Jamie Drake is the Executive Director of the Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug & Alcohol Commission. As the SCA of this three-county joinder, here’s how Jamie has used PA Stop to enhance her work (spoiler alert: by making lots of sticky products!)

1. Tell us about your organization. What do you do? Who do you serve?

We are the Single County Authority (SCA) for Carbon, Monroe and Pike counties. In Pike and Monroe counties, we serve as the administrative body. In Carbon County, we also are an outpatient provider, which means we do assessments and outpatient and IOP services.

2. How long have you been using PA Stop in your work?

A little over two years.

As soon as I learned about the campaign, I got involved right away because we’re in the middle of an opioid epidemic and are trying to find ways to get the message out, especially to members of the general public who may not realize how bad things are if they’re not directly affected. We thought it was really important to increase people’s awareness about how to access services with us, to get our number out.

3. Tell us about some of the ways that you have utilized PA Stop to spread information about opioids.

The first thing we did was to purchase magnets and personalize them with our toll-free number. We gave them away to the general public and to human services agencies, so they could put it on their filing cabinets and always have the number on-hand for their clients.

We also purchased billboards and created tear-off pads with information about prescription drug drop box locations. And we bought banners so that when we have major events, we can display them. We lend those banners out to schools and agencies, when they want to use them at events.

One of our big pushes has been to print PA Stop stickers with our toll-free number and approach businesses about sticking them on their products. We’ve worked with all kinds of businesses, like restaurants who put them on their to-go bags and pharmacies who put them on their medication bags (although we’ve had more success with local pharmacies than with large chains). We’ve really tried to reach people in non-traditional ways.

We don’t do a whole lot of other advertising. And it’s really important for us to get our toll-free number out there. PA Stop has been our primary way of getting the number out.

4. What do you think are the most exciting or successful ways that PA Stop has helped you achieve your mission?

I think there’s more awareness of the problem. For example, this year for our recovery walk, we’re getting more donations, more people supporting our cause. And we’ve had more calls at our toll-free number over the last year.

5. We are trying to help organizations and SCAs understand how they can use PA Stop in their communities. Do you have any advice or words of wisdom, based on your experience?

It’s amazing: you think people know how to access services, but it’s like anything else — until you need it, you’re not out there looking for it. Having the number plastered out there in lots different venues is important because then when it comes time, people are more likely to know where to go.