Download and print The Star’s guide to preventing fentanyl deaths around Kansas City
When staff from The Star handed out free boxes of naloxone — a medicine that can reverse an opioid-related overdose — at a handful of community events last month, we met Kansas Citians who were intimately familiar with the effects of the opioid crisis. Many of the hundreds of people we talked to at farmers markets, festivals, grocery stores and laundromats seemed to be just a degree or two away from someone who struggled with substance use disorder or who had died from an overdose.
One man gave a knowing look when I started to explain how to administer naloxone, often referred to by its brand name Narcan. He said, “I’ve used this to save my nephew’s life twice this year.”
He hoped that by reversing the overdoses, he was buying his nephew more time, giving him another chance at a life that had nearly been cut short.
That’s what doctors, nurses and leaders from health departments across Kansas City told The Star in the months leading up to these events: Knowing about naloxone and how to use it in a crisis can save lives.
Alongside partners from local health organizations, we’ve given out about 500 boxes of the over-the-counter medication.
We’ve learned that the fentanyl crisis doesn’t discriminate. In our recent series Deadly Dose, The Star reported that more than 850 people across the metro have died from fentanyl-related overdoses in the past five years.
But knowing how to respond in an emergency and what resources are available can really be the difference between life and death.
We want as many people around the Kansas City metro to have access to that lifesaving information as possible.
So we’re sharing the local resource guide zines we distributed at the community events as downloads that you can print and fold to make a handy booklet for yourself.
Below are two files, one with all the pages right side up, and one with some of the pages flipped upside down, because different printers handle two-sided files differently.
Download whichever file will work best for your printer. (Pro tip: Free printing from Kansas City Public Library uses the version with flipped pages.) Print both pages, and fold them in half. Page numbers are labeled as a reference point.
You can email adikanovic@kcstar.com with any questions about the zines.
The Star’s Alison Booth designed the zines, based on information from experts at the Missouri Institute of Mental Health, DCCCA, First Call KC, Johnson County Mental Health Center, North Kansas City Hospital, University Health, and health departments in Independence, Kansas City and Jackson, Cass and Clay counties. Kansas City-based Astringent Press printed, cut and bound the pocket-sized booklets we distributed.
Several of these organizations have said they will continue to distribute these zines to the public as part of their naloxone kits going forward.
Check out these stories for more information about where you can get naloxone for free around Kansas City and how to have conversations with loved ones about the risks of fentanyl.
Plus, read more here about The Star’s outreach efforts that happen alongside our journalism.
The zines are also available to download and distribute in Spanish.
