MA Dept of Health Not Required to Report Opioid Overdose Reversal in Schools

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Patrick Sargent, GoLocal Worcester Contributor

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is not required to report on the number of opioid overdose reversals and Narcan use on children at schools in the Commonwealth.

Hilary Jacobs, Senior Policy Advisor at Massachusetts DPH said, "Thats something thats up to the DESE, not something that’s up to the Department of Public Health, nor would we have any jurisdiction over. Our Narcan program primarily focuses on bystanders. The only data we have is data we get when bystanders report back to the department that they’ve used the medication. So we don’t have any data from the schools. We aren’t required to report something like that."

According to a spokesperson for the DPH, has no data at all for any administered Narcan under the age of 18.

Narcan Use in Worcester Public Schools

According to Debra McGovern, Worcester Public Schools Director of Nursing, Narcan has never been administered in Worcester Public Schools.

School nurses have not been trained on the administration of Narcan and it is not available in school nurse offices. However, two nursing Supervisors have been trained recently through the Northeastern School Health Institute. These supervisors will be responsible for training the WPS school nurses in the coming future.

"Narcan is available within our school-based health centers and the Nurse Practitioners are trained in proper administration. The MA DPH Department of School Health encourages all school nurses to become certified as soon as possible," said McGovern.

School-based health centers are located at six schools in Worcester including Doherty High, South High, Sullivan Middle, Goddard School of Science and Technology, Elm Park Community School and Woodland Academy.

Robert Pezzella, WPS School Safety Liaison, said, "Narcan is available with the Police ,EMT's and Fire Department to treat overdoses on the scenes of calls they get. They all went through trainings.
The Worcester DPH serves as the receiver and trainer coordinator for Narcan Training in the City."

Pezzella has recently been appointed to District Attorney Joe Early's Central Mass. Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction.

Nearly 5,000 Opioid Overdose Reverals in MA Since 2007

A pilot program from the Massachusetts DPH has reported nearly 5,000 opioid overdose reversals since 2007. The Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution Program is a joint effort between the DPH's Bureau of Substance Abuse Services and the Office of HIV and AIDS.

Since 2007, only 744 of the overdose reversals have been reported by First Responders such as Police, EMTs and Fire Departments. The low number of reversals reported is because regulations have changed over the last few years that have allowed first responders to carry narcan.

Jacobs said, "We also focus on first responders. Basically, because of the changes the regulations made allowing first responders to carry naloxone, they actually are no longer part of the pilot program. There are many more first responder communities carrying naloxone than they’re used to be because of the regulatory change."

As GoLocal reported in August, statistics show that many of the cities in Massachusetts that have equipped first responders with Narcan have been successful in reversing a number of overdoses. In a three-year period, Quincy Police had reversed 188 overdoses. Worcester’s AIDS Project Worcester's Overdose Prevention and Narcan Distribution Program has reported over 100 reversals over the last few years.

Maryanne Frangules, Executive Director of Massachusetts Organization for Addition Recovery (MOAR) told GoLocal, “It’s the best way to keep people alive when they have overdosed. Narcan has really taken off in the past seven years and it has saved many lives. There is a saying that goes “where there is breath there is hope;” there is no way for these addicts to get into recovery if they are dead.”

Programs that participate in the pilot train opioid users and their friends and family members in preventing and recognizing opioid overdoses and how to respond if an overdose occurs. Along with the training, each participant receives a naloxone kit with two doses of naloxone and two atomizers free of charge.

Jacobs said, “I unequivocally see the use of Narcan as a positive in the state. It’s saved over 4,000 lives. It’s hard for me to imagine how anyone could be critical of that. In addition to that, there was a study that was done in MA to look at the concerns the people have that somehow making Narcan available makes someone more likely to use or more cavalier about their use. That study really shows that in the municipalities that were using Narcan, it decreased overdose deaths and didn’t increase drug use. I know people worry about that, but we feel confident that if we weren’t doing this, more people would be dead.”