Opioid overdose is a community health epidemic. Naloxone is a medication that rescues someone from an opioid overdose – whether it is a prescription medication or heroin. This video provides the information and training in how to save a life with Naloxone.
More people died from overdose every year in america than do from car accidents overdose is the number one cause of accidental death in our country in our state and in our county to put that perspective at 80 individuals are dying every single day in the united states from an opiate overdose that’s three people an hour we have seen a four-fold increase in the
Rate of death due to overdose from opiates since 1990 and it’s not about just heroin users it’s not just about a fentanyl user it’s about mom or dad who was in a car accident and is given two or three medications plus a muscle relaxer and something to help them relax and all of a sudden they’re not breathing at home they didn’t take too much medicine it was
Just more medicine than their body could handle it is everywhere and working with people i have a lot of people say oh i don’t know anybody uses heroin but if i ask them about well you know somebody who has prescription drugs like oh yeah all the time yes people are overdosing on heroin and slightly more are starting to overdose on heroin but the vast majority
Is still prescription medications fortunately there is a medication that will safely and easily reverse any opioid overdose and it’s called naloxone so naloxone hydrochloride is pretty much a pure anted over opiate overdose it was created in the 1960s the fda approved in 1971 since roughly 2000 there have been organizations across the united states that have
Started distributing naloxone rescue kits to community members like you as a strategy to reduce overdose fatality out of the 3,000 150 individuals that we’ve trained to use naloxone 365 times somebody has come back to us and reported in person that they’ve used this medication to reverse an overdose in this upcoming video we’re going to train you how to use anna
Locke’s own rescue kit we’re going to train you how to save a life so what is an opioid opioids are substances derived from the opium poppy or with a chemical structure resembling it opioids can reduce pain and produce feelings of euphoria i think it’s important to know that opiates is not just heroin opiate overdose is not just heroin it can be a multi multi –
Dove opiate medications where there’s vicodin there’s norco there’s oxy cotton there’s fentanyl there’s all kinds of opioids so what are some common opioids there’s heroin vicodin norco oxycontin and fentanyl but there’s also percocet dilaudid methadone demerol codeine the list goes on and on one of the key things to remember is that when somebody’s using an
Opiate whether it’s legitimately as prescribed or if it’s being used illicitly they can still overdose so anybody who has a prescription for an opiate should have access to this life-saving medication and naloxone hydrochloride is a medication which was designed specifically to reverse an opioid overdose that’s its sole use in medicine it’s very very effective
Very efficient and very very safe if somebody uses too much opiate whether that was on purpose or accidental then this medication can be given to reverse the overdose so when we take opiates they target these receptor sites in our brain and they tell our body to do certain things they tell our body to feel pain relief that’s why they’re you know effective pain
Relievers they give us that euphoric sensation which is why so many people struggle with addiction they tell our body you know to start you know slowing down our breathing a little bit and these are the natural responses our bodies have from opiates when somebody overdoses essentially our brain is telling our body that we have enough oxygen you don’t need to breathe
Anymore so when naloxone does is it targets those same receptor sites but it binds to them with a higher affinity than what opiates do essentially kicking the opiates off those were subbed your sites it can be you on anyone that looks like they’re overdosing and it’s a medication that will not harm you so if you used it on me right now it wouldn’t harm me one of
The things that people need to understand about naloxone is that it will work on all opioids any opioids but only opioids if someone is using multiple substances it’s going to help you come out of the overdose for the opiates it may not for the other substance but then you’re able to better evaluate the situation and see where to move from here if it’s given to
Somebody who is not suffering from an opiate overdose somebody who is not opioid dependent it’s going to essentially be like giving them water so it’s an amazing product really it’s one of those where you see somebody that looks like they’re dead or near dead and you give the drug and they’re better there’s not too many things in medicine to do that it’s clear
People can and do overdose on opioids so what put someone at increased risk so some of the things that put someone at a higher risk of overdosing are mixing when it comes to a mixed drug overdose and there’s kind of two different classifications there’s when you mix an upper and a downer so that would be like methamphetamine and you know prescription opioid and
