Executive Statement Due to a recent rise in opioid overdoses in the Waterloo Region, it is being recommended that all first responders (paramedics, police officers and firefighters) be made to carry a naloxone kit while on duty (1). The Problem In 2017, up to November 11th, 580 emergency calls were placed regarding opioid-related overdoses in the Waterloo Region (1). Thus, the running total of calls in 2017 as of November 11th is already one-hundred and fifteen percent of the total calls for the 2016 year (1). From the year 2012, opiate-related overdose calls have raised three-hundred percent (1). Consequently, the issue of opiate overdose is clearly an important one. The reasons for the rise in opioid-related overdoses are …show more content…
Policy Recommendation The policy recommendation in this case is: i) To implement a policy mandating all first responders (firefighters, police officers, paramedics) to carry a naloxone kit on duty; and ii) To provide training on how to administer naloxone to all first responders. Rationale and Evidence To justify all first responders being mandated to carry naloxone kits, there are several sources of evidence once can consider. Firstly, the Waterloo Region implemented a plan to identify those in groups at extremely elevated risk for opioid overdose, and to provide them with naloxone kits and training (4). After identifying 64 participants and training them to administer naloxone, twenty-three of twenty-four reported overdoses in the participant’s surroundings were reversed by naloxone (4). This metric of a ninety-six percent success rate proves that if ordinary citizens in the Waterloo region can be trained to properly administer naloxone and prevent a large majority of deaths within their surroundings, those on the front lines of emergency service should be mandated to do so as well due to the nature of their work (4). Additionally, there is evidence that the treatment of opioid overdoses with naloxone is extremely effective, and that intervention with naloxone by first responders can lead to improved patient outcomes (5). Furthermore, the Ontario Provincial Police cited opioids as an “ongoing concern” in the summer of 2017, and mandated all
Heroin and opioids have grown in appearance in communities. Since, 2008 in Allegheny County alone there was more than two thousand overdose deaths, with one hundred-seventy-seven deaths in this year alone (Pennsylvania). Furthermore, in 2015 there was only one -hundred-twenty-six;
Last year there were over 64,000 reported opioid-related deaths in the United States – making it the leading cause of accidental death in people under the age of 50 in this country (Katz). Opioids, also referred to as painkillers, have become a growing problem over the past two decades particularly in rural communities all across the country where the death rates are higher per capita compared to the death rate in cities (“America’s Opioid Epidemic is Worsening”). These narcotics, such as codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine and oxycodone are extremely addictive and, as a result, this silent killer has quadrupled the overdose death toll since 1999
There is no question that the alarming rate of deaths related to opioid overdose needs to be addressed in this county, but the way to solve the problem seems to remain a trial and error approach at this point. A patient is injured, undergoes surgery, experiences normal wear and tear on a hip, knee or back and has to live with that pain for the rest of their life or take a narcotic pain medication in order to improve their quality of life and at least be able to move. The above patients are what narcotic pain medications were created for, a population of people that use narcotic pain medications for fun is what is creating a problem. Narcotics are addictive to both populations, however taking the narcotic for euphoric reasons is not the intention of the prescription that the physician is writing. The healthcare system needs to find a way to continue to provide patients that experience chronic pain with the narcotics that work for them while attempting to ensure the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) doesn’t have to worry about a flood of pain pills hitting the streets by granting access to the population with a substance abuse problem.
After reviewing several online articles, the issue of fentanyl continues to come to the forefront for the community of Abbotsford. In creating a problem-oriented policing plan, I will be using the SARA model. Fentanyl is a strong opioid prescribed drug used to treat patients with severe pain and to cope with the pain of surgery. Fentanyl makes the neurotransmitters of the user a sensation of rewards. Fentanyl is a cheap drug which is easily accessible. Fentanyl is a hundred times more toxic than morphine. Just two milligrams of fentanyl can lead to an overdose. Scanning: So far in 2017 Abbotsford has 29 deaths caused by overdosing on fentanyl alone. In 2016, there was a total of 922 fentanyl deaths in British Columbia (CBC
Fentanyl is a powerful narcotic, one hundred times stronger than heroin (Sagan), that is rapidly becoming a national crisis in Canada. Fentanyl is often found within fake OxyContin pills or laced in other drugs such as heroin. Alberta and several cities in Ontario are seeing how fentanyl is affecting their provinces: in 2016 Alberta saw 343 fatal overdoses, Ontario saw 165 in 2015 (Cheung). The closest Canadian province, British Columbia, to the deadly drug’s source has felt the impact of the narcotic the most. Last year there were 914 fentanyl linked overdoses in B.C (Ostroff). The danger of fentanyl is something every single Canadian youth needs to
Narcan is an opioid antagonist that reverses the effects of prescription pain medications and heroin. When victims are suffering from an overdose police officers simply spray Narcan up their nose. Within 2-6 minutes the victim should start to breathe again. For some families, giving their son or daughter another chance at life means everything to them while other families feel it is pointless. Many people feel that if all law enforcement is equipped to carry Narcan then drug users will feel they are invincible. Drug addicts don’t use drugs to get to the point of overdose only to be
Opiates have been commonly used in the United States for several decades. During the late 19th century opium and morphine became regular ingredients in a lot of widespread patent medicines (Spohn & Belenko, 2015, p. 25). Since then, the use and abuse of opiates has been a serious epidemic that has been growing at a fast pace in the United States for many years now. Every day roughly forty-one people die from overdoses which are related to prescription painkilling drugs in the United States (Clark, 2014, p. 1).
