Artesia Public School (APS) recently completed distribution of naloxone hydrochloride (NARCAN®) around the school district, according to APS Director of Health and Wellness Mitzi McCaleb. NARCAN® is an opioid antagonist that can be administered to individuals who have overdosed on opioids such as fentanyl.

 

“We have placed two boxes of NARCAN® in every automated external defibrillator (AED) box throughout the district,” said McCaleb. “We also have a supply of it in each nurse’s office. We have not had a Fentanyl overdose here at Artesia school, but a student in a surrounding school was overdosing recently and the NARCAN® saved his life.”

 

APS school board president Jeff Bowman said, “We don’t think it’s a matter of ‘if it happens’, it’s a matter of when.”

 

31 APS staff members have received training on the NARCAN® administration and additional teachers and staff will be trained soon and eventually NARCAN® will be taken along with every team or sponsor when they leave town. 

 

In a presentation to staff by Bernie Lieving, MSW, Statewide Overdose Prevention Education Coordinator with New Mexico’s Behavioral Health Services Division, Office of Substance Abuse Prevention, he shared NARCAN® temporarily displaces opioid to restore respiratory drive, is safe, extremely effective and has fewer side effects than aspirin. If it is given to a person not overdosing on an opioid, nothing will happen. 

 

“We are not only following the standing order from the New Mexico Department of Health to equip our school, we have a goal of decreasing deaths related to opioid overdose locally,” said McCaleb.

 

“We don’t know if we’ll ever use the NARCAN®, but parents, teachers and staff can take comfort in knowing we’re prepared,” said McCaleb. 

 

APS received the NARCAN® free through New Mexico’s Behavioral Health Services Division, Office of Substance Abuse Prevention.