. So we have the trauma informed care for just the general public. We also have one for law enforcement specifically. And then understanding addiction. This is not directed towards people who are going through the recovery process. It is directed towards people, family loved ones, the general community just to learn, Okay, what is addiction? How does it get treated? What are the options? And what is my role in supporting this person? Yeah, can we help them be successful? Exactly. Yeah. So Tammy, the librarian at Erickson, she picked these and I think she did a really good job in the order because it makes it's going to make total sense. If you attend all four trainings, it's going to make total sense. They're going to build off of each other. So it's right in substance abuse one on one first up. And again, by that, there are so many. Yeah. I mean, I mean, yes, you mentioned that like a lot of this gets funded through the opioid program, right? Which is still one of the big ones out there. Yeah. Alcohol in there. I'm guessing there's there's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Lots of things going on. We also have the tobacco grant and they okay, we have four grants. We have the SOAR grant. We have the behavioral health grant. We have the tobacco grant. We have problem gambling grant. Okay. Yeah. So we have a lot of things going on. So addictions. We're talking mostly substance misuse. Yeah. I like that misuse series. That's really a because it's, you know, if they if they're addicted to it, they kind of lose a little control. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny because this flyer went through multiple renditions because we kept changing the name and then we kept finding typos and things like that. So there's three or four of us that were trying to get that flyer right. I think we finally got it. So we're ready. Okay. So that'll be starting the 16th. That's going to be next week. And then a couple of weeks later, then it'll be stigma with substance use disorder. Yeah. And again, that's again, I don't know how many times we circle around with other prevention specialists. You always get back to that stigma. Yeah. A lot of people that are just reluctant to go. Right. And it, you know, I think it's some of it is just lack of knowledge, right? A lot of people don't recognize the power of words. The thing that you say can influence the way somebody makes a decision. And that can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing. So we're focused on the negative connotations of the words that we use, right? Oh, sure. Yeah. And even that simple step is kind of hard to wrap your head around because we're, our vocabulary is so ingrained in what we say and how we say it that it doesn't feel right when you say it in the, in the new way. Oh yeah. I'm doing scare quotes here. It doesn't, it doesn't feel as natural. So it's like a retraining of your brain to say we're trying to get people away from the stigma part to under, understand that there is a, an addiction, a problem. Yeah. And there are ways to start addressing that. Right. Right. And it will, it will help. Ultimately, it will help the people who are seeking help from physicians, from community members, from loved ones to not be so ashamed and not be so afraid to seek out help. Okay. So it's powerful. It is. And then trauma informed care will be coming up on the 14th of July and on the 28th. Understanding addiction and recovery. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So obviously people could come and go as they please, but you, again, the idea would be you'd try to get all four of them because they build off each other. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Keep working on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. You know, you might get some that'll start and then go, I need more. Yeah. And that'd be good. Yeah. That'd be great. And because you've got a ton of ways that different trainings and things that you have available. Yeah. Absolutely. Also, we have overdose awareness day coming up. Yes. That's towards the end of August. School will be back. Hard to believe that school will be back in session. Yeah. You know that? Yeah. We got that. But so this is just an opportunity. Once again, I think Ames is going to be a location where they'll have an event. Yep. Yeah. So we are actually doing two events leading up to it. So we're doing we're doing a documentary viewing and a Q&A about understanding addiction. And it will be the six. No, hold on. It will be the 19th of August, 7pm to 830pm at the Ames Public Library. Wednesday, the 19th of August. And so that's the documentary. And afterwards, I'll be leading a short Q&A. And then we're going to view. Sorry, I got multiple things. And we're going to do a stigma training also before that. I got the dates mixed up. So we're doing stigma and SUD on August 16th. Okay. At the library, 7 to 830. It's this all this information is on the Ames Public Libraries calendar. So if you have questions, you can reach out to them, you can reach out to me, you can reach out to you. And then the accommodating event is on the 29th. We're having a huge event at Ames Banshell Park. There are 14, 15, 16 confirmed people that are organizations that are going to be there. YSS is going to bring the HIPPS trailer. We're going to be there doing some Narcan stuff and bunches of other people are going to be there. It's a