As you probably already know, the opioid crisis in Vancouver has reached unmanageable levels and it is completely out of control.
Human rights and social justice are an important component to public health (Schoon, Kleinfehn-Wald, & Kyarsgaard, 2011). Due to the increasing epidemic of opioid overdoses, it is a human right to have the necessary health care resources available. With Narcan being carried by emergency professionals there is a greater chance of survival for those individuals who have overdosed. To advocate for this human right, we researched evidenced based practices and presented it in a letter to communicate the importance of policy changes to carry Narcan. In doing this we started the development of both competencies six and eleven by communicating needs and participating in the political process (Schoon, Schaffer, Brueshoff, Aims, & Kyarsgaard,
GLIDE’s Harm Reduction program performs syringe exchange and distributes naloxone kits to make sure that opiate users on the streets on San Francisco do not use contaminated needles or harm themselves. Naloxone stops the effects of opiates in the brain and effectively reverses overdoses, so volunteer-assembled and -distributed naloxone kits could save the lives of heroin and opiate addicts. In syringe exchange, volunteers give users clean needles in exchange for their dirty ones to make sure they do not inject themselves with old or possibly contaminated needles from the street; volunteers also collect and dispose of littered syringes. This organization is essential to San Francisco because, from a practical standpoint, heroin and opiate addicts
The heroin epidemic’s impact on this nation has demanded action to be taken. Currently, the United States is placing an emphasis on stopping doctors from unnecessarily prescribing opiates such as Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin to patients because it often leads to heroin addiction. Furthermore, the country is beginning to focus its efforts on “harm reduction,” which is “a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with [heroin] use” (SouthComm Business Media LLC, 2015, para 12). One form of harm reduction is giving users clean needles at no cost. Offering help to addicts when they come for free needles will increase their chances of recovery, and clean needles prevent the spread of deadly diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C. SouthComm Business Media LLC (2015) further notes, “…it costs only a dime for a needle versus $90,000 for three months of hepatitis c treatments” (para 14). Another form of harm reduction being used to combat heroin is the use of Naloxone, which reverses the effects of an overdose. Many police officers, medical personnel, family members of heroin addicts, and heroin addicts themselves carry Naloxone with them in case of an overdose. Finally, Suboxone treatment is considered as one of the more effective ways to reduce harm. Suboxone is a drug that blocks the user from getting high and makes it to where they do not crave the drug (SouthComm Business Media LLC, 2015, para 24). Stopping the
We are seeing an increase in the number of people who are dying from overdoses, predominantly after abuse of prescribed opioid analgesics. This disturbing trend appears to be associated with a growing number of prescriptions in and diversion from the legal market.
When the nation is facing a problem, we expect law makers to jump into action and save us through use of police officers, regulations, and new laws. We as citizens fail to see the price tag associated with fixing problems until there is a raise in taxes. In the United States there have been 183,000 overdose deaths related to opioid use between the years 1999-2015 (Opioid 2017). With such a prevalent epidemic sweeping the United States it is hard to believe that there is no solution. The fact is there is a solution, just an extremely expensive one. If we put intranasal Naxalone into the hands of police officers across the United States we will see a lowering in opioid overdose deaths, with a price tag of around $480,000,000.
Simmonds (2015), implemented in England within National Health Service hospitals, proposed naloxone protocol to be used in adult patients, who are in need of respiratory rescue due to opioid use. In addition, the protocol is approved for the usage in immediate reversal of the effects of acute opioid overdose and or recreational usage. Simmonds proposed a step-by-step guide that started with the recognition of an unusually depressed level of consciousness and respiratory rate of fewer than eight breaths per minute in a patient. Immediately after recognition, oxygen administration at 12 L per minute
As it is known, the opioid misuse is one of the major problems in the USA (Huhn et al., 2018), compared to the other substance use disorders. The number of the cases of opioid overdose registered slowly rises permanently (Coffin et al., 2017), and different approaches to the solution of this problem are developed. The present literature review gives an overview of three peer-reviewed studies which are dedicated to different aspects of opioid misuse prevention and describe situation and possible solutions of the high-risk groups. The first publication is focused on the treatment and prevention of opioid overdose among people who have already experienced this state. So, the second article discussed problems and organization of emergency medical care for patients with opioid misuse, and the last one is dedicated to the education and prevention of possible cases of opioid misuse. The goal of the present literature review is to analyze and