Jan Rader, a 2008 graduate of Ohio University Southern’s nursing program, recently celebrated an Emmy Award nomination for the Netflix documentary, “Heroin(e).”
The film follows Rader, Necia Freeman and Patricia Keller, as they fight the drug epidemic in Huntington, West Virginia.
Rader, currently the Huntington, West Virginia, fire chief, hopes the film’s Emmy nomination has the potential to take “Heroin(e)’s educational efforts to the next level. The film has also received an Oscar nomination.
“I feel like any time there are accolades for the film or myself, the recognition is actually for the community,” said Rader. “So many people in the community are involved in the problem, it’s always nice to be recognized for the work we’re doing. The fact that we’re being nominated for awards shows we’re doing the right thing morally.”
Due to Netflix’s wide reach, Rader has been contacted by individuals in an estimated 20 countries since the film’s release in Sept. 2017. She has been featured in numerous publications and on television, including NBC’s “Meet the Press,” public radio’s “Studio 1-A,” Vanity Fair and the April issue of Time. Rader was featured in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential of 2018 with an accompanying piece written by West Virginia U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin.
Rader was Manchin’s guest at this year’s State of the Union address. The film has been screened for the entire West Virginia legislature, the Aspen Institute and the Obama Foundation Summit, where she met the former first couple, Barack and Michelle Obama.
Recently, the WV Municipal League presented Rader with the Lydia Main Breaking Boundaries Award for West Virginia Women of Achievement in Municipal Government. She was honored for the compassion she shows to people battling substance abuse and for her courage in standing up for marginalized people.
Rader credits her Southern Campus nursing instructor’s years of real-life experience in the field for instilling her patient advocate attitude. She tries to pass this attitude onto other first responders.
“When I was in the nursing program, compassion was a part of the training,” said Rader. “Compassion is important when dealing with this epidemic and in dealing with the patients and each other.”
Rader hopes the film can help erase the stigma associated with substance use disorder.
She said the disorder does not discriminate by race, economic background or spiritual background. She said she has personally witnessed nursing colleagues, lawyers and physicians die. She can drive through any neighborhood in the city, rich or poor, point to houses and say, “Someone overdosed there.”
“Jan is an incredible role model for students and graduates,” said Nicole Pennington, associate professor of nursing and dean of Ohio University Southern. “Her servant leadership style and humble approach in helping others is such an inspiration. I am so proud of Jan’s accomplishments, but not at all surprised by her success. What you see is what you get with Jan Rader, always positive and lifting others up. It was a privilege to have her as one of my first nursing students.”
Rader attributes the film with helping to start needed conversations on the topic. Since its release, she and her colleagues have begun speaking at high schools and with community groups in an outreach and education effort. She feels the film helps educate society in the difficulty of combating and overcoming substance use disorders.
Rader says the medical community still doesn’t understand the magnitude of the opioid epidemic. Over a quarter of all the emergency calls her team responds to are drug overdoses, while just 8 percent of calls are for actual fires.
“Having a medical background helps tremendously,” said Rader. “As a first responder we’re exposed to so many accidents, any extra knowledge is helpful. I’m grateful for the medical training.”
Rader fields up to 26 opioid overdose calls per day and during the 15 months of filming there was not a single death. Every day, the firefighters encounter people with substance use disorders. Often they revive the same user a few days later, and again a few days later.
She explains in the 39-minute film that Huntington, with a population of 48,000, is largely comprised of construction, manufacturing and mining jobs. Many people in the area are prescribed powerful opioid painkillers after an injury and get hooked without knowing it, then need more drugs to avoid being sick from withdrawal symptoms.
Rader is a 23-year veteran of the Huntington Fire Department. She was unanimously confirmed as Huntington fire chief in March 2016, making her the first paid female fire chief for a professional fire department in the state of West Virginia. She commands a department of nearly 100 firefighters and grew up in nearby Ironton, Ohio, home of Ohio University Southern.
“I give a lot of thanks to the nursing instructors at OHIO Southern,” said Rader. “They gave me preparation for bigger and better things. They helped me get through training when I had two very ill family members and showed me compassion. I feel like I need to pay it forward.”
The News and Documentary Emmys in the outstanding short documentary category will be presented on Oct. 1 at the Time Warner Center in New York by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.