How-To Guide
Digital Educator’s How-To Guide
Digital Educator’s How-To Guide
This comprehensive digital “How To Guide” for our fentanyl education curriculum provides supplemental instructions and resources to effectively educate students on the dangers of the synthetic opioid, fentanyl. It includes information on how to use the curriculum, poster placement, answers to frequently asked questions you might encounter, and more.
Welcome
Here at BirdieLight, we strongly believe in the collective power to save lives, and at no time in American history has the need to harness this been more necessary. In 2022, over 112,000 Americans died due to a drug-related fatality, and 80% of those deaths were due to the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Sadly, the fastest rising age demographic for these fatalities is age 15-24.
Equally as troubling is that no standardized fentanyl curriculum exists.
So, what if we helped YOU talk to young people about fentanyl risk? Our BirdieLight curriculum guides you step-by-step through a fentanyl educational program that ranges from opioid science, through the stages of the opioid crisis, and to the current drug adulteration crisis and ends with a comprehensive overview of fentanyl safety tools.
We sincerely hope that this curriculum proves easy to use and that you feel confident in your ability to enable young people as agents in their own safety.
How to Use This Curriculum
Enclosed within this BirdieLight curriculum, you will find the essential information you need to keep your students safe from fentanyl. Each lesson was created by a physician and reviewed by educators to assure for appropriate and fact-based information.
This curriculum could easily be taught in two class sessions, or if you desired more in-depth class discussion, could be stretched out over four class sessions. The curriculum is meant to be used a whole set, and we encourage it to be used that way. After becoming familiar with all components, make adjustments as you see fit, given the time allowed. Most importantly, please show our introductory video to your students. However, we do feel strongly that the student who has learned and reviewed all four lessons will be as close to safe from fentanyl as we can get them.
We sincerely hope your students find this content meaningful and inspirational; while we can never recover the thousands of young lives that have been lost to fentanyl, we can provide their generation with the education they need to stay safe, and to keep their friends safe.
Each of the four lessons begins with a learning goal and an outline of available resources to add on to the lesson (such as short newspaper articles or news videos.)
- A guided step-by-step content then follows that will directly reference each corresponding slide on the provided slide deck.
- Each lesson closes with a closer-to-safe reflection for the student to complete, which allows for a review of all preceding material.
- Within each lesson are discussion questions to spark further classroom discussion.
We sincerely hope your students find this content meaningful and inspirational; while we can never recover the thousands of young lives that have been lost to fentanyl, we can provide their generation with the education they need to stay safe, and to keep their friends safe.
Poster Placement
We suggest putting these quick-fact posters near a location where students dwell: high-traffic hallways, libraries, outside or within counseling offices. The posters provide easy-to-digest facts about fentanyl, and also display in large colorful font the ‘trifecta’ of fentanyl safety: always test any substance before ingesting, never use anything alone, and always have Narcan nearby. We strongly believe that a young person will need to read or hear this message multiple times to have it ‘stick’, so the poster presentation is important in reinforcing the curriculum content.
BirdieLight also offers a detailed poster with fentanyl test strip instructions, so please contact us if you would like to add this to your BirdieBox content.
Frequently Asked Questions
This curriculum can be customized based on the amount of time you are able to devote to fentanyl education; there are four lessons in total, with an accompanying slide presentation, and these can be taught sequentially over four days or condensed into one day of instruction. Of the lessons, the 3rd and 4th lessons contain the most concrete examples of where fentanyl is found and how to stay safe from it.
Thoughtful word choice is important, as well as knowledge of local resources for a student to easily access if they do express personal or family concerns for a substance use disorder. We have provided you with a specific resource list for your geographic area, as well as a helpful vocabulary list to help you discuss substance use disorder in a sensitive way.
One of the most vulnerable times for a fentanyl fatality is when a person with substance use disorder has an episode or recurrence of substance use. It is so important to both acknowledge the student’s lived experience and provide factual information on fentanyl so as to avoid a catastrophe in the case that they do have an episode of substance use.
Resources For Opioid Use
Narcan/Naxolone Resources
- NextDistro. Visit https://nextdistro.org/naloxone to find FREE Naxolone near you. They offer mail-order naloxone access and an online locator to find a pharmacy in your area that provides naloxone distribution.
- Your Local Pharmacy.Many pharmacies around the US carry Narcan and are allowed to provide it without a prescription. However, this can come at a charge.
- Harm Reduction Coalition. Visit https://harmreduction.org/resource-center/harm-reduction-near-you/ to find an organization in your city that distributes Narcan.
Fentanyl Test Strip Resources
- DanceSafe. Fentanyl test strips are available to be purchased from DanceSafe and shipped directly to the home. Available to purchase in varying quantities.
- BirdieLight. Visit birdielight.org.org/test-strips to have 5 test strips sent to you free of charge. However, if you would be willing to donate $3.50 to cover shipping costs, you will have the option when you check out. This will help us direct our resources toward our educational initiatives.
Substance Use Disorder Resources
- SAMHSA’s National Helpline. Call 1-800-662-HELP (4357) if your or someone you know is struggling with a mental or substance use disorder.
- Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator. Visit https://findtreatment.gov/ to find a substance abuse treatment center near you.
