By Josh Margolis
HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The Hill County Health Department has stepped up in the fight to prevent opioid overdoses by providing free training on how to use a life-saving nasal spray, which they are giving away at no cost.
Hill County Disease Intervention Specialist Brandi Williams has been certified as a Master Trainer of Naloxone (brand name Narcan), and has already begun reaching out to locations where there may be vulnerable people.
“I’ve been reaching out to the bars in Havre to see if they are interested … I’m trying to see who I can train through that. And I also want to get the word out that there is the formal training that I will facilitate, but then there is also informal training, for people who just need to get Narcan in their hands.”
Williams want to make sure people know that businesses that have received training from a Master Trainer have coverage from liability, and Montana has a Good Samaritan law that prevents those helping stop overdoses from facing penalties.
“I’m hoping to really just cover every base for everybody that may or may not need it.”
Funding for this program has been provided with state dollars.
Naloxone, which often goes by the brand name of Narcan, is impossible to overdose on.
Naloxone is an opioid antagonist, and so it basically blocks the opioid receptors in the brain. Because once things like fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone, methadone, morphine, those are all opioids. Those latch onto the opioid receptors, and if there is an overload of them, that’s when you see the symptoms of overdose, like slow breathing, pinpoint pupils, people passing out, clammy skin – that kind of thing. So an opioid antagonist basically blocks the opioids from latching onto those receptors. It will knock off the opioids that are already attached and it prevents more from attaching. So you can’t overdose on it and you can’t get high off of it. So there’s not the risk of potentially harming someone if you fear that they’ve overdosed … with Naloxone, it’s really a type of miracle drug because you can’t hurt somebody by giving it to them. It can only help in the right context.”
For more information or to schedule a training, contact Williams by phone at 406-400-2415, or by email at williamsb@hillcounty.us.
Parts 1, 2 and 3 of New Media Broadcasters’ interview with Williams is below.
