Naloxone program is all about saving lives

Moderated by Constable Sonny Spina of the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, a town hall public information session was held Monday evening at The Machine Shop to raise awareness of and answer questions about illicit drug use in the region. The focus of the session was to educate the public about the need for and proper use of naloxone, a medication which blocks the effects of opioids in the case of an overdose. Naloxone can be administered either intra-nasally or by injection.

Attendees heard from a panel of experts that included Sault Ste. Marie Police Service Staff Sergeant Brent Duguay; Desiree Beck, chair of the Drug Strategy Committee and Group Health Centre (GHC) Hep Care outreach community coordinator; Shawna Thomas, co-chair of the Drug Strategy Committee and addictions counsellor with Algoma Public Health; and Jon MacDonald, pharmacist at Jon’s Medicine Shoppe. Rather than preaching abstinence, the local agencies involved in the area naloxone kit distribution program are concentrating on harm reduction strategies. While the GHC Hep Care Program will distribute intra-nasal naloxone kits to those that are at risk for opioid overdose and members of their immediate family, area pharmacies will have naloxone injection kits available for the same purpose.

City police and EMS have received more than 50 calls for service due to overdose since Jan. 1, 2017, a statistic that Desiree Beck sees as a double-edged sword.

“That number is high in terms of who’s calling EMS, but it’s not high in terms of how many overdoses actually occur,” she told SooToday. She estimates that between eight and nine overdoses occur within our community every week, almost double the number of actual calls made for medical assistance.

“There are a lot of people who overdose, whether they know it or not,” Beck said. “A lot of people are never told about overdosing – drugs are bad, we shouldn’t be doing drugs – so we don’t actually talk to them about what an overdose is. They happen all the time. 50 is huge in terms of calls. But at the same time, 50 is a great number of calls to be made. It means people are now reaching out to secondary services.”

Beck said the primary reason for not calling for medical assistance in the case of a suspected overdose is fear of prosecution.

“People are worried that even in the midst of saving someone’s life, they’re going to face drug related charges,” she said.

Beck stressed that the open distribution of naloxone kits to those at risk of overdose will not decrease an individual’s inhibitions in terms of opioid use. It’s not a license for illicit drug users to do whatever they please, she said. First of all, if there’s no opioids in the user’s system, naloxone will have no effect. However, if opioids are present, the application of naloxone will immediately send the patient into withdrawal.

“If you’ve ever experienced withdrawal, it’s not a good time,” she explained. “Naloxone isn’t going to change every single person who uses drugs from a drug user to a non-drug user, but it is going to be a reality check for people when they realize they could have died.”

To augment Monday’s naloxone information town hall, the Drug Strategy Committee will host an Addiction Information Fair on Friday, Apr. 7 at the Indian Friendship Centre (122 East Street) from noon to 6 p.m. The event will highlight a variety of community agencies, and provide information and education on services provided in our area regarding addictions.

Full text of a news release regarding the naloxone kit program issued by the Group Health Centre follows.

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SAULT STE. MARIE - The Hep Care Program at Group Health Centre (GHC) is pleased to announce that, starting this week, they will begin to offer a local solution to the nationwide opioid overdose problem.

The program will begin community teaching and distribution of intra-nasal naloxone kits to those that are at risk for opioid overdose and their immediate family members. Naloxone (also known as Narcan) is a non-prescription drug that can temporarily reverse the effects of an overdose of fentanyl, morphine, heroin, methadone, oxycodone or other opioids.

The Hep Care Program is glad to be one of 16 Ministry of Health funded sites within Ontario mandated to deliver this program. While it is hoped that there will soon be others within our community who are able to provide this training, the GHC Hep Care Program is the only publicly accessible program in our area to offer intra-nasal naloxone kits. You cannot obtain a kit without first attending a training and education session.

The Hep Care Program’s naloxone training will be delivered by a Registered Nurse and Outreach Worker.

Training sessions will be held every Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Neighbourhood Resource Centre on Gore St., but can also be scheduled for groups or individuals as necessary, anywhere within the Algoma district. Please call 1-888-943-4372 for more information.

The Hep Care Program also provides harm reduction services, testing, and counselling to at-risk individuals, often yet-to-be-diagnosed with Hepatitis C, and their families. If you are, or someone you care about is, an intravenous or inhalation drug user, the program welcomes you to contact them for information, education, or support.

Please note: intra-nasal naloxone kits are intended for those at high-risk for overdose and their immediate family members. Individuals in other circumstances who may need access to naloxone can visit here to find a participating Pharmacy for training on injectable naloxone use.

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