The following is a transcript of an episode of From the Front Row: Student Voices in Public Health, the University of Iowa College of Public Health’s student podcast. In this episode, Oge and Steve talk to Cathy Ferree, CEO of the Indiana State Museum. Ferree led the development of a museum exhibit entitled, “FIX: Heartbreak and Hope Inside Our Opioid Crisis,” with the aim of breaking stigmas surrounding opioid use disorder. They discuss the concept and the science behind the exhibit and the community partnerships that helped make it a reality. To learn more about the exhibit, visit www.indianamuseum.org/experiences/fi…artbreak-hope/

Oge Chigbo:

Hello everyone. Welcome back to From the Front Row, brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. My name is Oge Chigbo, and I’m joined by Steve Sonnier. And, if this is your first time with us, welcome. We’re a student-run podcast that talks about major issues in public health, and how they’re relevant to anyone, both in and out of the field of public health.

Oge Chigbo:

Today, we’ll be chatting with Cathy Ferree, CEO of the Indiana State Museum. Cathy led the development of another exhibit for the museum entitled, FIX: Heartbreak and Hope Inside Our Opioid Crisis, with the aim of breaking stigmas surrounding opioid use disorder. This exhibit provides a unique opportunity to further the conversation surrounding a major public health issue, and start to help people manage this crisis more effectively. Cathy, welcome to the show.

Cathy Ferree:

Thank you.

Steve Sonnier:

So Cathy, if you can lead off with the genesis for this project. It’s beautifully designed. It’s very thought provoking. We’ve heard about the opioid epidemic in public health circles and beyond with an added emphasis of what’s going on during the pandemic as well. What really got you interested in developing FIX as an exhibit? What was kind of the starting point for you?

Cathy Ferree:

Well, something I think everybody can relate to I was introduced to a woman who was buying an outfit to go to Washington, D.C. to lobby about the opioid crisis. And, I had just been appointed the CEO of the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites. And I said, “Justin, there’s got to be something that we can do to help, there just has to be.” So, I start in a month, I hadn’t even started yet. I said, “So come see me, and I want to learn more about what you’re doing, so I can better understand.”

Cathy Ferree:

I actually come from a family of mental health experts. My parents are both psychiatrists, as was my grandfather. And, my other grandparents were social workers. So, the idea of mental health, and substance abuse disorder, and the idea that all of those things were secrets, were the reason that they get perpetuated. So, I have spent my career looking for an opportunity to help move the things that are in the shadows that continue to move behind us up to the forefront, so that we can start to address them, and maybe get them solved rather than secretly passing them on to the next generation.

Oge Chigbo:

Wow, thank you so much for that. I’m actually great that you got your first inspiration from seeing someone buy an outfit. Oh, that’s amazing. Could you tell us a bit about the process it took to create this project? So, an example in the community stories section on the website, what kind of stakeholders did you have in your team? And in public health, we emphasize on the role of being a chief health strategist, which is being able to act as a leader in mobilizing different people in the community to achieve a similar goal. So in this case, would be your project to decrease the opiod use disorder crisis in your community. So, if- [crosstalk 00:03:18]

Cathy Ferree:

Yeah. So, I actually started looking at who I thought would be interested, and in the museum business, you start with your board of directors. So, it was my third board meeting. If you wonder, if they were wondering, and the most incredible thing was they said, “Absolutely look into that, see what you can find out.” “If there’s something we can do, let’s do it.” So I began, I spoke with the drug czar of Indiana because the opioid crisis was one of our governor’s Five Pillars, and he was responsible for addressing it. Indiana was highly ranked, unfortunately, as the number of cases of opioid use disorder in the country. So, that meant it was a statewide issue. It wasn’t an urban issue or rural issue. It was a statewide issue. And, as the one statewide museum system in Indiana, I felt that we had a real opportunity to have an impact on 12 different communities, and their surrounding communities rather than a community.