huge event. It's free, loaded with a lot of information about overdose awareness. This is one of those that we've seen has become an annual event. Again, it's going to be an Ames at their Banshell Park. So people can find that pretty easily and get there for it. But this is, again, just something that has continued to grow over the last several years. Exactly. Also, yeah. Also, I just put a quick plug in. We're also doing the same thing at the Nevada Public Library. And that is August 12th. And that's just a documentary in the QA. We're not doing any extra because they just did a series with all the things. But yeah, it is. I think there's a fine balance of, OK, it's increasing over the last few years or has awareness been increasing over the last few years. And if it's the awareness part, that means we're doing our job. That's what you were after, is that people are aware. That's why we have our NARC and training and all of that. Yeah, you do too. Yeah, that's to help help combat that. Yeah. Yeah. And our can is we do have the NARC, the naloxone training, which is NARC and and you know, we love to do those. We want to do those. So please, please, please contact us if you want to do those because those are critical. We want to save as many lives as possible. And how we do that is through naloxone. So and we do have the distribution things one in one, a matter at one in August. Yeah. Yeah, the septic hope. It's it's available now. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, let's see. Just got a lot. Yeah. A lot of things happening. Didn't want to ask you again, because now we're kind of into the summertime. We are into the summertime thing. Usually during the school years when we will touch on different things about safe, the safe coalition, substance abuse free environment. Yeah. And yeah, I remember a number of years ago, we had a lot of there was a grant, we had people that were heavily involved, different agencies. So sometimes it tends to ebb and flow. Yeah, let's go with that. Yeah, it's an easy way. We have kind of ebbed here. Yes. So yeah, people that might be interested. And I know you'd like to get a group built up and you're part of it. There are others that are in there. But the big thing is getting different people involved back involved in helping make that viable. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so we meet the first Tuesday every month. We don't meet during the summer, but we meet the first Tuesday every month. I believe starting again in August, but I'll have more information about that as we get closer. And we talk about things like what kind of community events can we do to raise awareness? I know recently we did, they also did, I say they because they did the STEM stuff while I did the STEM stuff for a first CFR. You were kind of split. Yeah. So we were kind of split.

So we want more people so we can do more things. Our contact person currently is Diane Hinderucker from the probation office. If you I can leave information with you or you can contact me as well. Because I can give you the I can give listeners the information that they need. But we would really like to see some more bodies helping us out doing some fun stuff to raise awareness. We get back to again, the group would do things. Well, I remember Red Ribbon Week when it came up. That was one of the big things that SAFE was heavily involved with. Yeah. Another one was when you get around holiday to holiday hosting stuff like that. Yeah. A lot of things like that. Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that we recently did was we did little kits for the seniors at home and we we had like some safety information in there and some gum I think and some other stuff in there just to raise awareness. You know, here's here's some things to do to know. So, you know, you make the right decisions. So we do some fun stuff like that. All with the purpose of raising awareness and keeping, you know, people's eyes on the prize when it comes to substance misuse. To prevention. Yeah. Prevention is the big one. Yeah. Say no. Yeah. And know why you're saying no. You know, understand what you say, understand if you say yes, but what the consequences might be. Some of the training things that you do and make available and stuff. You know, a lot of times people are wonder, OK, how young can people be in there? I'm guessing you can get some high school students that are in there and do some training. But I don't know how much, how much younger do you get? I know you pass long information to as young as middle school. Yeah. Well, I think it just really depends on the training itself. OK. We do want to reach the younger audiences. Currently, our grants don't necessarily allow us to do that. So we're hoping for a shift that we can maybe start working with some youth. But we can work with adults who work with kids. So we can kind of... That's a lot of the training parts you do. Right. Right. Spread the word. Spread the word and, you know, put the stuff up in your classroom. Have the conversations, right? You know, be supportive of, you know, the events that are coming up and encouraged volunteerism and all the things. So. Other. Do you have some other events? Other things that you're looking at? I think that's it. I did want to ask because I know we touched on a little bit. We were talking before we started. But the legislative session wrapped up. And I know one of the things that last time we had visited was there was a great, great, um, great, um, which is an issue that's been showing up for a while now. Yes. And about the time steps are taken to deal with it, then somebody changes something with it. And all of a sudden it's still there. