Achi news desk-
About 2,300 high school teachers in four Canadian provinces are now able to train their students to intervene in the event of an opioid overdose.
Just under 800 of these teachers are in Quebec.
The ACT Advanced Coronary Treatment Foundation has added the use of naloxone, the nasal drug to counter the effects of an opioid overdose, to the CPR and Automated External Defibrillation program it offers free of charge to high schools across the country.
“Thanks to this training, we have more students who can respond to emergencies and sometimes make a difference,” said Salim Grimm, program director of the ACT Foundation in Quebec.
The first phase of this training program, launched in June 2022, has now reached 2,300 teachers in 830 secondary schools in Quebec, Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. It is estimated that more than 160,000 students could be trained each year to respond to a suspected opioid overdose.
Among other things, the training allows teachers to teach students what opioids are and how overdoses occur; What is naloxone and how does it work; how to recognize a suspected opioid overdose; and how to respond to a possible overdose, including administering naloxone nasal spray if needed.
“Opioid overdose response has been an emerging issue in Canada in recent years,” said ACT Foundation Chief Operating Officer Jennifer Russell. “It’s also related to CPR. It’s something that students and even their teachers find completely logical and normal during our training.”
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, nearly 6,000 deaths from apparent opioid overdoses were reported between January and September 2023.
The Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction notes that 94 percent of opioid overdose deaths are accidental, and that Canadian youth ages 15 to 24 are the fastest growing population requiring hospital treatment for opioid overdoses.
“Training the next generation of good Samaritans starts at school,” said Grimm. “We started with CPR a few years ago. The defibrillator was added to this training, and opioid overdose training was a logical development.”