Cathy Ferree:

So, we started talking to donors, people who we knew were interested in making a difference. I spoke with many medical professionals. We were able to connect with the Rural Hospital Association of Indiana, who then connected us with the presidents of the hospitals in different areas. They were incredibly supportive, because one of the issues they face that museums really feel like we could make a difference is, that hospitals are usually places that are scary. You only go there when you’re sick, that’s where grandma passes away. Good things don’t happen there, unfortunately. As much as medicine has moved forward, museums are a place that invites you to come in, and be curious, and ask questions, and learn about new things. And again, this was something that people didn’t talk about, but that needed to be talked about. So, we were looking for those people at the hospital who were trying to address the opioid crisis, so that we could give them a forum, a comfortable forum, a non-threatening forum to get their information out.

Cathy Ferree:

So, we really started with looking at who were the people in the medical field who were doing this. We really had a great opportunity to partner with our family social services organization, the mental health division of that. They were really excited and actually ended up funding the project for us. So, they were able to take federal funds that they were using to break the stigma of the opioid crisis in order to fund this project that we felt would have a great impact on school children at an age when they would still listen, and at a point where they could really hear information that they could understand. So fourth, fifth and sixth graders still think adults have something to say, and they are on the verge of entering a world where things like this will become a part of their community. So, we felt like the hospitals were a great place to start.

Cathy Ferree:

We also partnered with Indiana University. They have what is called a Grand Challenge of the opioid crisis, and the head of the nursing school, Dr. Newhouse, the PI on that project, the primary investigator. And, she actually took time to work with us, and then connected us with several people in her division that were looking to do evaluation on how things can help break down the stigma, so we would be one of those places. So, we partnered with IU, we partnered with University of Indianapolis and their Art Therapy program. We partnered with IUPUI and their Music Therapy program. So, we really looked for places that were working in this field, and how could we bring them together? As you said, be the convener, be the person that asked the big question, and then gets many people to answer it for you.

Cathy Ferree:

And, that is as any good networking process. You never leave a meeting without asking who else we should be talking to, who else might be interested in this project? And at the end of the day, we ended up with, well over 50 partners throughout the State of Indiana who were interested. So, we were able to really galvanize a group of people behind something that they knew was important, that would help them do their work. And, we provided a forum, and a resource and an expertise that they themselves do not have.

Steve Sonnier:

That’s incredibly exciting just to hear about all those community partners coming together for this and like you’re saying, and one of the initial videos we’re talking about how this is a novel idea for a museum to come out and do this. I can think of the museums that I’ve been to, and they don’t touch on this very critically important subject as you talk about with fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, that this is an important conversation to be having, because it is part of the world, and this is a safe educated space where you’re going to get the best and the brightest in the community. You talk about art therapy, you talk about hospitals coming together, universities, this really seems like an excellent place to hit on such a difficult topic for kiddos, for family members to understand. When you’re creating this project, what is the focus in terms of health equity? When you’re looking at the motivation and implementation side of things, how do you think that this will impact your local community who is able to attend the museum and see this exhibit?

Cathy Ferree:

So, a couple of things that you said that I think are really, really important, and that is museums have long time been a place to have difficult conversations, that the American community has been very oriented on history, rather than on current topics and relevancy, and we are learning from that today. And, I think that museums are a place that have a lot of power to help people have conversations, and also give parents and other adults in people’s lives, I’m an aunt, the tools and the information we need to have these conversations, many times the reason why things like substance abuse disorder and those types of things get unnoticed or unspoken about is people don’t understand them. They don’t know how to address them. They don’t know what they’re supposed to say. They don’t understand it themselves. So, you’re asking people to explain things about something they know nothing about.

Cathy Ferree:

And particularly, teachers are overwhelmed in the classroom on a normal day. I am a huge fan of teachers. They have a lot on their plate, and they are experts at a lot of things, but we wanted to be able to give them in a very succinct and concise way, the ability to address what they’re addressing in the classroom on a daily basis with their students and their students’ parents in a way that was non-threatening. Again, museums are a place where we ask you to think about information. We provide you with a lot of resources brought together. You may have heard about this, or you may have heard about that, but we’ve brought all of those, this and that together in one place, so that you can really pick and choose what’s of interest to you.

Cathy Ferree:

When you asked me about health equity, the reason again, that we felt we were uniquely positioned to address this is because we are located. The Indiana State Museum itself is located in Indianapolis, which is obviously an urban area, that many of our historic sites are located in much smaller rural communities. And therefore, we had a chance to really be sure that we were reaching on all of Indiana, and not a segment of Indiana. And, that was why people like the Rural Hospital Association were really interested in working with us as well as the universities, because we could help them meet and talk to audiences that they may not normally have access to.