Then there’s downers and downers so a benzodiazepine like xanax or klonopin mixed with an opioid it’s important to avoid mixing drugs for that reason another is that can increase someone’s risk of an overdose is tolerance and it’s not so much having a high tolerance but when someone’s had some sort of period of abstinence whether it was jail or rehab or they just
Chose to stop using drugs for a while and then they return to using drugs a lot of people know that their tolerance is decreased so they’ll use like a little bit less but what a lot of people don’t realize is that it decreases by a lot more than they realize don’t do the same dose that i did 90 days ago or i could potentially overdose another risk that you know
Increases the likelihood of someone overdosing is the quality of whatever they’re taking unfortunately heroin changes from day to day nobody knows what you’re gonna get it doesn’t come with nice little baggies with the contents what’s cut with how much to use and so somebody using something today could be very different from what they use the day before we’re
Seeing a lot more heroin that has been cut with fentanyl very potent opioid sometimes we see pure fentanyl or the fentanyl analogues sometimes pure heroin or a lot of times a mixture and the final issue is a lot of people think they’re buying heroin and they’re getting fentanyl with prescription opioids we also talked about quality because not everyone knows the
Difference between a vicodin or an oxy cotton or a dilaudid and so it’s really important to know the different strengths of these medications that even at the same milligram amount they can be significantly stronger and then also knowing the difference between you know a 10 milligram pill versus an 80 milligram pill and and and recognizing the difference between
Those and then the last risk that we talked about with overdose is using a loan obviously using a loan doesn’t increase someone’s risk of overdosing but it can increase their risk of it being fatal when using you have to have people around you and it’s really outside the box thinking to say if you’re gonna use let people know you’re using we now know what’s going
On in our community concerning overdose we know about overdose and the lock zone and we’ve heard about overdose risk now we’re going to show you how you can respond in an overdose situation so somebody who looks like they’re going to overdose or is overdosing will start to have shallow breathing they may have a blue lips tiny pupils nodding out but they kind of
Start making the snoring noise and that’s kind of one of the giveaways that their od people will breathe slower when they’re really high but it can be hard to tell when that’s breathing has gotten too slow and so really the only thing that really separates those things is whether or not that person is responsive or not there’s a whole range of symptoms that
Can look very similar if somebody’s overdosing or if somebody’s just very intoxicated on opiates the thing we’re looking for is if somebody is unresponsive so you give somebody a little shake say their name you’re not getting any response for most people if an overdose is occurring they’ve learned from other people who are overdosing how to respond slap them
Around wife’s down their pants dragging the shower those are all time wasters when somebody’s overdosing the way we teach people to respond to overdose situations is using the three a’s assess the situation administer naloxone and aftercare we want to assess the situation to see if someone is overdosing we want to administer naloxone to keep them alive and then
Comes aftercare providing rescue breathing calling 9-1-1 and seeing whether another dose of knox own is necessary the first step in the three a’s is assess we want to determine if this individual has overdosed there can be a lot of signs or symptoms that someone has overdosed their eyes could roll back their lips could be turning blue or purple pale or clammy
Skin vomit foaming at the mouth gurgling their snoring sounds but the two key points are whether or not they are unresponsive or whether there is slow or no breathing to see if this individual is overdosing we want to see if they’re responsive a good way to tell if someone is responsive or not is to do a sternal rub a sternal rub can cause a lot of pain without
Causing damage to the individual suspected opioid use plus non-responsive and slower no breathing equals an overdose you can call 911 if you are by yourself and a phone is not easily at hand move on to administer naloxone yeah and with my friend he’s not breathe someone dies from an opioid overdose because of a lack of oxygen and even a few minutes without enough
Oxygen can cause irreparable harm after we have assessed the situation and we have reason to believe that someone is overdosing we move on to the next step administer naloxone again we are going to teach you how to administer naloxone in its two most common forms intramuscular and intranasal the narcan comes in single vials you just pop the orange cap off you
Use an inner musculus syringe that we provide withdraw the narcan and inject into a major muscle into the thigh to the butt into the shoulder the masculine junction is gonna take three to five minutes to kick in and that time you want to continue breathing for the person making sure they’re getting oxygen intranasal naloxone comes in these preassembled nasal
Delivery devices it is very easy to use and to administer the first thing you will want to do is lie the individual on their back if they are not already tilt their head back slightly and gently press up on their neck wipe off their nose you are now ready to administer your naloxone again these devices are very simple and easy to use open up your cardboard box
