Some 2,300 high school teachers in four Canadian provinces are now able to train their students to respond to an opioid overdose.
Posted at 7:11 a.m.
Jean-Benoit Legault
The Canadian Press
A little less than 800 of these teachers are in Quebec.
The ACT Foundation for Advanced Coronary Emergency Care has added the use of naloxone, the antidote that must be administered by nasal route to counter the effects of an opioid overdose.
“Thanks to this training, we have more students who can respond to emergency situations and who sometimes make a difference,” rejoiced Salim Grim, who is program manager for the ACT Foundation in Quebec.
Launched in June 2022, the first phase of this training program has now reached 2,300 teachers in 830 secondary schools in Quebec, Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. It is estimated that more than 160,000 students could now be trained each year to respond to a suspected opioid overdose.
The training allows teachers to teach students about opioids and how overdoses occur; what naloxone is and how it works; to recognize a suspected opioid overdose; and responding to a possible overdose, including administering a naloxone nasal spray if necessary.
“The response to opioid overdoses is a new issue that has arisen in Canada in recent years,” recalled the Director of Operations of the ACT Foundation, Jennifer Russell. It is also an aspect that is linked to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This is something that students or even their teachers find completely logical and normal in the progress of our training. »
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, almost 6,000 deaths from apparent opioid overdoses were reported between January and September 2023.
The Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction notes that 94% of opioid overdose deaths occur by accident, and that young Canadians aged 15 to 24 constitute the fastest growing population. faster and requiring hospital care due to an opioid overdose.
“Training the next generation of good Samaritans starts at school,” said Mr. Grim. We started with cardiac resuscitation a few years ago. The defibrillator was added to this training, and training following opioid overdoses was a logical evolution. »
