Combat opioid overdose at school

All schools in Alabama are taking drastic action to help reverse the effects of an opioid overdose in school.

The Ministries of Education and Public Health have launched a program to make the drug inverter, naloxone, available to high school nurses, administrators, and school coaches. of your child.

The schools in Mobile and Baldwin County are aware of the need to save lives. However, they are both awaiting a directive from the State Education Department on the timing and commencement of training.

School nurses were notified.

The drug is called Naloxone or Narcan and is applied nasally or by an auto-injector so you can quickly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

School nurses are allowed to use the drug. However, training of administrators, coaches and other staff of local schools will take time.

Fairhope resident Kristy Wells is herself a recovery advocate and a recovering opioid addict – she is also a parent.

"I know my own children, three of them went to school here in Baldwin County and there was a considerable amount of opiates available to them in their private school where they went every day and their

Friends of public schools shared the same thing with me. One of the wonders of recovery is that many young people will talk to me, "said Wells.

Nurse Administrator Jennifer Ventress and her staff travel to state schools to teach them how to use the medicine that saves lives.

"We currently only have the drug in our high schools, so we hope to get the funding to get it in our middle schools as well, but that's something we felt

would really help us make a difference in a child who had a problem or was taking too much, "Ventress said.

The program was put in place two weeks ago and, to date, five state public school systems have been trained.

"You die and they will not give it to you unless you stop breathing.

where we will all run with Narcan in our hands, but we certainly need to have it readily available

and we need to train the school staff to use this software and it does not have to take as much as rocket science is very, very simple, "said Wells.

The training program is not mandatory and schools will not have to pay the bill. State and federal grants pay for this.