Pull out one blister pack rip open the blister pack removing the device grip the device with your pointer and middle fingers on either side of the nozzle and the thumb on the plunger really the only way you can go wrong is by trying to prime or pressing the plunger too much prior to getting it in someone’s nostril thereby wasting the medication insert the nozzle
Fully into the individuals nostril until your fingers are touching the bottom of their nostril gently but firmly depress the plunger releasing the entire contents of the device into one nostril naloxone takes three to five minutes to work in that three to five minutes the individual may not be breathing fully on their own yet the third a is for aftercare there
Are three important things you must do after you have administered naloxone call 9-1-1 if you have not already continue rescue breathing evaluate the situation to see if another dose of naloxone is necessary and support your friend when someone dies from an opiate overdose they’re dying from respiratory arrest the brain is not allowing them to be receptive to
Taking of oxygen their muscles are so relaxed they’re not taking in enough oxygen and if they just are doing rescue breathing there’s and calling 9-1-1 there’s an opportunity to save a life rescue breathing is very simple delay the person on their back you tilt their head back open their mouth pinch the nose shut a good seal between your mouth and their mouth
You give two breaths to count to five give one breath every five seconds thereafter after three minutes if the individual has not come out of the overdose meaning they are not yet responsive administer a second dose of naloxone and continue rescue breathing if after two doses of naloxone they’re still not responsive this may not be an opioid overdose make sure
9-1-1 is on their way and continue caring for the individual many people are scared to call 9-1-1 because they are worried about getting arrested in michigan many of our law enforcement officers are now equipped with naloxone rescue kits and carry them in the community in michigan we also have new good samaritan legislation which protects you and the individual
Who has overdosed from arrest for personal use amounts of controlled substances as long as the evidence was gained as a result of your seeking help in the overdose situation fentanyl is an extremely potent opioid it can be thousands of times more powerful than heroin fentanyl can be dangerous either prescribed by a doctor or when heroin is cut with it and
People unwittingly use it it is very difficult to differentiate between heroin and fentanyl outside of a professional laboratory in a fentanyl overdose situation it can take numerous doses of naloxone to bring someone out of the overdose however appropriately responding to a fentanyl overdose would be no different from any other overdose situation you’d want
To administer naloxone rescue breathe and make sure you call 911 after the individual has come out of the overdose you’ll want to support them giving the locks onto an opioid dependent individual can make them experience withdrawal symptoms this will not be pleasant for them however the lock stone does not kick opioids out of the body it just kicks them out of
The brains receptor sites for a limited period of time if somebody takes heroin and that’s gonna last where they say the half-life is depending on what you read say two to four hours and then they get enough so they have an overdose and they’re not breathing if they get naloxone the last zone lasts about 45 minutes maybe an hour and so that’s the mismatch a lot
Of prescription pills are really similar but things like methadone can be even upwards of 24 to 48 hours so the opiates tend to stay in the body longer so it’s really important with this medication that that person once they get them at once they get them to lock stone that they still seek emergency medical care there is the potential for somebody to slip back
Into an overdose after the naloxone wears off more than that the potential is with you know when people use again after the naloxone has been administered because maybe they are feeling a little bit withdrawal sick it’s really important to encourage people not to do that because that’s when the really big risk of someone slipping back and do an overdose would
Occur so if they don’t know what it is and they’re unresponsive being able to use the lock zone can make a difference because it’s not going to harm them by giving them naloxone if it’s not an opioid if they give them the lock zone and they respond to it then it was there it was something they an opioid in their system if not it’s also why we need to make sure
That 9-1-1 is being called because they need to be able to make sure that they are getting the medical attention they need if you are a person who has used opioids before who are currently using opioids for any reason you should have a rescue kit if you know someone else who uses opioids you should also have a kit there are people dying every day in our community
From overdose none of them need to die and by getting trained to use a simple safe easy to use a naloxone rescue kit you can save a life you can save lives
Transcribed from video
Naloxone Rescue Training for the community By The Grand Rapids Red Project