Naloxone, the overdose reversal drug, is to become part of Arkansas school nurses' toolkits.
At a news conference Tuesday in the state Capitol, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced a program to supply the state's roughly 1,100 school nurses with the kits, containing two doses of naloxone nasal spray, as well as other materials needed to respond to an opioid overdose.
Hutchinson said the program is part of a re-imagined approach to the opioid epidemic, which has harmed "too many sons and daughters."
"I've been engaged in the fight against illegal drugs and opioid abuse for a long time. This is a technique, with naloxone kits, that would not have been considered in the '80s and even in the '90s. ... Things have changed," he said.
"The priority has to be in saving lives first, and then changing behavior."
The initiative is the latest in a series of actions intended to curtail the deadly consequences of drug overdoses in Arkansas. The state has some of the nation's highest opioid prescribing rates.
Other actions include empowering pharmacists to prescribe naloxone without doctors' orders and making use of a $275,000 grant to outfit law enforcement agencies with the medication, officials said.
State drug director Kirk Lane, pharmacy board executive director John Kirtley, Arkansas School Safety Commission head and University of Arkansas Criminal Justice Institute director Dr. Cheryl May, and several school nurses joined Hutchinson in announcing this most recent program.
According to Lane, there have been three documented overdoses at Arkansas high schools -- one each in Little Rock, Alma and Hot Springs -- over the past year.
Hutchinson also cited one federal survey that found that Arkansas had the highest percentage of pain medication use without prescriptions among ninth- through 12th-graders.
As part of a 124-page report submitted in December, the School Safety Commission recommended to the governor that school nurses receive naloxone, as well as training in how to use it.
Officials said departments within state government -- including the Criminal Justice Institute, the Arkansas Department of Education and the drug director's office -- worked together to realize the commission's recommendation.
"A lot of people say that naloxone is an enabler. I would say that's true -- it enables life, it enables someone to breathe during an opioid overdose" and survive to seek treatment, Lane said.
He added that naloxone distributed through other state programs, including to first responders, has revived 262 people during the past two years.
The school nurse kit program is funded through a federal grant focused on opioids and cost about $100,000 to put together. Kits that are used will be replaced.
The Department of Education also will gather information when the kits are deployed, May said.
As well as two doses of naloxone, each kit contains nitrile gloves -- Lane says it's believed that the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl can be absorbed through latex gloves -- a CPR face mask, and a card providing information about recovery resources.
The naloxone is supplied by manufacturer Emergent BioSolutions, and the school nurses' kits are assembled by the Criminal Justice Institute.
"It's not going to take any one of us, but it's going to take us all [working] collaboratively," May said of tackling the problem.
The first 50 nurses who took a two-hour online naloxone use training were invited to take part in Tuesday's announcement.
Among those who attended were licensed practical nurse Amanda Johnson and registered nurse Janette Coberley, both of whom work in Rogers public schools.
The nurses found the training helpful, saying it went over the signs and symptoms of an overdose, how naloxone works and general information about the prevalence of opioid use.
Coberley said she has seen drug use among students even at the middle school in her area, and she once saw a student overdose when she was a substitute teacher at a high school.
"Had I had [naloxone] available, I would have given it to them," she said.
Metro on 06/26/2019