Attention fellow officers!
COA is looking to get officers involved on July 12th to help to make naloxone kits in coordination with Project Hope. The event will be located at ANMC Conference Room 2 from 10am to 12noon.
COA is partnering with Project Hope to help advance the Surgeon General’s initiative to equip more individuals with the potentially life-saving medication, naloxone. 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.
Surgeon General’s Advisory on Naloxone and Opioid Overdose: I, Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, VADM Jerome Adams, am emphasizing the importance of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. For patients currently taking high doses of opioids as prescribed for pain, individuals misusing prescription opioids, individuals using illicit opioids such as heroin or fentanyl, health care practitioners, family and friends of people who have an opioid use disorder, and community members who come into contact with people at risk for opioid overdose, knowing how to use naloxone and keeping it within reach can 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. There will be a sign-in sheet at the time of the event to help determine officer participation. Please feel free to contact CDR Aimee Young at alyoung@anthc.org or myself at DAcheson@SouthcentralFoundation.com with any additional questions you may have.
Darrell R. Acheson, PharmD, BCPS, NCPS
LCDR, USPHS
Southcentral Foundation
4320 Diplomacy Drive
Anchorage, AK 99508