Knowledge Is Power: Learn How To Prevent Opioid Overdoses

A training session will be held March 9 at 12 p.m. at 274 South Orange Ave. in Newark. Anyone interested can call the Family Service Bureau at 973-412-2056 to register or for additional details.

New Jersey is one of several  states since September 2015 that has made Narcan available without a prescription. “Over 44,000 people die from accidental drug overdoses every year in the United States and most of those deaths are from opioids, including controlled substance pain medication and illegal drugs such as heroin.” said Tom Davis, vice president of pharmacy professional practices at CVS/pharmacy. “Naloxone is a safe and effective antidote to opioid overdoses and by providing access to this medication in our pharmacies without a prescription in more states, we can help save lives.”

The Family Service Bureau is training its staff in conjunction with the Center for Addiction Education Recovery and Success (C.A.R.E.S.) of Morris County, who received a training grant for northern New Jersey. C.A.R.E.S. provides free training designed to proactively prepare individuals, friends and family members on how to effectively respond to an overdose. Naloxone administration is an important component of an overall “Overdose Action Plan” that enables one to take specific actions to revive an individual who has over-dosed, stabilization of individuals as safely as possible, monitoring of their current physical and emotional condition, and best practices on how to communicate with 911, EMTs, and Law Enforcement.

Some of the topics covered in the Naloxone trainings (at noon on March 9, 2016 at FSB)  include the following:

Opioid overdose prevention education

Hands-on training on how to administer Naloxone

Complementary Naloxone kits

Explanation of the “Overdose Protection Act”

Beyond NARCAN (treatment, options, on-going recovery programming)

The current opiate and heroin epidemic puts anyone at risk. Therefore everyone should consider learning more about Narcan. Narcan (naloxone) is an opiate antidote. Opioids include heroin and prescription pain pills like morphine, codeine, oxycodone, methadone and Vicodin. When a person is overdosing on an opioid, breathing can slow down or stop and it can very hard to wake them from this state. Narcan is a prescription medicine that blocks the effects of opioids and reverses an overdose. It cannot be used to get a person high. If given to a person who has not taken opioids, it will not have any effect on him or her, since there is no opioid overdose to reverse.

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