Oregon Health Authority to offer free opioid overdose reversal kits to middle, high schools
The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) plans to offer free opioid overdose reversal kits to middle and high schools throughout the state to ensure schools act quickly if there are any overdoses in or near schools, the agency said Tuesday.
Each school can receive up to three kits, which contain instructions, emergency medical supplies and eight doses of naloxone nasal spray, an opioid overdose antidote, OHA said.
Naloxone reverses fentanyl, heroin or other opioid overdoses. Naloxone, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can restore normal breathing within 2-3 minutes in an overdosed person. Still, more than one dose of naloxone may be needed when a person overdoses on potent opioids like fentanyl.
Though overdoses on school property are rare, Ebony Clark, OHA's behavioral health director, said: "Schools should be prepared to respond to an overdose medical emergency."
Oregon now has the fastest-growing youth drug death rate in the country, Dr. Todd Korthuis, a professor of medicine at the Oregon Health and Science University, told lawmakers this week.
Korthuis said research presented last month shows the Oregon drug-induced death growth from 2018 to 2022 was 550% in 15 to 19-year-olds.
The Oregon Department of Education notified schools districts of the free kits, and since registration opened up Nov. 29, more than 500 schools have requested the kits that will be eligible to all public, private and charter schools. Colleges, Universities and tribal communities also can receive these kits.
Schools eligible to participate in the Save Lives Oregon Harm Reduction Clearinghouse Project Initiative must have students in seventh-grade students or higher.
For additional information, visit the SLO website or go to https://www.savelivesoregon.org/apply/.
For questions, comments and news tips, email reporter Christian Willbern at cwillbern@statesmanjournal.com
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon to offer Naloxone overdose reversal kits to schools
