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By now, most Ontario pharmacies that provide opioid agonist treatment should have received their first shipment of FREE naloxone kits.

Heather and I went today to our local community pharmacy to see what the process is like.  We were treated very respectfully by the pharmacist, who provided us with about 15 minutes of counseling on how to recognize an overdose and training on use of the kit.

The kits we received included:  two vials of naloxone, two syringes, two splitters for opening the vials, two alcohol swabs, two sets of rubber gloves, and a face shield to use if providing CPR.  The expiry on the naloxone we received was March 2019.  We did provide our health cards, and the kits were provided at no cost.

Because this is a very new program, there were a few questions that the pharmacist didn't have the answer to - notably, how many kits an individual could acquire at one time or how often a person could request a kit.  He's promised to call me when he has these answers, so I'll keep the group posted!

S H Naloxone

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  • New naloxone kits!
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First I will address the Naloxone field trip that Susan and Heather took and then I will speak to Susan about her 'dreams' of creeping up on other members.

I think that is great that you did a field trip to actually visit a pharmacy and test out the process. That was a great idea and thanks for the report back. I also like the picture.

So....Heather, on to Susan tipping over the edge to become an EENet Ninja. I have been stuck as an EENet SUPER Ninja for like a million years now and I have over 11,000 points. May I point out Susan that you have a mere 722 points. LOL

Can somebody please make me a new category for the 'super posters' please. That would be me and 'calendar girl' (Angela Yip) ....but she cheats. (wink) 

My time has come to be an EENet Yoda Master. I have nagged Jason Guriel but  to no avail. Heather, I do believe your first priority in your new position of co-manager is to get me to the next level.....(smile)   

Betty-Lou Kristy

Lived Experience/‘Family’ Advocate- Mental Health, Addiction, Trauma & Bereavement

Last edited by Registered Member

OMG.  He looks... life sized!

Or are you levitating behind him?

Totally non-scientific, but it seems that many rural pharmacies are giving way to the supermarkets as well as the regular chains. Community level stigma is already bad for mental health (I am always asked, "Why do take that med?" Or, "Is this for Dx or off label?" by pharmacists when I bring a new script...) but substance use is still often confused with some sort of moral issue. Pharmacists seem to be decent, generally, just too loud and insensitive to the persons crowding my space to get their own meds. Rumour's many tongues are there queued.

But do you think there are such things as IV drug users haunting a Weston-owned store? And is naloxone on the shelves?

Let's find out...

 

My Yoda is life sized (Yoda life sized). The 'girls' at work gave him to me for Easter as I have so many toys in my office. He had these huge bunny ears (I guess cause it was Easter).....so I have to admit...I CUT off his bunny ears (apologizing profusely to him as I did) LOL    And no I am not levitating.....YET.

I agree with your non-scientific observations.

Last edited by Registered Member

The announcement was great news, despite the clumsiness of it all.  Good to see MOHLTC finally supporting Corrections on OD prevention-intervention too.

Not sure if intranasal naloxone will be supported in Ontario.

Some of you may have signed the letter with 233 others calling for an emergency preparedness plan, leadership and coordination on the OD file.  Its at www.drugstrategy.ca alongside a bevy of material on the bootlegs.  No response has been received on the letter, yet.

fyi...

Snappy 90s film to support naloxone in Ontario via my colleagues at UW Pharmacy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...EPN0&app=desktop

Spectator on naloxone via pharmacists

http://www.thespec.com/news-st...-ontario-pharmacies/

 

Wow, really interesting read! A very similar situation happened to a friend of mine...he was overdosing in the bathroom and his girlfriend happen to walk in and called EMS. This was before naloxone was distributed so they didn't have access to it. Luckily the EMS arrived in time.

Very interesting what she said about it being a solitary drug, that really does amp up the overdose potential and as we know someone who is overdosing cannot save themselves...

Thanks for that article Tamar and other comments in this stream. Naloxone could have saved my son's life. The other mitigating factor that we must speak to is that people have to be taught to recognize an opioid overdose situation and respond accordingly with Naloxone. That is where the training piece comes in. 

