Northwest Health shares Narcan resources for opioid overdose response
By Nicole Scott
Northwest Health Services is sharing free online resources from Narcan and information about free in-person training, seeking to better educate people on how to respond to an opioid overdose situation.
Narcan is a spray medication that is administered through the nose to help those suffering from an opioid overdose.
The life-saving medication’s main ingredient is Naloxone Hydrochloride, which “competes with opioids to bind with the same receptors in the brain, reversing the effects of an opioid overdose in two to three minutes,” according to the Narcan website.
The idea behind Narcan and other over-the-counter naloxone hydrochloride sprays is to lessen the immediate overdose effects, allowing more time for emergency medical response teams to arrive and properly treat individuals who are suffering from opioid overdose.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes opioid overdoses to be among the leading injury-related causes of death that effect the United States population and says that these overdose situations, which are a main side effect of Opioid Use Disorder, are preventable.
By sharing the free online resources from Narcan’s website, individuals can be better educated on how to help someone who is or may be suffering from an opioid overdose situation.
The free Narcan resources can be found by scanning the QR code on the flyer with the camera application on a smartphone or by visiting Narcan’s website at www.narcan.com/en/resources.
“The QR code is just to learn how to administer it. I do a full-on training with a dummy and Narcan to show how it would be done, kind of live action and let the trainees do hands-on to learn as well,” said Pamela Tubb, Northwest Health Services peer support specialist.
For more information about attending free Narcan training, contact Tubb with Northwest Health Services by calling 816-261-3275 or by emailing pamelatubb@nwhealth-services.org.
For more information about services offered through Northwest Health, visit its website at www.nwhealth-services.org.
