Students introduce naloxone at SRU
Slippery Rock University students could get naloxone Thursday evening, Nov. 2, and soon the campus will have stations where people can pick up more packages of the opioid overdose combatant.
The Pennsylvania Overdose Prevention Program donated more than 300 Narcan kits to the university, which will be available at 24 high-traffic locations at SRU, including places frequently visited by the public and every residence hall. On Thursday, the university’s health promotions staff organized an informational event where people could learn how to administer the naloxone to a person experiencing an overdose.
“This is an initiative coming from the state system of higher education. They started a push in September for each school to make Narcan accessible on campus,” said Lizzy Kline, health promotion coordinator at SRU. “It's less of a need on campus and more of a community need just in general.”
The informational event allowed people to not only learn about naloxone, but also learn about drug overdoses and how to identify a person going through overdose. There was a record of nearly 83,000 opioid-related deaths in the U.S. last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also reported that unintentional poisoning deaths like drug overdoses, are the leading cause of injury mortality in the U.S. — more than motor vehicle crashes.
Kaylee Stillwagoner is a senior public health major at SRU, and grew up around Washington, D.C., which she said has more public awareness of overdose than Western Pennsylvania. Stillwagoner said students seemed to learn Thursday from herself, Kline and other university staff, and many took naloxone kits.
“When I moved to the Western Pa. area, it was shocking that people didn’t really talk about it,” Stillwagoner said. “Not only are people on campus open to new things. It kind of made me feel like our campus community really cares.”
Narcan is dispensed through a nasal spray. Kits will be available at SRU in wall-mounted, clear bins that will also include gloves and an instruction card to use Narcan on a person suspected of an overdose, according to a news release from the college.
Stillwagoner said the Office of Health Promotion will keep the Narcan stocked around campus through the year, but the office may also have more panel events showing people how to administer naloxone to people who didn’t attend Thursday’s event.
“(Thursday) night due to the overwhelming feedback, we heard people are interested in a similar event next year,” Stillwagoner said. “I thought it would be a one-and-done thing. But now, hopefully that would be something we could do once a year.”
Kline said her department could take on future educational programs about opioid use, because the more people aware of the issue, the better chance that someone going through an overdose will be saved.
“It has been overwhelming, the positivity and support we had seen from this,” Kline said. “It hadn't been widely talked about on campus … At the event people showed general concern and care for this topic.
“We're very glad we're able to start this conversation.”
