Silver Hill Hospital Dispenses Naloxone (Narcan™) to Prevent Opioid Overdoses

From Silver Hill Hospital:

Silver Hill Hospital will provide naloxone (Narcan™), the life-saving antidote to opioid overdoses, to individuals who attend community training sessions teaching them how to identify an opioid overdose and administer the naloxone. Silver Hill is partnering with the Ridgefield Community Coalition against Substance Abuse to educate individuals about the risks of heroin and other opioid use and the potentially life-saving benefits of naloxone.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), overdose deaths involving prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999 as have the sales of opioid analgesic medications. From 1999 to 2014, more than 165,000 people died of prescription opioid overdoses in the United States. According to one published study of opioid overdose reversal with naloxone, between 1996 and 2010, naloxone reversed more than 10,000 overdoses in the community. Studies suggest that widespread access to naloxone could reduce the opioid overdose death rate by as much as 50 percent.

As noted above, naloxone (Narcan™) is an antidote for an opioid overdose. The community presentations (see schedule below) will include an overview of opioid use in Connecticut, discussion of the risk factors for opioid dependence, information on how to identify an opioid overdose, and training in the administration of naloxone. Upon completion of the training, each participant will also receive a two-dose kit of naloxone for intranasal administration.

Eric D. Collins, M.D., and Ellen Brezovsky, LCSW from Silver Hill Hospital are trained to teach community members how to administer naloxone. “Silver Hill is invested in preventing opioid overdoses” states Dr. Eric Collins, Physician-in-Chief at Silver Hill. “Anything we can do to decrease the risk of accidental overdose and death from opioids is a top priority, and we look forward to continuing to partner with community agencies to accomplish that goal.”

The training is scheduled for Tuesday, October 4 from 12 – 1pm at the Ridgefield Library. For more information, call 203.431.1893 or email coalition@ridgefieldct.org.

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