The Vermont Department of Health wants every K-12 school in the state to add one more thing to their emergency kits: naloxone, the overdose-reversal drug best known by the brand name Narcan. They鈥檙e offering virtual trainings to schools about how to spot a suspected overdose, and, for free, they鈥檒l send the medication to .
Deputy Commissioner of Health Kelly Dougherty said the state wants schools to keep naloxone on hand the way they do EpiPens and defibrillators.
鈥淚t is a basic life-saving first aid supply that we think they should have available in the event that something terrible happens in a school,鈥� she said.
Health officials say that no one has died yet from an overdose at a school in Vermont, and that overdoses on school grounds in general remain rare. . And outside the schoolhouse doors, the state is seeing a sharp and stubborn rise in fatal overdoses.
鈥淲e really want to get out in front of this,鈥� Dougherty said. Health officials, she added, are particularly concerned about fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid that is driving fatalities, increasingly showing up in counterfeit prescription pills.
Thanks to funding from legal settlements with opioid manufacturers, the state has been moving aggressively to expand access to naloxone. Last year, health officials even announced they would with two doses of Narcan and 10 fentanyl test strips directly to your home.
The push to get naloxone into schools is also a national phenomenon. Last year, over half of the country鈥檚 20 largest school districts reported stocking Narcan, .
鈥淚 want families and the public and school officials to know that you can use Narcan on anybody ... Any age, any size, any time, any place 鈥� for any concern.鈥�Rebecca Bell, pediatric critical care physician at the University of Vermont Children's Hospital
And while the focus may be on teens, younger kids can and do come across opioids too. Rebecca Bell, a pediatric critical care physician at the University of Vermont Children's Hospital, said she鈥檚 seeing cases where young children accidentally ingest an opioid at home and become symptomatic later at school.
鈥淏ecause they're young, it may not be on the top of people's minds that this could be opiate-related,鈥� she said.
Narcan, a nasal spray, doesn鈥檛 require medical training to administer. It鈥檚 also safe to use 鈥� even if the person who receives the medication wasn鈥檛 actually suffering from an overdose. And that鈥檚 the message Bell wants to drive home with this initiative: when in doubt, go ahead and use Narcan while you wait for an ambulance. It can鈥檛 hurt, and it might save that child鈥檚 life.
鈥淚 want families and the public and school officials to know that you can use Narcan on anybody,鈥� said Bell, who also serves as the president of the Vermont Medical Society. 鈥淎ny age, any size, any time, any place 鈥� for any concern.鈥�
Many Vermont schools have been keeping naloxone on hand . Kelly Landwehr, the lead nurse for the Addison Central School District, said Narcan has been available at Middlebury Union High School for at least five years. More recently, the district expanded access to all its elementary schools.
But Landwehr, who is also president of the Vermont State School Nurses鈥� Association, said that what鈥檚 so valuable about the state鈥檚 initiative is that it鈥檒l make access to the medication so much easier.
鈥淚'm fortunate that I can get Narcan from the Turning Point Center of Addison County right here in Middlebury, but not all schools and school districts have a facility or some type of access like that,鈥� she said.
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