Oge Chigbo:

That was a really great reply. And also, talking on health equity, so we navigated the website. So, the website dedicated for this project. And, I just had to say that your UI, UX developer did an amazing job. So, for people who don’t know what that is, a UI, UX developer is a user interface, user experience designer, who basically works with different type of technology spaces, your iPhones, anything, just to make sure that the experience you have with whatever platform is amazing. Interface was user friendly, engaging, easily accessible, but I might also be biased since I am in this field, and I kind of know what every single segment was kind of talking about. So, we were wondering who is your target audience for this project and why?

Cathy Ferree:

So, for the project at large, we were looking at the family audience within communities, so that we could help support parents in having what are very difficult conversations, as I said. We were also looking to support the fourth, fifth and sixth grade school group, because again, that’s a time where kids are in a position to still hear about this information before they’ve actually experienced it. We hope in some personal way, upfront and close, there is a lot of conversation about when and how you are exposed to opioids. So, I’m not saying that it is a time period where it starts or finishes, but it isn’t very complex. So fourth, fifth and sixth graders could begin to understand what we were talking about. So, we were really hopeful that we would be able to reach family audiences with that same age group, as well as reach those classrooms.

Cathy Ferree:

What we have found is our most successful audience, and one we’re looking to support is the recovery community. And so, what we found is we have been able to provide a place for the recovery community to bring in their relatives, to bring in their friends and help them understand what’s happening in their lives in a way that, again, the galleries bright light colors, we are bringing all of this into the sunshine. This is something that can and should be talked about. It’s a disease, there is information we can give you, so that you can better understand. There are tools we can give you, so you can help. So, we really felt like there were multiple audiences that we could reach, and that there were different needs of different audiences that we could actually address as well.

Oge Chigbo:

From since the time that this project was first implemented till now, have you noticed, I guess, a high increase in the number of people who are actually talking about the opioid use disorder, or maybe parents discussing about how their children or also intrigued, and I’m more curious about what is going on, or maybe ways that help, and maybe there’s less stigma discussing opioid use in general.

Cathy Ferree:

So, a couple of answers to that. One, in informal learning, we don’t pre-test you and post-test you. So, we don’t know what you know, and we don’t know what you gained. And, many times what you learn in a museum, you use at a very unusual point in your life. It’s not, you walk out the door and then this is how it gets implemented into my life, it may come up and you’ll be like, “Oh, that’s right, I was at the state museum.” And, I remembered when they were talking about art therapy, and I didn’t know you could use it. I thought it was only used for people who were in different situations. So, knowing how and when we affect people is very difficult. We had just opened this exhibition at the end of January; and then, we closed to the public on March 17, and we’re closed for over 90 days.

Cathy Ferree:

So, we missed an entire school audience that we were hoping to capture as well as the kids, as you all are painfully aware, are in a hybrid situation and are not visiting museums right now. So, we have not been able to bring them in this fall either. And, this spring is not sure where that will land, but we may, by the end of May be able to bring some people in. We have extended the length of the program. With that said, we had talked to the family social services mental health division, and they were very interested in how they could help us bring school children to the exhibition. And, when you talk about equity, how they could take away the barrier of admission. So, we had presented them with a grant that they’d asked us about, that would bring little kids to the museum to have the experience. Well, that obviously wasn’t going to happen.

Cathy Ferree:

So, we went back to the drawing table, and again, I will take no credit for the website, but I am delighted to know that you think it’s wonderful. I think it’s wonderful. You understand how it’s wonderful, I just understand that it is. But, knowing that now there was an opportunity for us to potentially reach not only the communities we were serving in Indiana, but a larger spectrum, because museums were seeing people from around the world were all looking for different things to do, different places. And so, those of us that were present in the marketplace had a chance to reach a broader audience. So, we spoke with FSSA and we re-deployed those dollars with their blessing and help. And, we are producing what we call modules, so they are going to be right representative of the exhibition, but they won’t be duplicates of. But, they will have a video of an expert talking about a topic.

