Portage County Project DAWN: Equipping residents with narcan to prevent overdose deaths

The opium poppy plant is no ordinary bloom. Opioids are naturally found in the plant and have been used for medicinal purposes for centuries. Now, the poison of the poppy has been injected into Ohio’s veins and the epidemic is continuing to spread through the state and into Portage County.

The Portage County Health District’s “Project DAWN” (Deaths Avoided with Naloxone) is a community based educational and drug prevention program. Project DAWN aims to decrease overdose deaths across Portage County by training and distributing Naloxone to residents. The training teaches the warning signs and symptoms of a drug overdose, proper rescue breathing techniques and how to administer naloxone.

Naloxone, also known by the name brand Narcan, is a drug used to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. However, if an individual has fentanyl in their system, reviving them gets difficult.

Fentanyl is a legal drug used to treat pain. Becky Lehman, the director of health education and promotion for the Portage County Health District, said straight heroin is difficult to find and often times is laced with fentanyl. This lethal combination requires multiple additional doses of Naloxone when reversing an overdose.

An opioid overdose directly affects a person’s breathing, they prevent oxygen from getting to the brain. Narcan binds to opioid receptors and reverses the effects, it lasts from 30-90 minutes.

“(Narcan) will pop off that heroin opioid lego, and it clicks right on to that receptor,” said Lehman. “So it blocks that heroin or opioid from going onto that receptor.”

Ohio House Bill 4, signed by Governor Kasich in July 2015, allowed Naloxone to be made available by trained individuals and pharmacists to dispense Naloxone to those at personal risk for opioid overdose or who may be in a position to rescue someone who is having an overdose.

This bill allowed Project DAWN to train individuals without giving them a prescription for Naloxone. The training prepares them how to react when someone has overdosed.

“We’ve had so many people come to us after using this training and thank us because it helped them save a life,” Lehman said.

Project DAWN works with other churches, schools, law enforcement and others to get as many people trained to use Narcan as possible.

“Our law enforcement is the biggest users of Narcan,” said Lehman.

Lehman said in the end, the goal is to save as many lives as possible, and change statewide policies to prevent others from becoming addicted.

Project DAWN training is held on Mondays and Tuesdays, visit the website, for more information.

 

 

 

Text by Addie Gall

Video by Erin Keller