The article refers to recognizing when it is "nodding off" and when it is an actual  overdose situation. People need to know that putting somebody to bed to sleep it off is NOT what to do or throwing someone in a cold bathtub and all those other myths.  This usually comes into play if it is youth, parents, loved ones or uninformed friends etc. BUT...it also comes into play with professionals.

Pete overdosed as an inpatient on a psychiatric ward.  Another patient went out on a pass and snuck in their opioid of choice, the staff missed it, even with two warnings from me and Pete died of an opioid overdose alone in his hospital bed over the course of six hours before the fatal aspiration. (the autopsy proved that)

The nursing staff recorded that Pete was overly medicated and very drowsy and they helped him to bed and left him. In this hospital situation Naloxone would have been available if a 'crash cart' was called but staff did not recognize an overdose situation. 

There were many mitigating factors but my point is that Naloxone on its own without the benefit of people actually recognizing an overdose situation won't be effective. We need to ensure parents, loved ones, friends, professionals in any demographic recognize an opioid overdose situation so they can administer the Naloxone they hopefully now will have with them.

Most of the other parents that I know that have lost their children to opioid overdose had it happen in their homes while their children were sleeping. Not only did the parents not know about or have Naloxone....they were not aware that their children were overdosing.

Other person’s loved ones who overdosed:

Being a peer support bereavement facilitator and doing what I do, connects me to other parents who have lost their kids to prescription opioids.  I literally feel sick every time I hear about their children who have died......knowing that both education/awareness at the front end and Naloxone at the crisis point could have saved them all:

Here are a few examples:

1 & 2) The father who thought his 23 yr old son was sleeping in rather late into a Saturday afternoon.  He thought he should check but then just dismissed it as being anxious. When he decided to check.....he found his son dead on the floor. He had been dead for many hours. As if that was not horrendous enough...six months later his son’s girlfriend also died of an accidental OxyContin overdose in the same way.

     Education, Awareness & Naloxone could have saved their lives

 3) The mother who woke up and wondered why her 22 yr old son had not come up from the basement to his bed yet.  She dismissed it thinking that he was just pulling an all nighter.  Late on the Sunday afternoon she wondered why her son had not been upstairs yet but again dismissed it because she felt he was sleeping in, given that he ‘stayed up’ all night.  She found her son dead at his computer on a late Sunday afternoon.  He had been dead for many hours.   Again Oxycontin

     Education, Awareness & Naloxone could have saved his life

4) The mother who heard a very loud thump in the bathroom but thought it was her 24 yr old son just banging around in the bathroom. She wondered if she should check but dismissed it. She felt she was just over reacting.  After quite some time, her husband arrived home and she asked him to go and check. The door was locked and no response. When they broke down the door...there was their son...dead on the floor.  He had been dead for quite some time.  Fentanyl overdose.

    Education, Awareness & Naloxone could have saved his life 

5) The mother whose 23 yr old son’s alarm clock was going off. She did go into his bedroom and wondered if he had to get up for work or just had decided to take the day off and wanted to sleep in. She actually knelt onto her son’s bed and reached over him to turn off the alarm clock. She thought he was breathing a ‘little weird’ and snoring quite loudly but dismissed it as her being paranoid. She felt unsettled enough to mention it to her husband and he told her to stop fretting.

When they came home from work that evening they went upstairs to find their son dead in his bed.  He had been dead for many hours.   Fentanyl overdose

  Education, Awareness & Naloxone could have saved his life

Those are just a few...sadly I could go on and on and on.....

In each case, most of the parents suspected their kids were using something. Did not even remotely suspect that it was prescription ‘medication’, did not know the dangers, the complexities involved with opioids, overdose signs to be vigilant of ...let alone that there actually was something they could have done to intervene in each of those overdose situations.

Betty-Lou Kristy

Lived Experience/‘Family’ Advocate- Mental Health, Addiction, Trauma & Bereavement

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