Cathy Ferree:

They will have someone who is experiencing it, so they’ll have a first person speaking about it. And then, there’ll be a third video that may be a combination of things, or have some other way to reinforce the topic. And so, the topics we address in the exhibition sort of, why is pain important? Or how does the brain work? We have pulled out those larger topics and made them into modules, so we can now provide for teachers that are looking for content to have their students, that is different than what they’ve seen before. We can now provide this type of experience through interactive modules that we provide through technology. We are also offering with their support, 50 virtual experiences, where one of our staff members will walk you through several of the topics of the modules. They will send you a set of kits, so you will do things as you might normally do in the exhibit, so hands-on projects.

Cathy Ferree:

And in this case, one of the things that is really effective of retool, is you write down those things that make you unhappy, and then you shred them. So, I think we’ve tried to cop it a couple of times. But, what we can do in case is work kids through that process, and then have them tear them up and throw them away. So, it’s a similar idea that they can shred it themselves. And that, that is giving away that negativity, that’s giving away that barrier in your life. So, there are ways we will look to take the work that we’ve done in the exhibition and repackage it on a virtual component. We will be able to tell then, how many people, as you all know, click through, actually watch the full videos. How many programs were actually able to give?

Cathy Ferree:

We can do pre and post projects for the teachers to do. And then, we can ask them to do end of class evaluations, once they’ve worked through one of these programs. So, we will have an opportunity to gain a lot more information, having the support to put it online. That was a really long answer, but it was one of those situations where our attendance actually was rising, people were coming, so we were very excited about it. We were partnering with Indiana University, they were going to come over. They had some questions about public health that they want answered, and we had questions about museum exhibits that we want answered, to know if we were making a difference, if people did understand what was effective, what was not effective. So, we will be looking at what information that comes up, and the feedback we get from those videos to help compliment what we are still getting from the general public who is visiting the exhibition.

Steve Sonnier:

There’s so many excellent thoughts that I’m thinking about when it comes to these points that you’ve mentioned out here. The one that immediately stands out to me is during the pandemic, there’s been that challenge to adapt and figure out how am I going to deliver these educated substances? And just as a parent, I was coming through and seeing, there’s museums online, there’s these virtual exhibits, how can I spend my time when I’m cooped up in my house? And especially, for the teachers who are trying to mold their curriculum, and trying to bring that interactivity, the nice thing while having to pivot away from the in-person is the perpetuity of having this online resource that many folks can access from across the globe. I could talk about, I think that… Like you’ve noted, you’re uniquely positioned to be experts in this area, and have that real life experience, which is another thing that I really enjoyed is that, the perspective someone going through this very difficult time, and navigating this disease and having that voice there. I think that folks, especially the younger ones might not be aware of the human element of things.

Steve Sonnier:

They might hear it from a secondhand source, or they might have an off-hand experience with it, and not understand that this is a very difficult thing that affects many people that can be close relatives, and not have a really easy way to process this. So, it’s wonderful to hear that there are those multiple dimensions of addressing this issue and exploring it, and as you say, bringing some sunshine into it, putting it out into the light and demonstrating here’s what’s going on. You touched a little bit on how the pandemic has affected the mobilization of this for the funding and the continuation of the project. Really, where do you see this heading in the next one to two years? What would you like the project to pivot towards while we’re still figuring out the situation of the pandemic, and the in-person learning experiences?

Cathy Ferree:

So, one thing that I did commit to, and the institution committed to, and the board approved was that, we would not jump in and out of this topic as we may do with other exhibitions. Things are focused on the exhibit when the exhibits have gone, “Okay, well, we’ve done that now, what’s next?” So really, the opportunity to put together these modules gave us the chance to be sure that we lived out that promise, that we would continue to provide information. We would continue to partner with the schools, and partner with our community on how to address this. Unfortunately, what we have seen is a huge rise in substance abuse disorder during COVID, the use of Narcan has gone up [inaudible 00:21:51]. People are together, so these things that you had a chance to hide more easily, you’re unable to do now because you are all right there.

Cathy Ferree:

So, our hope is that people were looking for a way to manage their situation, and that we were able to help provide some of those. The other is that recovery tools are not only for opioid use disorder. Recovery tools are going to be used by people who’ve been stuck in the house for nine months with a one-year-old. They’re going to be used by 23 year olds who went to grad school and found themselves back at home. So, how do I manage this? So, the yoga classes that are used, the music therapy, the relaxation therapy, look for those things I’m grateful for. Those are all things that all of us can use when we’re trying to recover from a very difficult situation. We may use them differently, we may have different needs for them, but we feel like the pandemic has broadened people’s understanding and help build that empathy, we were hoping to build.