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so I know one of the things that do, do, do we do training on that? Yeah. So. Yeah, we, we do create it. It's called Kratom and Other Novel Drugs and it talks about, you know, the dangers of Kratom and some of the other well, not as well known, um, drugs and substances. Um, I'm trying to think of the name of it now. I'm drawing a complete blank. It's an elephant tranquilizer, xylazine xylazine. Yeah. And when you, as you mentioned, the legislation has been taking on the, the regulation of Kratom because right now it is not regulated. Um, and there's a push to get it regulated. Um, and so it's on hold for the summer, but because of the legislation that's coming through a lot of people are like, we don't even know what Kratom is. We don't understand what, what is behind what's at stake with, with Kratom use. So we've got, and we've had a little bit of an uptick of people asking about Kratom training. So if you want, uh, to know more about Kratom, if we are happy to come and share our, our information with you, because the more you know, the better you can, you know, raise awareness. You can, you can have those conversations without us with people in the community and things like that. I'm guessing one of the many times, many, uh,

points that you would be discussing during substance use 101. Yeah. Uh, it's there. And then the stigma of those that keep using it. Right. I don't know. Some of this stuff is pretty dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of it is pretty dangerous. Yeah. And that's, you know, that it all comes back around like we've been talking. It's all comes full circle. They're, they're all interconnected. You know, you start with stigma. Um, you start with substance use 101. You start with stigma and you start to recognize here is, here is a way that we can combat this that doesn't actually require somebody to pass a law. We can talk about how we talk about humans who have a, have struggled with addiction or have struggled breaking some cycles, you know, um, so there are things that just any every day person on the street can do. It doesn't have to require legislative act. People can work in their communities to, to raise awareness. Just become informed. Yeah. Get the, get the accurate information that you have available. That's what you got to, got, got to hand out. So again, among other things are going to be at the, uh, at the kickoff fair and will over at the Erickson public library. And again, that's all ages that show up there. So yeah, yeah. I know pig lungs. Are you going to be there? That's, uh, let me see. I think I have another meeting or in between meetings. I have to figure out what's going on first year. There are a few of those that happening, but the other thing is people that would like to find out more about, uh, just basically your substance misuse series again, to be at the Erickson public library and it'll be the first one will be substance use one on one. That'll be on Tuesday, June 16th and then every other week, uh, for a total of four weeks. And again, all the information builds on each other. Uh, again, if you can go, if you're saying, well, I'm going to be busy that Tuesday, don't just skip. I mean, you're going to find other times where similar trainings will be available and stuff. So yeah. And that's a great point because if you aren't able to make those trainings, but you want more, find somebody in the community that can host one and then have them get a hold of us because we would, you'd love to come out. We would love to do it. How much of the, that is your battle. You do substance abuse prevention again. Uh, the big thing is educating with as much information as you can get out to people. Right. Exactly. And keeping up. I mean, uh, a little bit of our job or maybe 30 or 40% of our job is attending training is learning what's coming up in, you know, drug, um, substance use, right? We, we are, um, constantly researching getting those fact-based, uh, things that we need to know. So when people ask us some hard questions, sometimes we can say, this is not stuff we're making up. This is research based. There are teams of people that are researching these things. Um, and these are the things that they feel are the best way to, to raise awareness and decrease use. And I'm sure there's somebody listening that's going, well, he didn't say anything about math or anything about marijuana or, you know, alcohol because it's all part of substance abuse. Right. And also we do other kinds. So the other novel drugs, we talk about cannabis, you know, there are other, they're built into the other trainings. We might not have one that calls specifically cannabis use, but they are built into the other trainings. So there's a lot there. See if ours got a lot of resources and would love to inform you about all of them to Terrell, our guest on our program, again, our prevention specialist. Thanks for joining us. Looking forward to visiting with you next month and see just, uh, what all we've got to pass along and how well things have been going for you. Have a good carnival today. Thank you. Thank you.