Police officers in Hudson County have saved at least 107 people experiencing drug overdoses this year.
But 102 people died of drug-related causes in the county during that same period, January to July.
The county is on a mission to equip the public with the tool needed to save those lives, the same tool that saved those 107 people: Narcan.
Naloxone, commonly referred to by the brand name Narcan, is medicine that can be given to an individual experiencing an overdose to help resuscitate them. Last year, the county began holding Narcan training sessions, teaching the public how to perform the life saving measure and offering participants free Narcan kits.
The coronavirus forced the county to cancel training sessions in the spring, but they’ve been rescheduled to be held virtually once a month through at least December.
“This training is very valuable,” said Christina Butieb-Bianco, who has organized the trainings through her role with the Hudson Regional Health Commission. “It will help save the life of a friend or a loved one or even a total stranger.”
The Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers-New Brunswick will lead the trainings over WebEx.
The training includes how to administer Narcan as well as broader information about overdoses, such as prevention strategies and legal rights.
The first 25 people to sign up for each training receive free Narcan kits. Slots for this month’s training are already full, Butieb-Bianco said.
Anyone can participate, but people with relatives who are heroin or opiate users should particularly consider it, she said.
“If your son or daughter or significant other has an opioid problem and they overdose, you want to be able to save them,” Butieb-Bianco said.
The number of drug-related deaths in Hudson County so far is slightly higher than at the same time last year. Nationwide data suggests that opioid fatalities have increased during the coronavirus pandemic in more than 40 states.
New Jersey has experienced an uptick since last year, reporting about 200 more deaths by July 31 than it did for the same period in 2019.
In Hudson County, the increase was by 11 deaths: 102 this year compared to 91 by the end of July 2019. The number of Narcan saves, however, more than doubled.
Police officers saved 107 people using Narcan by the end of July, up from just 49 at the same time last year.
Butieb-Bianco’s passion for equipping people with the lifesaving tool partially derives from a personal connection to the opioid crisis. A close friend of hers got addicted to a drug after undergoing a surgery and eventually hit rock bottom, she said.
“She hid it really well for a long time and then it got bad where she lost everything,” Butieb-Bianco said. “Her house, her job and her son – literally everything.”
Now Butieb-Bianco plans to get as many people educated as she can about how to administer Narcan.
“You may never use it, like CPR, but it’s something you have in your toolbox,” she said.
Registration for upcoming trainings will be available on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/o/hudson-regional-health-commission-hrhc-18735347784.
The dates are as follows: Sept. 14, 5:30-7 p.m.; Oct. 6, 6-7:30 p.m.; Nov. 18, 2-3:30 p.m.; and Dec. 2, 6-7:30 p.m.
"equip" - Google News
September 03, 2020 at 03:31AM
https://ift.tt/34Vf23j
Hudson County to resume Narcan trainings virtually, equipping public with life-saving tool - NJ.com
"equip" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35zdBFR
https://ift.tt/3fgZnOp
No comments:
Post a Comment