Free Naloxone Training Sessions to Begin in Pa.

Sept. 02--A group working to reduce the number of drug overdose deaths in Westmoreland County will put an antidote into the hands of addicts, their families and others community members for the first time.

The first of several free training sessions on how to administer naloxone, an opioid overdose antidote, will be held Sept. 23 in Derry Township.

About 30 naloxone kits will be available at no cost at the session, said Colleen Hughes, co-chairwoman of the Westmoreland County Drug Overdose Task Force.

"We really need to let people know that this medicine is there to save lives," said Hughes, director of the Westmoreland Drug and Alcohol Commission.

The task force is beginning to put naloxone, or Narcan, into the hands of community members in danger of overdosing on prescription opioids or heroin as part of its goal to reduce the record number of overdose deaths by 25 percent by 2019.

In 2013, 86 people died of drug overdoses. The following year, the coroner recorded 87 overdose deaths.

Updated figures released Tuesday show 61 drug overdoses have been confirmed in the county in 2015. The coroner's office is investigating another 26 deaths as possible overdoses, which would equal the total number for 2014 with four months remaining.

Hughes said task force members plan to have more 30-minute training sessions elsewhere in the county.

"New Kensington is next on our list," she said.

Task force treatment committee co-chairpersons Tim Phillips and Michele Backo will conduct the training at the Derry Area High School audion.

"It'll be very educational," said Phillips, director of Community Prevention Services of Westmoreland County.

Backo is deputy director of the Westmoreland Drug and Alcohol Commission.

Family members likely will be the first to notice a possible overdose before police or an ambulance can get to the scene, Phillips said.

"Time is of the essence," he said.

The presenters will describe the types of naloxone kits -- a nasal spray or injector -- and how to use them, how to identify symptoms of an overdose, ways to reduce the risk of an accidental overdose, and the law, followed by a question-and-answer period.

"A lot of people don't even know when an overdose is happening," Phillips said, adding that shallow breathing and blue fingertips are indicators.

Sheriff Jon Held said training on how to use the kits is simple.

Deputies got their training online through the state Department of Health. The injectable kits came with a test device for practice that guides the user through the process, Held said.

He obtained 50 kits through a grant for sheriff deputies late last year. None has been used.

"It's mostly just identifying symptoms of an opioid overdose ... and then how to administer the medication," Held said.

A limited supply of nasal spray kits bought by the task force with donations will be available at the public session for people in danger of overdosing on heroin or prescription painkillers, their families, or those who are prescribed opiods, Hughes said.

The kits include instructions, a flyer listing area drug treatment centers and a form to send to the task force if a life is saved with the kit, she said.

Renatta Signorini is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.

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