Waterloo Region to hand out Naloxone to reduce opioid deaths

The Region of Waterloo's public health department has started distributing naloxone, a drug that it hopes can counter the effects of opioid overdoses and reduce fatalities.

"The distribution of the medication is designed to reduce the number of preventable deaths due to opioid overdoses," Liana Nolan, the region's medical officer of health, told council on Tuesday.

Theregion's public health deparment does not keep track of the number of people who die due tooverdosing on opioids. But opioidoverdoses are now the third leading cause of accidental death in Ontario, according to a report released Wednesdayby the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.

Opioids like OxyContin and Fentanyl are commonly prescribed by doctors to help patients cope with severe pain. Others use opioids illegally, for their euphoric effects.

Experts like Dr. Norm Buckley, who runs the National Pain Centre at McMaster University in Hamilton, say the sedation and relaxation caused by injecting or ingesting an opioid results in slowed breath. When taken to excess, breathing can stop altogether.

Naloxone works by removing opioids from receptors in the brain so that the person begins to breath again.

Distribution program not a 'soup kitchen'

No one wants to see their friend, sister, brother or neighbour die of an overdose, said Lesley Rintche, who manages the region's harm reduction strategy. She says the public health department decided to add a naloxone distribution program, which is funded by the province,to its strategy because people in the community were asking for the drug.

The provincial government has also encouraged public distribution by making naloxone kits freely available to municipal health departments, safe-needle exchanges and organizations that serve those with Hepatitis C.

Starting this month, kits will be available at the public health offices in Waterloo and Cambridge. Each kit includes a vial of naloxone, a syringe, a user identification card, some alcohol swabs and a pamphlet describing how everything works.

"It's not a soup kitchen type of thing where we just stand on the street and hand it out to people," Rintche clarifies. In order to receive a kit, clients will have to complete a training course, where they will learn how to identify an overdose, administer the drug and provide basic first aid.

Region not the only one distributing naloxone

The public health department is not the only source of naloxone in the region. Since November, Sanguen Health Centres in Waterloo and Guelph have been handing out the kits. Executive Director Dr. Chris Steingart says the program has already saved five lives.

"I don't want to ever have someone overdose," Steingart says, but "it's encouraging that, when...one of our folks has been in the presence of someone overdosing, they've been able to save a life,"

Sanguen will continue to distribute the kits, even after the region's program is up and running. He believes the more naloxone there is in the region, the better off the community will be.