ISSUED: 17 October 2017
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — Several faculty members and one nursing student from Shepherd University have completed Narcan training at the Jefferson County Health Department. Narcan, also known as naloxone, is an opioid antidote and the training teaches individuals how to administer it to those who are overdosing.
Dr. Stacey Kendig, chair of the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Sport Studies, said statistics show that in 2015, there was a drug overdose death in Jefferson County at a rate of more than one a month, with no evidence that rates has slowed significantly this year.
“Some of those deaths were preventable had the individual been given Narcan,” Kendig said. “Narcan training is becoming as important for the community to understand as CPR, automated external defibrillator, and first aid training because this form of emergency is not only occurring with the drug-using population but also with the young and elderly due to accidental misuse of opioid-based medications.”
Kendig said those who complete the training are provided with the medication to keep in their first aid kits so it is on hand to help a person who has overdosed.
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