Opioid Harm Reduction Narcan Distribution Program

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

Onslow County, like much of the nation, is dealing with a significant opiate challenge that is resulting in direct and indirect deaths and extreme social and monetary costs. With a population of approximately 186,311(2016 statistical data), Onslow County is battling the opiate epidemic in both its rural and urban areas. The issue of heroin and other opiate use and overdose events have legal, medical, and social implications that require a multi-prong approach to include education, intervention, treatment, and on-going community awareness and response. We worked to develop an Opioid overdose prevention program that involves Community leaders, Health Department, behavioral health entities, law enforcement, Onslow Memorial Hospital and local out-patient treatment providers to develop creative solutions to address this challenge. Onslow Counties CP program in response to this crisis developed two programs the first one a safe landings program that was developed to assist our Health departments care coordination for children (CC4C) program This program focuses on high risk pregnancy patients dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues and their Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) babies after they are delivered to aid in baby proofing homes (partnership with Lowes and Home Depot), teaching infant /child CPR and in-home education on safe sleeping and helping to connect these patients to additional resources. The second program was developed based on Onslow County Emergency Medical Services (OCEMS) giving hundreds of Naloxone doses in 2017. We trained and provide Narcan kits to over 200 law enforcement officers in Onslow County thanks to the ability of North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition to provide Narcan kits. We revised our EMS system overdose protocol to include Narcan kit distribution to all overdose refusals and helped develop a Quick Response Team (QRT) who’s focus is connecting both support and treatment for the individual with an addiction and guidance for their support network (family, friends) following an overdose incident.