Cathy Ferree:

When they find themselves isolated and without a community, that is particularly difficult for people in recovery. And, they pivoted as quickly as they possibly could. But, many people who are extroverts like myself, found this idea of being in my office by myself, talking to myself or to the screen, not very fulfilling. So, we really believe that our timing was incredibly useful to our communities, and will continue to be as we work our way, not only through the opioid crisis, but as we work our way through how we’ve been affected by COVID, and the things that has required us to do to stay safe.

Oge Chigbo:

I think our audience really appreciate having you on here. I know we too, have learnt a lot from being on here. So for the sake of your time, because we value your time so much, we’re just going to chug along to the last question that we have here for you, which is what is the one thing [inaudible 00:24:01] you knew but later were wrong about? So, it could be anything.

Cathy Ferree:

Well, it’s funny when I read that question, I was like, “I think that’s a whole another podcast that lasts for about, I don’t know, 10 years.” But, I do think that there is something that I have found over time as an old woman compared to you all. And, that is when I went to college, who I think is some of your audience, I was in political science and radio and television. I grew up in Indiana, so Jane Pauley was our role model. When I got to school and started going into radio and television and graduated, wasn’t sure what to do with that, and I had a summer job at a museum.

Cathy Ferree:

And so, I graduated and started working at the museum, and kept thinking that it was [inaudible 00:24:51] my temporary or summer job. Well, 35 years later, I am still working in a museum. I am using the skills that I learned in college to do things like this podcast or do television, as I done with my career throughout to help people understand what museums are doing. But, I was wrong about how I would spend my life and my career, and I think all of us, I just like everyone to remember, that there are many avenues you can take with your education. There are many avenues you can take with your life, and to always be open to following that. Because, had I forced myself to do what I was quote, supposed to or quote, Trained to do,” I think I would not had nearly the opportunity that I’ve had in the museum field to really touch a lot of lives in a way that’s important.

Oge Chigbo:

Thank you so much for that motivation at the end, because we have come to like our end in graduate school, and we’re about to enter into the job market. So, that definitely was needed.

Cathy Ferree:

Yeah.

Oge Chigbo:

But, yeah. So Steve, do you have anything to add?

Steve Sonnier:

I was thinking the exact same thing. I had a conversation with a mentor of mine a couple days ago, and her exact quote was something to the effect of, “You’re not going to go wrong wherever you go.” And, it was really helpful to hear that, because I feel like many people, especially now during the pandemic, but entering and exiting a graduate program or any college education program, you’re trying to figure out your place. What am I going to do? Where am I going to be? And, having that appreciation to being open, and accepting of these experiences, you may end up working in a museum and having this wonderful illustrated career where you get this really incredibly, valuable opportunity to communicate this difficult public health crisis to people who are coming into it, and figuring it out, like you talking about from those different perspectives. So, I just think that’s a fantastic answer. And, I’d love to thank you for your time today. This was an excellent opportunity. And, I’m so glad that we were able to talk with you about this. We wish you the best of luck in promoting it.

Cathy Ferree:

Thank you. And, best of luck to both of you. I know you’ll have big impacts on whatever you choose to do, because you obviously take to heart what’s of interest to you, and that makes all the difference.

Steve Sonnier:

That’s it for this week’s episode of, From the Front Row. Huge thanks to our guests, Cathy Ferree for coming on today. FIX: Heartbreak and Hope Inside Our Opioid Crisis is open until August 1st, 2021, and is available online at indianamuseum.org.

Steve Sonnier:

We’ll have the direct link to the site in our show notes. This episode was hosted and written by Olga Chigbo and Steve Sonnier. This episode was edited and produced by Steve Sonnier. You can find more about the University of Iowa College of Public Health on Facebook. Our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. This Is the University of Iowa College of Public Health. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your colleagues. Our team can be reached at cph-gradambassador@uiowa.edu. This episode was brought to you by the University of Iowa College of Public Health. Keep on, keeping on out there.