County widens opioid training
More groups, individuals get lessons on how to counteract overdoses
Seante’ Hunt stood in front of 16 people in a county health department conference room Monday and held up a plastic syringe filled with a clear, unassuming liquid.
It was naloxone, the drug that, as she explained to the group of teachers, social workers and others, can allow “for life to begin again” for a person on the edge of death from an opioid overdose.
Hunt is the opioid misuse prevention coordinator and overdose response program coordinator in Howard County, a position growing in importance as the county continues battling opioid abuse.
One of Hunt’s main responsibilities is training groups and individuals in the county on the use of naloxone, also known by its commercial name, Narcan.
Every person who attends one of Hunt’s sessions sponsored by the health department walks out with two doses of naloxone, potentially enough to halt the symptoms of opioid overdose.
More than 2,000 Marylanders died last year from drug- and alcohol-related intoxication, the state health department reported. A majority overdosed on opioids. For the first three months of 2017, the numbers climbed another 37 percent, to 550 overdose deaths. That included 372 from the opioid additive fentanyl.
In Howard County, 10 people died between January and March this year from heroin-related causes, compared to five people during that time last year, according to state data.
Hunt said she administers the training sessions both at community meetings such as Monday’s, which anyone can attend, and at the request of different groups in the county, such as the staff of the Department of Public Works and high school nurses for public schools. In January she trained more than 100 county school nurses.
Hunt said that when the county first started offering the training sessions in 2014, they were given once a month by Bethany DiPaula, an associate professor in the department of pharmacy practice and science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
WhenHunt began in her county job in 2015, she started out offering approximately two sessions a month. Since then she said that number has grown dramatically; so far she has scheduled eight for August. Last year she trained 715 people — up from about 200 the year she first started — and she expects that number to be even higher this year.
Sarah Madison, a social worker with the Howard County Department of Social Services, said she attended Monday’s training because she comes across drug use while on the job and lost a friend herself to an overdose earlier this
It was naloxone, the drug that, as she explained to the group of teachers, social workers and others, can allow “for life to begin again” for a person on the edge of death from an opioid overdose.
Hunt is the opioid misuse prevention coordinator and overdose response program coordinator in Howard County, a position growing in importance as the county continues battling opioid abuse.
One of Hunt’s main responsibilities is training groups and individuals in the county on the use of naloxone, also known by its commercial name, Narcan.
Every person who attends one of Hunt’s sessions sponsored by the health department walks out with two doses of naloxone, potentially enough to halt the symptoms of opioid overdose.
More than 2,000 Marylanders died last year from drug- and alcohol-related intoxication, the state health department reported. A majority overdosed on opioids. For the first three months of 2017, the numbers climbed another 37 percent, to 550 overdose deaths. That included 372 from the opioid additive fentanyl.
In Howard County, 10 people died between January and March this year from heroin-related causes, compared to five people during that time last year, according to state data.
Hunt said she administers the training sessions both at community meetings such as Monday’s, which anyone can attend, and at the request of different groups in the county, such as the staff of the Department of Public Works and high school nurses for public schools. In January she trained more than 100 county school nurses.
Hunt said that when the county first started offering the training sessions in 2014, they were given once a month by Bethany DiPaula, an associate professor in the department of pharmacy practice and science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
WhenHunt began in her county job in 2015, she started out offering approximately two sessions a month. Since then she said that number has grown dramatically; so far she has scheduled eight for August. Last year she trained 715 people — up from about 200 the year she first started — and she expects that number to be even higher this year.
Sarah Madison, a social worker with the Howard County Department of Social Services, said she attended Monday’s training because she comes across drug use while on the job and lost a friend herself to an overdose earlier this
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