Attention all officers!
COA will again be partnering with Project Hope to help advance the Surgeon General’s initiative to equip more individuals with the potentially life-saving medication, naloxone. The Surgeon General will personally be attending this event so please make sure that you are in uniform and properly wearing your Service Khakis or Service Dress Blues! The event is scheduled for August 8th at ANMC Conference Rooms 1-3 from 4pm to 5pm.
Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that is used to temporarily reverse the effects of opioid-induced overdoses that can lead to respiratory depression and ultimately death. Expanding individual awareness and availability of naloxone is a key component of the public health’s current response for combating the ongoing opioid epidemic. We as officers have an important role to play in addressing this public health crisis! We need to ensure that we are educating ourselves to effectively identify high risk individuals for opioid overdose, that we are equipped and knowledgeable on how to use naloxone, and that we are ready to respond to help save a life.
BE PREPARED. GET NALOXONE. SAVE A LIFE.
Project Hope is a State based program where the State of Alaska’s Department of Health and Social Services is working with community organizations to distribute or administer Narcan® in Alaska. This is provided through a program called Project HOPE (which stands for Harm reduction, Overdose Prevention and Education). To learn more about this program, visit the webpage at http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Director/Pages/heroin-opioids/HOPEforms.aspx, or directly contact ProjectHOPE@alaska.gov.
All officers are strongly encouraged to participate in this upcoming event, and to support the surgeon general’s challenge for all officers to have a personal naloxone kit on-hand. Please feel free to contact CDR Molly Rutledge at mcrutledge@anthc.org or myself at DAcheson@SouthcentralFoundation.com with any additional questions you may have regarding this event.
Darrell R. Acheson, PharmD, BCPS, NCPS
LCDR, USPHS
Southcentral Foundation
4320 Diplomacy Drive
Anchorage, AK 99508
907-729-4160