nothin Health Workers Spread Narcan Message | New Haven Independent

Health Workers Spread Narcan Message

Paul Bass Photo

Tilt the head back,” Alixe Dittmore was telling Julie Lucas. Cover a nostril. Stick this in their nostril.” Then: Spray.

At the moment, no one was suffering a drug overdose on the New Haven Green. Dittmore — and a crew of other public-health workers — were on the Green Thursday to make sure that when future overdoses do occur, there or elsewhere, people like Lucas are ready to save lives.

Dittmore was taking part in an International Overdose Awareness Day event. Organized by Cornell Scott Hill Health Center amid a rise in the use of the deadly opioid fentanyl, the event featured information about the addiction treatment medication Suboxone, fentanyl test strips — and an effort to get more people, users and nonusers alike, equipped with Narcan, the nasal antidote.

We want to get Narcan in everybody’s hands,” said Hill Health Chief of Medicine R. Douglas Bruce (at left in above photo).

There’s only four minutes until they’re dead” after an opioid overdose, noted Phil Costello (at right), Hill Health’s clinical director of homeless care. The ambulance sometimes takes eight minutes.” Narcan revives overdose victims and buys them 30 to 60 minutes to get emergency medical treatment.

Shannon Francis (pictured) of the Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition handed out Narcan kits with two doses, gloves, and information. The group worked alongside a team from New Haven’s Sex Workers and Allies Network (SWAN).

Alixe Dittmore also worked the Harm Reducation Coalition table. Julie Lucas, who said she regularly hangs out with friends on the Green, said she wanted the training in order to be ready in case one of them overdoses, which has happened several times. Click on the video to watch Dittmore walk her through the drill.

Hill Health clinical pharmacist Kaitlyn Jesse obtained temporary state permission to write and fill Narcan prescriptions at the four-hour event. She had written 15 in the first hour and 45 minutes.

Paul Sutphin (at right in photo), a regular on the Green, was charging his phone when he noticed the booths. He met up with Yale New Haven Hospital Transitions Clinic community health worker Jerry Smart (at left) and told him about his problems finding permanent housing since his release from prison a year ago. Smart’s job is to connect recently released ex-offenders with health care and direct them to housing if needed. Sutphin, who suffers from grand mal seizures, said he hopes to find an apartment so he can avoid shelters, but he doesn’t have the money, he said. Call me Monday,” Smart said after they spoke. I’ll point you in the right direction.”

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