Opioid addiction touches everyone, regardless of race, gender or class. Understanding how to help someone experiencing an overdose can be the difference between life and death. Narcan can reverse an opioid withdrawal.
The drug is available over the counter at pharmacies in Wisconsin, but it can be expensive and many people are nervous to administer it without instruction. The Milwaukee Turners are helping train people on how to use it through a free session led by MKE Overdose Prevention.
Krissie Fung is the Grants Manager for the Milwaukee Turners and she is helping facilitate this training. She explains on Lake Effect that the training will cover common signs of overdose and how to administer Narcan.
“It makes it so easy for a member of the community to take a really basic training and then be able to administer the Narcan nasal spray. If you've ever had to use nasal spray for your allergies, it is basically the same process,” says Fung.
Fung emphasizes that Narcan is a safe drug to use and administer. If you mistakenly access an opioid overdose when the individual has taken on something else, it is still safe if you administer Narcan.
“Milwaukee County's overdose problem is really everyone's problem. I think that there is sort of a misguided idea out there that only certain people should take this training, this type of thing only affects certain types of people. And that's really not true. And the training is so simple and so easy. And you do get free Narcan at the training provided by MKE Overdose Prevention,” says Fung.
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