Some 2,300 high school teachers in four Canadian provinces are now able to train their students to respond to an opioid overdose.
A little less than 800 of these teachers are in Quebec.
The ACT Advanced Coronary Care Foundation has added the use of naloxone, the antidote which must be administered nasally, to the CPR and Automated External Defibrillation program it offers free to secondary schools across the country. to counter the effects of an opioid overdose.
“Thanks to this training, we have more students who can respond to emergency situations and who sometimes make a difference,” rejoiced Salim Grim, who is program manager for the ACT Foundation in Quebec.
Launched in June 2022, the first phase of this training program has now reached 2,300 teachers in 830 secondary schools in Quebec, Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia. It is estimated that more than 160,000 students could now be trained each year to respond to a suspected opioid overdose.
In Quebec, more than 780 teachers have been trained in 274 secondary schools, which could enable the training of more than 40,000 young people per year. More than 290 teachers have also been trained in Alberta, more than 390 in British Columbia and more than 830 in Ontario.
The training allows teachers to teach students about opioids and how overdoses occur; what naloxone is and how it works; to recognize a suspected opioid overdose; and responding to a possible overdose, including administering a naloxone nasal spray if necessary.
“The response to opioid overdoses is a new issue that has arisen in Canada in recent years,” recalled the Director of Operations of the ACT Foundation, Jennifer Russell. This is also an aspect that is linked to cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This is something that students or even their teachers find completely logical and normal in the progress of our training. »
According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, almost 6,000 deaths from apparent opioid overdoses were reported between January and September 2023.
The Canadian Center on Substance Use and Addiction notes that 94% of opioid overdose deaths occur by accident, and that young Canadians aged 15 to 24 constitute the fastest growing population. faster and requiring hospital care due to an opioid overdose.
“Training the next generation of good Samaritans starts at school,” said Mr. Grim. We started with cardiac resuscitation a few years ago. The defibrillator was added to this training, and training following opioid overdoses was a logical evolution. »